Maryland, My Maryland

Sara Dogan at Front Page calls the U. Maryland Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies  A Case Study in ‘Jew Hatred’

The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at the University of Maryland has repeatedly promoted Jew hatred and demonstrated its disdain for academic neutrality by using official university channels to demonize Israel, condone Hamas terrorism, and delegitimize the world’s only Jewish state.

On October 13, just six days after Hamas’s barbaric attack that killed over 1200 innocent Israeli civilians in the most brutal ways imaginable, WGSS posted a statement on the official department website concerning “violence in Gaza and Israel.” The statement was attributed to the National Women’s Studies Association and was reproduced in full on the Maryland WGSS departmental page as an obvious show of solidarity and agreement with its precepts.

Instead of condemning Hamas for its brutal and unprovoked attack on Israeli civilians or excoriating their use of rape as a weapon of war, the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department attempted to whitewash the terrorist group’s action, urging that “The current escalation must be viewed in the context of decades of illegal Israeli military occupation and systemic violent campaigns.”

Using anti-Semitic language which demonized and delegitimized Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, the statement went on to condemn “the ongoing and persistent U.S. government’s support for Israel’s apartheid regime” and to characterize the Palestinians and Hamas as exemplars of “liberation and resistance movements led by other indigenous, colonized, and oppressed peoples everywhere.”

Lending a note of irony, the statement claimed that “As feminists, we recognize that violence and war often inflict gendered and sexualized harms on women and queer, trans and non-binary people.” It is clear from the context of the statement, that its authors believe such “sexualized harms” to stem from the actions of Israel, a laughable claim given that Hamas forces literally raped and mutilated women and children on video during the October 7th massacre and punish homosexuality in Gaza with death.

The statement also vowed its support for the genocidal and Hamas-directed Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel: “Today, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolution, which NWSA passed in 2015.”

Not content to let this tribute to Jew hatred stand on its own, approximately a week later, WGSS posted a second statement on the official department website “in solidarity with the people of Gaza.” The statement was attributed to the executive committee of the American Studies Association.

Making absolutely no mention of Hamas’s unprovoked atrocities on innocent Jews at a music festival and elsewhere in Israel, the statement instead alludes only to “the escalation of violence in Palestine and Israel” as if Hamas—which controls Gaza—was not the sole instigator of the recent barbarity. It goes on to explain that the organization “continues to stand with the Palestinian people and their ongoing struggle for liberation” and to offer “support [to] those who speak out against the intensifying onslaught on Gaza, whose destruction has killed nearly four thousand Gazan residents and displaced hundreds of thousands more.” Instead of condemning Hamas’s brutal terrorism and violence to civilians, the statement urges the “need to situate today’s events in a historical, political and regional understanding.”

Rather than demanding that Hamas immediately cease its genocidal war on Israel and the Jews—an objective stated plainly in the Hamas charter—the statement instead called for “an immediate ceasefire and release of humanitarian aid to Gaza” as well as for “the US to end support of Israeli apartheid and work toward negotiations.”

Divest from the University of Maryland.