Some opponents of student pro-Palestinian protests calling for divestment from Israel have labeled those actions as antisemitic. At the same time, many protesters on and off campuses across the country are, in fact, Jewish.
Jeff Proctor with New Mexico in Focus sat down with Sophie Leah, who is with a local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and a University of New Mexico alumna. She says that the organization has pushed back on violence against Palestinians for a long time and supports current student protests.
LEAH: Jewish voice for peace is there to support What the students want.
We recognize that this is a student-led movement. When it comes to what the students are asking for, they're asking for divestment and they're asking for a disclosure of the investments of the university, and there is a divestment resolution that was drafted that is very similar to the ones that were created in the eighties that stand against South African apartheid.
We're really following the lead of students and supporting them in whatever capacities that they need.
NEW MEXICO IN FOCUS: Let's dig a little bit deeper into this. Two years ago, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism for the State of New Mexico. The US House recently passed a resolution doing the same at the federal level.
What do you know about that definition, and do you see any potential problems or pitfalls with its use this way by government entities?
LEAH: I think it's important to note the definitions of antisemitism which conflate anti-Zionism, again, are really a red herring to the issue at hand.
Not all Jews are a monolith, and certainly, it doesn't speak to the Jews that I know who have experienced anti-semitism. I've certainly experienced anti-semitism and really, it's so far from the actual issue at hand, which is the genocide of Palestinians and investments in weapons manufacturing.
So really, when it comes to those definitions, it's so far from what the issue that is being discussed at the encampment is. The encampment has become such a place of learning, especially for the students.
They've had teach-ins. Classes have been held there. They are learning to draft language and that kind of thing to articulate divestment, and they're learning about past movements.
So the discussion of “Is it antisemitism?” seems so detached from what they're doing. All of the debate that has been going through Congress and that kind of thing to define antisemitism in relation to it, very much seemed to be a distraction.
NMIF: I appreciate you answering that question, too, in that way.
You graduated from UNM in 2023, and you now work at the university. I want to make clear for purposes of this conversation that you are speaking as a member of JVP and as a member of our campus community, not speaking for the university or the particular department you work in.
But I want to ask, what has your experience been like on campus as a former student and now as a staffer who is Jewish?
LEAH: I feel a very welcoming environment from the other students on campus, from the people that I work with. I don't feel any animosity or, or that kind of thing.
I think there is a sort of nervousness that people approach this topic with because they don't have the language to take into these conversations.
So, there is a hesitancy that I'm seeing from a lot of people on campus who are kind of nervous to approach the encampment because they don't know, “Am I going to be associated with something really wrong? Am I going to be accused of antisemitism? I think sometimes there is a walking on needles kind of thing.
But the general energy that I get from the students is really wanting a discussion, really wanting to be engaged in their campus, be engaged in the processes of the university and to want their voices represented by the voices of the university.
NMIF: Sophie, This is my last question and I'm not gonna ask you to try to answer it globally, but from the perspective of our campus community here at UNM, why is all of this blowing up the way that it is now?
LEAH: I really think it has reached such a breaking point.
It's really difficult to see the images that are coming out of Palestine, every single day, and it wears on people. I think what we're seeing now is really a culmination of that emotion, and of that frustration, manifesting itself with young people who are really inclined towards social change, who have been historically the forebears of progress. Young people are at the front of almost every historical movement.
What we're seeing now is a culmination of being worn down by a growing frustration with leadership and wanting to be a part of that leadership, wanting their voices heard.
