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The Anti-Semitism of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Staff at American Universities
(Heritage Foundation) Jay Greene and James Paul - Universities ostensibly employ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) staff to create more tolerant and welcoming environments for students from all backgrounds. To measure anti-Semitism among university DEI staff, we searched the Twitter feeds of 741 DEI personnel at 65 universities to find their public communications regarding Israel and, for comparison purposes, China. Those DEI staff tweeted, retweeted, or liked almost three times as many tweets about Israel as tweets about China. Of the tweets about Israel, 96% were critical of the Jewish state, while 62% of the tweets about China were favorable. The overwhelming pattern is that DEI staff at universities pay a disproportionately high amount of attention to Israel and nearly always attack Israel. The inordinate amount of attention given to Israel and the excessive criticism directed at that one country is evidence of a double-standard with respect to the Jewish state, which is a central feature of a widely accepted definition of anti-Semitism. Frequently accusing Israel of engaging in genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism, and ethnic cleansing, while rarely leveling similar criticisms toward China, indicates an irrational hatred that is particularly directed toward Jews and not merely a concern for human rights. The evidence demonstrates that university DEI staff are better understood as political activists with an often radical political agenda rather than promoters of welcoming and inclusive environments. Jay P. Greene, PhD, is Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation. James D. Paul is Director of Research at the Educational Freedom Institute.