Linda Sarsour tapped to join panel for anti-Semitism event

Linda Sarsour, a pro-Palestine activist known for her controversial progressive views, is set to be a panelist at an anti-Semitism event hosted by a private university in New York City.

According to the description of the Nov. 28 event, which is backed in part by the New School Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism program, Sarsour will be accompanied by several other liberal activists, including “Democracy Now” host Amy Goodman, who will serve as a moderator for the panel.

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“Antisemitism is harmful and real,” the description page reads. “But when antisemitism is redefined as criticism of Israel, critics of Israeli policy become accused and targeted more than the growing far-right.”

Sarsour’s participation in the panel has sparked a flurry of criticism from several national organizations that highlight the activist’s view that “nothing is creepier than Zionism,” Fox News reported on Monday.

The Jerusalem Post Editorial Board also blasted the event, calling it a forum of “antisemites on antisemitism,” while the New York Post Editorial Board argued that the panel is designed “to promote Israel-bashing.”

“Sarsour is a well-known Muslim and Palestinian activist who supports a Palestinian state but denies Jews the right to national self-determination,” The Jerusalem Post wrote. “Moreover, she has appeared alongside a convicted Palestinian terrorist murderer whom she has lauded for her ‘resistance’ to the Zionist occupation.”

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The controversial panel is also quickly gaining formidable opposition online, with over 11,000 people signing a Change.org petition organized by a progressive pro-Israel group to “Stop Anti-Semitism at The New School.”

“The gross misrepresentation of Zionism espoused by these panelists, and their explicit endorsement of anti-Semitism couched as anti-Zionism, strongly correlates with a horrifying increase in anti-Semitism today,” the petition asserts.

“We are alarmed by the inclusion of an individual who is neither Jewish nor a scholar on anti-Semitism, and, ironically, has perpetuated anti-Semitic tropes and worked to demonize Jewish Zionists nationwide,” it adds, saying, “Linda Sarsour has no authority on anti-Semitism, either as a scholar of Jewish history or through lived experience as a Jewish person.”

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The Chief Executive Officer of the Anti-Defamation League also condemned the panel, tweeting that “having Linda Sarsour & head of JVP leading a panel on #antisemitism is like Oscar Meyer leading a panel on vegetarianism.

“These panelists know the issue, but unfortunately, from perspective of fomenting it rather than fighting it,” he added.

The New School did not immediately respond to Campus Reform’s request for comment.

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