Sahar Aziz - Author, Professor, and Advocate

Amid Gaza War, College Campuses Become Free Speech “Testing Ground” [Intercepted]

The conflict in Gaza has galvanized a new generation of young anti-war activists, in the same way that opposition to the Vietnam War and apartheid South Africa did in decades past. A backlash is now building in the United States, led by right-wing activist and pro-Israel groups aimed at eliminating any public dissent over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. As the death toll of Palestinians rises, a new authoritarian climate is sweeping across the U.S. — particularly on college campuses, which have transformed into laboratories for censorship… Continue reading

Defending Palestinian Rights Attracts Defamatory Attacks [Counterpunch Radio]

Professor Sahar Aziz and Mitchell Plitnick, co-authors of “Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine-Israel Discourse,” discussed a critical new report published by Rutgers University Law School’s Center for Security, Race, and Rights. The conversation explores the political and social context for this report, as well as the timing of its release, published as it was against the backdrop of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The discussion broadens beyond the report to explore various aspects of the Palestine issue and its continued central importance for the US and… Continue reading

How Israel’s Supporters Use Islamophobia to Silence Critics [Marc Steiner Show]

By now, the false equivalency between anti-Zionism and antisemitism—which Israel’s supporters use to give rhetorical cover for Zionism—is a well-worn topic on the left. What’s less discussed is the role of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism in Zionists’ attempts to smear their critics, particularly Arab and Muslim ones, as antisemitic. A new report, Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine Israel Discourse from Rutgers University Law School’s Center for Security, Race, and Rights (CSRR), maps the use of Islamophobic tropes in the discourse on Israel-Palestine, noting that the racist association between… Continue reading

Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in Palestine-Israel Discourse [Insurgents]

Professor Sahar Aziz, Distinguished Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers Law and author of The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, joined Jordan Uhl and Rob Rosseau on the Insurgents Podcast to discuss her recent report “Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes In The Palestine-Israel Discourse.” The interview explores the ways Islamophobia spreads in the media and shifts the balance of conversation of coverage, resulting in a dehumanizing effect for Muslims, and how—especially in this moment—some genuinely pro-Palestinian advocacy is inaccurately framed as anti-Semitic.… Continue reading

Amid Gaza Protests, Universities are Cracking Down on a Celebrated Protest Tactic: Sit-Ins [The Intercept]

On October 25, hundreds of people participated in a sit-in at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, calling on school administrators to cut ties with weapons manufacturers involved in Israel’s occupation of Palestine. It was part of a wave of activism around Israel’s siege of Gaza on university campuses around the country, and it ended in increasingly typical fashion: Campus police arrested 57 of the demonstrators for trespassing because they remained in the university’s Whitmore Administration Building after it had closed at 6 p.m. The incident at Amherst is reflective of… Continue reading

Unconditional Supporters of Israel Know the Facts Are Not on Their Side [Jacobin]

On Saturday, November 4, some three hundred thousand people marched in Washington, DC, in solidarity with Palestinians. It was the largest pro-Palestine march in US history, a heartening sign that the McCarthyite backlash to solidarity with Palestinians in the face of Israel’s ongoing onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip has not accomplished its aims. Rather than cowing critics of Israel, which has killed more than twenty-two thousand Palestinians in Gaza, domestic repression has fueled commitment, a determination among many not to sit idly by as an entire people are slaughtered.… Continue reading

How a Leading Definition of Antisemitism Has Been Weaponized Against Israel’s Critics [The Nation]

The chorus of criticism of Israel’s indiscriminate bombings and denial of food, water, and other humanitarian aid to 2 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza has only grown louder as the Palestinian death toll has skyrocketed beyond an estimated 22,000, nearly half of whom are children. Too often, however, supporters of continued military action by Israel respond not by debating the merits of a cease-fire but through McCarthyistic campaigns to silence human rights advocacy in public and on college campuses. Among the most effective strategies of censorship is a politically… Continue reading

Threats to Free Speech on College Campuses [Katie Halper Show]

Universities across the United States have been targets of censorship campaigns by external special interest groups seeking to quash debate about Palestinian human rights, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and international law violations by the state of Israel. Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students and faculty are most frequently targeted as political speech is mislabeled as antisemitism. Professor Sahar Aziz joined Mitchell Plitnick to discuss this troubling anti-American trend as well as their groundbreaking report “Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine Israel Discourse” on the Katie … Continue reading

Israel-Gaza: Does Islamophobia play a part in US foreign policy? [UpFront]

As the war in Gaza rages on, the death toll keeps increasing and residents face starvation. Despite the heavy civilian toll, the United States keeps voicing its strong support for Israel. Is there a double standard when it comes to Palestine? And why do some in the US seem to conflate solidarity with Palestinians with anti-Semitism, as explained in the report “Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine Israel Discourse” published by the Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights. On UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks… Continue reading

Why pro-Palestinian demonstrations are popping up on college campuses [Scripps]

“We’ve seen quite a bit of sympathy for Palestinian civilians,” said Sahar Aziz, a law school professor and director of the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers University. “They recognize that Palestinians have grievances. Many of these young people don’t rely on formal educational institutions for information. And this is one of those topics where they rely heavily on things that are on the internet and that are on social media.” Aziz also wrote the book “The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom.” Social media, combined with… Continue reading

Author | Professor | Advocate

Category: Media