Editor’s Note: Due to ongoing safety concerns, the following individual quoted in this article is attributed by first initial only.
Protesters from Suffolk University and Emerson College Students for Justice in Palestine marched down Tremont Street Sept. 12 to protest colleges working with the Anti-Defamation League and call on universities to disclose and divest ties to Israel.
Outside of Granary Burying Ground, students wearing keffiyehs and holding Palestinian flags chanted “free, free Palestine” and “no more money for Israel’s crime” before walking to Government Center. Protesters blocked traffic on Court Street for about 15 minutes, then marched to the Boston Common.
The ADL is a nonprofit organization that works to combat antisemitism and has supported Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza. S., a member of Suffolk SJP, said in an interview with The Journal that the ADL has acted as a “propaganda machine” for Israel, including lobbying politicians and working with law enforcement to suppress Palestinian freedom demonstrations.
“Although we are Emerson and Suffolk students, our goal that day wasn’t just to speak out against the suppression we’ve been facing,” S. said. “We were there on the grounds that the ADL is a tool of the Zionist entity, and they have an actual impact on Palestinians on the ground and on the ongoing genocide right now, and that’s why we were there.”
Chapters of SJP held thousands of simultaneous protests at universities and colleges across North America Sept. 12 as part of a national day of action calling on administrators to divest from Israeli affiliations.
Suffolk has not officially said if it is working with the ADL.
In 2014, Suffolk Law students created a petition to have Abraham Foxman, then the national director of the ADL, removed as the commencement speaker for the law school that year due to his opposition to Congress recognizing the 1915 Armenian genocide and the construction of an Islamic community center and mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center, reported The Boston Globe.
Emerson announced at the beginning of the semester it would be using ADL resources to create programs targeting antisemitism on campus, according to reporting by The Berkeley Beacon.
Anonymous protesters told The Beacon that the ADL’s definition of antisemitism, now being used by Emerson, does not allow for criticism of Israel and expressed concern about the organization’s partnerships with police, which includes sending small groups of law enforcement leadership to Israel for a week-long counterterrorism training seminar. This exchange has taken place since 2004, according to the ADL.
An unidentified representative of SUPD attended one of these seminars in December 2016, according to a press release from the Arlington Police Department.
