Yale Student Council Resolution on Israel Leaves Jewish Students ‘Isolated,’ Says Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief
by Algemeiner Staff
Algemeiner editor-in-chief Dovid Efune appears on i24 News. Photo: Screenshot
A resolution condemning Israel passed by Yale University’s undergraduate student government body leaves Jewish students on campus feeling “isolated and marginalized,” Algemeiner editor-in-chief Dovid Efune told i24 News in a Wednesday interview.
The statement, adopted by the Yale College Council on Sunday, charged Israel with apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, and linked its policies to racism in the United States.
Yale Jewish community leaders denounced the statement, calling it a “betrayal of this promise of protection and a blow to the moral fibre that binds Yale and humanity together.”
“The biggest impact that the resolutions like this have is really on the status and sentiment of the Jewish community and/or the pro-Israel community on campus,” Efune told i24 News on Wednesday. “Here you have a situation where a body representing the student body on campus is falsely accusing the Jewish state of a litany of the worst crimes known to mankind and humanity.”
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“The impact that that has on the local Jewish student population is quite significant,” he continued. “It gives them the sense that they are isolated, they’re marginalized, that they are enemies within, if you will — and that they’re not welcome and full members of the campus community. It’s very troubling and obviously the statements from the Jewish community on campus are reflecting that.”
During Sunday’s deliberations over adopting the resolution, Yale Hillel student board co-presidents Ruthie Davis and Zevi Siegal argued that its passage would press Jewish students to “take a stance” on the conflict, and make it harder to foster an environment of open dialogue.
Efune argued that the resolution demonstrated an “obsession” with Israel and a “very clear double standard.”
“We know that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism very clearly refers to this double standard as being antisemitic and problematic,” he said. “Obviously it’s fine to focus on one issue or another … but this level of obsession, of singular focus really has no other explanation.”
Watch Efune’s full interview below:
