On Thursday, Sun Associate Editor Eric Han defended Professor Kassam’s op-ed and accompanying — albeit since-removed — painting which compare Israel to Nazi Germany.
Mr. Han correctly identifies something that it seems he, I and Dr. Kassam agree upon: the Nazis were evil. No reasonable person would suggest that Kassam or his artwork are pro-Nazi; on the contrary, he uses the evilness of the Nazis to cast the Jews as just as bad.
Anonymous Instagram page Cornellians Only covered the Sun’s publication and takedown of the painting, raising concern that the images constitute antisemitic Holocaust inversion.
Han quotes the Instagram account as follows (emphasis my own): “The painting’s combination of a core symbol of Judaism with the insignia of its perpetrators is a clear-cut example of Holocaust inversion, an anti-semitic trope that seeks to equate Jews and the state of Israel with the Nazis.”
Except, that’s not what the post said. Han has hyphenated the original “antisemitic” to read “anti-semitic.” The difference may seem insignificant, but the non-hyphenated spelling is widely recognized as the preferred form to refer to the hatred uniquely targeted towards Jews, not a vague “Semitic” group which the hyphenated form may imply. Whether his intention or not, Han’s edits delegitimize Jew hatred, even if ever-so-subtly, seemingly suggesting at least a lack of care, if not a lack of concern, for the problem.
Han argues that Kassam does not “equate” Israel with the Nazis because Kassam “makes no claim that Israel is wholesale equivalent to the Nazi regime” (emphasis my own). The claim that Kassam does not equate Israel to Nazi Germany because Israel is not literally “equal to Nazi Germany” is a ridiculous argument of semantics that cannot reasonably be argued in good faith. Kassam’s intention to compare Israel to Nazi Germany is clear to any reasonable observer.
Han echos Kassam’s claim that Israelis are only “not unlike” Nazis because they use “dehumanizing language” to describe Palestinians: “[the Israeli government] calls one ethnic group ‘animals.’”
Interestingly, Han provides no evidence to substantiate this claim. Neither Han nor Kassam provide a single direct quotation of Israel describing Palestinians as animals, the evidence on which their claim that Israel is like Nazi Germany entirely rests.
The only source ever mentioned is Kassam’s citation of a paper by Jordanian and Saudi authors. I could go on and on about the obvious anti-Israel bias of this paper. For one, it refers to the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks as an “incursion” in Jewish “settlements” whose sole purpose was to “negotiate” a deal with the Israeli government. In fact, the only time the authors claim terrorism occurred is at the hands of Israel in Gaza before the October 7 attacks.
The only time the paper provides a direct quotation of an Israeli government official using “dehumanizing” language is when it quotes Israel’s Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor as saying Israel is fighting “‘bloodthirsty animals’ of Hamas” (my emphasis). There is not one single example provided in the paper, Kassam’s article, or Han’s article, of the Israeli government referring to Palestinians as animals. Unless the authors seek to claim that all Palestinians are Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, which is to toss any semblance of humanity and civility away from all Palestinian people. (Kassam’s cited paper uses the term “Hamas/Palestinian” several times, seemingly equating the two groups.) As I recognize the Palestinians’ humanity and hope for their peace, I make no such claim.
But Han goes one step further than Kassam, claiming that Israel commits “genocide … in front of our eyes.” The genocide claim is refuted by Democrats, Republicans and most of the Western World. Han cites a disputed report from the notoriously anti-Israel United Nations. The issues with the report are numerous: insufficient demonstration of genocidal intent, inflation and miscategorization of casualties, and the one-sided nature of its criticisms, to name a few. But it is clear Han reached the “genocide” conclusion before the evidence — he has been claiming Israel committed genocide not only in Gaza, but also the West Bank, without evidence, since at least Febrary 2024.
My point is this: the claim that “Zionists” — terminology often used as a thinly veiled equivalent for “Jews,” which has long ties to antisemitism — are basically Nazis and literally genocidal is not only hateful, but causes real, sometimes deadly, harm to Jews around the world.
In framing Jews as as evil as the Nazis, you create a framework wherein attacking Jews is not only morally permissible, but almost a moral imperative. And it’s caught on.
People who believe in that framework have set fire to Jewish Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro’s home with his sleeping family inside on a Jewish holiday. They shot and killed Jews at a Jewish museum in D.C. They burned an elderly Jewish woman alive at an event supporting the freedom of Israeli hostages then held by Hamas. Even here at Cornell, a student notoriously threatened to murder Jews on campus as a result of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
So, to Dr. Kassam and Mr. Han, I hope you understand why I, as a Jew, am so passionate about this issue. I have seen antisemitism explode around the globe and I have met survivors of the Holocaust. I am insulted and sickened by your Nazi comparisons. Not only is your rhetoric wrong, it goes beyond hurt and hate to cause immeasurable real-world harm.
You seem to have a prejudice towards the Jewish people and our actions. One seemingly based on misinformation about us.
If only there was a word for that.
Sam Friedman is a senior in the College of Engineering. He can be reached at srf83@cornell.edu.
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