By Eden, journalism student and member of Refuse Fascism |
On Dec. 10 Donald Trump announced that he plans to sign an executive order which he claimed is aimed at combating antisemitism in schools. The executive order will withhold federal money from “educational institutions that fail to combat discrimination,” according to the New York Times.
According to Haaretz, “The signing of the executive order will take place on the same day that Trump will host a reception for Jewish supporters and donors in honor of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday which will begin in two weeks.”
The New York Times reported that “the order will effectively interpret Judaism as a race or nationality, not just a religion, to prompt a federal law penalizing colleges and universities deemed to be shirking their responsibility to foster an open climate for minority students” and warned that it could be used to silence movements critical of the Israeli government.
Accusations of antisemitism are often used to unjustly silence legitimate criticism of Israel. No government should be above reproach.
Human Rights Watch reported “Between March 30 and November 19, security forces killed 189 Palestinian demonstrators, including 31 children and 3 medical workers, and wounded more than 5,800 with live fire…Officers repeatedly fired on protesters who posed no imminent threat to life, pursuant to expansive open-fire orders from senior officials that contravene international human rights law standards.”
This is unacceptable behavior and criticizing the IDF and Israeli government’s actions here is in no way, shape, or form antisemitic. Murdering civilians is wrong. But under Trump’s new policy, dissent could be easily squashed. Freedom of speech is essential to democracy.
And on the other side of things, Trump has promoted fascism since he began his campaign in 2015. He has made antisemitic remarks over and over again. He is not an ally to the Jewish community and has no right to define what is or isn’t antisemitism. He is the least qualified person on earth to do that.
Just the other week at a rally in Florida he said, “You’re not going to vote for the wealth tax. Let’s take 100 percent of your wealth away. No, no. Even if you don’t like me – and some of you don’t, some of you I don’t like at all actually – and you’re going to be my biggest supporters because you’ll be out of business in about 15 minutes,” perpetuating the age-old stereotype that all Jewish people are rich, which feeds into the alt-right conspiracy that Jews are secretly running the world.
And who could forget that time Trump would not condemn Nazis in Charlottesville? Or the time he tweeted a picture of the Star of David over a pile of money, next to Hillary Clinton’s face with the caption “Crooked Hillary makes history! Most corrupt candidate ever!” Or all the neo-Nazis he’s retweeted while in office? Or how on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2017 the White House issued a statement that didn’t even mention Jews or antisemitism?
And of course, hate crimes against minorities, including Jews, have been going up since Trump came to power. As America’s leader, his words have an indescribably powerful impact on people, and every time he chooses to say something racist or retweet a conspiracy theory, he is telling shooters like the one in Pittsburg, like the ones in Jersey City, that minorities do not matter.
Trump is a fascist, and he does not care about Jewish people. He is using them as a political pawn to silence opposition against him and his allies. Is this the kind of man who should be leading? Trump is not a friend and the sooner he is out of office, the better.