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For months now, anti-Israel protestors have been calling on universities across America to divest from Israel. Now, however, it seems that their ire has shifted to the world’s largest Jewish campus organization.

From Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Pro-Palestinian encampment protesters at dozens of universities have called for their administrations to divest from Israel.

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But on two campuses, activists are asking their schools to split from organizations closer to home that they say are complicit in Israeli crimes.

At Drexel University in Philadelphia and the University of California, Santa Cruz, pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded their universities cut ties with, or “terminate” the presence of, the schools’ Hillel chapters. The Drexel protesters also demand that the university “Immediately terminate Drexel Chabad,” an outpost of the Hasidic outreach movement.

The protesters, including some Jewish students, argue that Hillel’s Zionist stance and the fact that its umbrella organization has received funding from the Israeli government make it complicit in what they deem Israel’s “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. …

Meanwhile, the Drexel Palestine Coalition urged its school to “immediately terminate Drexel’s chapter of Hillel,” describing it as “a global zionist campus organization, whose primary purpose, funding and operations are to facilitate birthright trips to Occupied Palestine.”

The demands have led to bipartisan condemnation, with major Jewish groups citing them as evidence of the encampment movement’s antisemitism. “Calling for a ‘complete boycott’ of and to ‘cut ties’ with Hillel — the center of Jewish life on most campuses… is antisemitic. And ridiculous,” Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, tweeted above a list of the UCSC group’s demands.

The demands are also resurfacing longstanding intra-Jewish tensions over Hillel’s positions on Israel …

According to its guidelines, Hillel will not partner with organizations or speakers who deny Israel’s right to exist, support the boycott movement against Israel or “delegitimize, demonize, or apply a double standard to Israel.” …

Hillel stands by its Israel policies, which call the country “a core element of Jewish life.” Its defenders point to its role as, often, the main address for campus Jewish practice. In her condemnation of the UCSC demands, Spitalnick wrote that Hillel is “where students attend Shabbat & holidays, do social justice & interfaith work, and come together as a Jewish community.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area described Hillel as a “safe haven,” and said calls to cut it off can hurt Jewish students. “It denies them of resources, community, freedom of expression and undermines diversity and inclusion,” the group said in a statement. …

Drexel’s encampment sprouted up over the weekend and has prompted a quick condemnation from the school’s president, who ordered the campus shut down Monday before partially reopening Tuesday. He also specifically referenced the Hillel and Chabad demands as “unacceptably targeting… two Jewish campus organizations” in a campus-wide memo. …

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(Excerpt from Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Photo Credit: Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash)