New York Times: Violent reactions to anti-Israel protests threaten freedom of expression

An American documentary film produced by left-wing Jews, dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, sparked a division over Israel among many left-leaning American Jews, according to an opinion article published by the American newspaper “The New York Times” by writer Michelle Goldberg.

The article stated that the film focuses in large part on a Jewish activist named Simone Zimmerman who was raised from her upbringing to be a loyal Zionist, but she soon began to question her beliefs even when she was defending Israel at the University of California, Berkeley. This change in her convictions occurred after she became aware of the “horrifying” reality that Palestinians live under occupation.

Goldberg explained that violent reactions to pro-Palestinian activity are on the rise, adding that later today, Tuesday, the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are scheduled to appear before Congress in a hearing entitled “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Anti-Semitism.”

The author of the article revealed that major donors have abandoned funding many universities and colleges, for the same reason, and quoted director Axelman as saying, “It is clear that the rise of anti-Semitism is actually real,” noting that “there are people – especially from the pro-Israel right – who use They carelessly use the word anti-Semitism, and they hurl it at anyone who criticizes Israel, whether Palestinian or Jew, and we have seen this phenomenon accelerating significantly since October 7.”