By Moshe Phillips

The late March detention of doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts University has generated a great deal of attention, but most reports have missed a critical point: It highlights the rise of extremist anti-Israel rhetoric on campuses, particularly at Tufts. Ozturk’s case is not just about one student’s detention; it underscores a broader issue that must be addressed. Hate groups on campus are dangerous.

Matt Bai, a writer for The Washington Post, is like many other critics of Israel in mainstream media who rush to defend those opposing Israel, even when their rhetoric is extreme. Bai wrote: “As near as anyone can tell, Ozturk’s offense was co-signing an op-ed in the Tufts Daily student newspaper that accused Israel of genocide.”

Here’s the thing: We have no way of knowing what Ozturk may have done because the government has provided no specifics.

The first article in this hate campaign appeared in The Tufts Daily on Oct. 24, 2023, authored by the “Tufts Revolutionary Marxist Students” (RMS). This was the first op-ed by RMS featured on the newspaper website.

One Tufts alumnus responded to the RMS op-ed, writing: “Just a bunch of students exercising their right to free expression, right? Never mind the countless factual misstatements, disparaging characterizations, and outright bigotry in their op-ed. Everyone has a right to express their views, right? Not entirely. Tufts maintains a policy on ‘Freedom of Expression,’ published in 2009. It’s broad, as one might expect, but it is not unqualified. The statement says: ‘Freedom of expression and inquiry are not absolute. The law, for example, provides that freedom of expression does not include the right to slander the reputation of another, to engage in specified forms of harassment, to threaten or obstruct a speaker who advances unwelcome ideas, or to incite another person to violence.’”

That’s the question: Why hasn’t Tufts taken action against those issuing blatant calls for illegal violence?

A key line in the RMS op-ed read, “We therefore support the Palestinian mass-led overthrow of the colonial Zionist Israeli apartheid state.” Can that sentence be construed in any way other than a call for the elimination of Israel and Israelis?

The next month, the hate campaign by RMS and its allies made headlines again for violating campus policies during a protest. The Tufts Daily reported that protesters were chanting, “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a blatant call for the destruction of Israel.

A pro-Israel activist at Tufts shared their experience: “When I hear ‘Free Palestine from the river to the sea,’ and when I see posters that say ‘Glory to our martyrs,’ it’s hard not to feel intimidated, disrespected, and to feel that there’s some sort of hatred directed at my perspective.”

It’s important to note that antisemitic acts on Tufts’ campus have been a recurring issue for over a decade. In both 2019 and 2021, there were reports of swastika vandalism on campus, and similar incidents made news in 2014 and 2015.

What actions have the Tufts staff taken? According to an April 2 article in The Tufts Daily, a “group of Jewish professors, lecturers and staff members sent a letter” to university officials asking them to support Ozturk’s rights, while launching an ad hominem attack on the Anti-Defamation League. Yet nowhere in this letter did they call for an investigation into the harassment of Jewish students on campus.

Tufts Students for Israel wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily saying, “The detainment of Rumeysa Ozturk is plain wrong. And we stand firmly against it.”

Evelyn Beatrice Hall, a British writer, once said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

While this might have been an acceptable sentiment for a woman of letters in Edwardian England, Jews living in a post-Oct. 7 world should know better.

Members of Tufts Students for Israel should also recognize that if they find themselves aligned with J Street, it’s time for a reevaluation.

J Street U’s director, Erin Beiner, rushed to defend Ozturk in a March 28 email, writing: “We were absolutely shocked by scenes earlier this week of a young graduate student at Tufts University, Rumeysa Ozturk, being ambushed on the street in front of her home and pressed into a car by masked agents. These are images straight out of playbooks run by authoritarian regimes that Jews spent generations fleeing.”

The decision by J Street to continually compare Israel’s enemies to victimized Jews is reprehensible.

There is more to consider. A March 31 editorial in The Free Press pointed out: “It may turn out that Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil have coordinated their activism with Hamas, or encouraged or participated in riots or other activities that are more than sufficient grounds to expel them from the country.”

Whether or not they did is beside the point. It is not in the best interest of the Jewish community to join in common cause with those who would see an end to the Jewish state. Our community should be wiser than to stand with those who seek to delegitimize Israel.

Moshe Phillips, a veteran pro-Israel activist and author, is the national chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI). A former board member of the American Zionist Movement, he previously served as national director of the U.S. division of Herut and worked with CAMERA in Philadelphia. He was also a delegate to the 2020 World Zionist Congress and served as editor of The Challenger, the publication of the Tagar Zionist Youth Movement. His op-eds and letters have been widely published in the United States and Israel.