Georgetown Law Scheduled to Host Antisemite Who Claims Israelis ‘Harvest Organs of the Martyred’ By Nate Hochman
Georgetown Law is hosting Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian poet and writer with a long history of antisemitic comments, on campus this Tuesday. The event, hosted by the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), features El-Kurd and Harvard Law School attorney Rabea Eghbariah discussing “the ongoing legal battle settler organizations are waging to displace Palestinian families from East Jerusalem,” according to a flyer posted on the Georgetown Law SJP’s instagram.
El-Kurd’s antisemitic comments, which include attacking “Israeli Jews” as “nothing but spineless colonizers,” tweeting that Israel is a “terrorist, genocidal nation,” and that “Zionists . . . have an unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood & land,” calling “Zionist settlers” “the sadistic barbaric neonazi [sic] pigs that claim to be indigenous to our land,” and writing in his book that Israelis “harvest organs of the martyred” and “feed their warriors our own,” led the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to raise concerns in a full profile of the writer on the group’s website. The ADL writes:
An analysis of his social media and his book of poetry, titled “Rifqa,” reveals a troubling pattern of rhetoric which goes far beyond criticism of Israel and into antisemitism. El-Kurd has accused Israelis of eating the organs of Palestinians and of having a particular lust for Palestinian blood. He has compared Israelis to Nazis, negated the historic Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, and vilified Zionism and Zionists…his willingness to employ these tropes raises serious concerns.
El-Kurd’s brand of anti-Zionism goes far above and beyond the normal criticisms of Israel — he regularly refers to Zionism in terms such as “murderous,” “sadistic,” “fascist,” and “genocidal,” and has repeatedly compared Israel to Nazi Germany. But at times, the virulent anti-Zionist rhetoric has crossed over into outright antisemitism. Last year, El-Kurd accused a non-Israeli Jewish person of “KILLING MURDERING BOMBING ETHNICALLY CLEANSING COLONIZING LYNCHING KRISTALLNACHTING US IN REAL TIME CURRENTLY RIGHT NOW,” suggesting that he draws no distinction between the policies of the Israeli government and Jews writ large:
El-Kurd regularly refers to all Jews in Israel as “settlers” or “colonizers” and has repeatedly denied that Jews are indigenous to the region:
Just last month, El-Kurd’s antisemitic comments caused a controversy to break out at American University (AU), where the writer was scheduled to speak at an SJP campus event. Following a petition circulated by Jewish students, AU withdrew its sponsorship of the event and El-Kurd spoke at an off-campus venue instead, although the circumstances of the decision remain murky. El-Kurd maintained on Twitter that “the event was moved for purely logistical reasons that preceded the racist smears”; the nonprofit StopAntisemitism pushed back, writing that AU “dropped sponsorship because they discovered you’re a hate filled bigot obsessed with spreading hatred against the Jewish people and nation. They refused to host you on campus. Refused to offer logistical help. Refused to offer security.”
As of now, the event at Georgetown Law appears to be going forward: A post on the Georgetown Law SJP’s Instagram earlier this week trumpets the fact that registration for the event is full, writing that “we have officially reached capacity . . . We will unfortunately not be taking walk-ins for capacity and security reasons.”
In contrast, Ilya Shapiro, the Georgetown Law professor who was suspended for a tweet criticizing the Biden administration’s use of racial preferences in Supreme Court nominations, has been on administrative leave since late January. Following an aggressive smear campaign on Twitter and a backlash led by campus activists, Georgetown Law dean Bill Treanor announced that Shapiro would be placed on leave “pending the outcome” of “an investigation into whether he violated our policies and expectations on professional conduct, non-discrimination, and anti-harassment.” Treanor wrote:
Racial stereotypes about individual capabilities and qualifications remain a pernicious force in our society and our profession. I am keenly aware that our law school is not exempt. We will continue our work with students, staff, alumni, and faculty to put in place strategies, policies, and practices to strengthen our community and our commitment to justice and equality for all. And I remain committed to working with each of you to create a community where we can all thrive.
While addressing a student activist sit-in calling for Shapiro’s ouster, Treanor noted that “the university does have a free speech and expression policy that binds us.” But “since we’re a private institution, the First Amendment doesn’t apply to us,” he said. “It’s not the First Amendment that’s the university’s guideline.” He later added that he wanted to “draw a line between conservatism and things that are racist.”
Apparently, the school is less interested in drawing similar lines between progressivism and “things that are racist.” And when racism comes from the Left, Georgetown Law is suddenly committed to free-speech absolutism; its “commitment to justice and equality for all,” on the other hand, only appears to go one way. Go figure.
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