On Israel, Shifted Ground

by E Wayne Ross on March 6, 2009

Inside Higher Ed: On Israel, Shifted Ground

The ground seems to have shifted, activists on all sides say. What they make of it varies.

A shift toward more visible pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel sentiment has been profound on some campuses, prompted, in part, by the winter war in Gaza. Where some describe a corresponding disintegration of civil discourse or a scapegoating of Israel for a complex set of problems, others celebrate a newfound space in which to be critical of Israel — to mount a challenge to what they see as a dominant discourse, so to speak.