US

Student Newspaper Endorses ‘Map’ Tracking Jewish ‘Influence,’ Tries To Walk It Back

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A student newspaper is trying to walk back their endorsement of a Boston “Mapping Project” which tracks and targets Jewish groups within Massachusetts who support the “colonization of Palestine,” according to a statement by the newspaper.

The Wellesley News, the independent student newspaper of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, called the “Mapping Project,” which has been criticized as being anti-Zionist by Democratic lawmakers, a “vital service” in a Sept. 28 articleby the editorial board. The newspaper released an Oct. 12 statement saying the reference to the “Mapping Project” was for a “source of information” but continued to endorse Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a pro-Palestinian movement focused on sanctions against Israel.

“In our editorial, we endorsed the BDS movement and Wellesley Students for Justice in Palestine, and we reaffirm our support of both movements and the liberation of Palestine,” the Wellesley News statement said. “We intended to use the Mapping Project only as a source of information about Wellesley College and its affiliated institutions. We apologize for not clarifying the nuanced nature of the Project’s inclusion, and we recognize that the impact of our citation may have differed from its purpose.”

In the September editorial, the newspaper said collecting, tracing and publicizing information on Jewish organizations in Massachusetts is “incredibly important.” The newspaper also voiced their support for the BDS movement saying it “puts pressure on the Israeli government through non-violent means” and boycotts “corporations that are complicit in the harm being done to Palestinians.”

Shoshana Bryen, senior director of the Jewish Policy Center, a group that focuses on U.S.-Israel security cooperation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that BDS is antisemitic when the organizations being boycotted have been grouped together based on their religion.

“Anytime you lump everybody together all as one based solely on their religion, that is antisemitic,” Bryen told the DCNF. “So BDS says it doesn’t matter what a particular Israeli company believes about Palestinians. It doesn’t matter what a particular company might do to help Palestinians. It just matters that because they are Israeli companies, they are companies of the Jewish state. They shouldn’t be dealt with. You always get back to where defining anything simply as a function of Jewish people is antisemitic on its face.”

The Wellesley News Editorial Board’s statement on the response to our editorial released on Sept. 28. pic.twitter.com/op0gyR17Bb

— The Wellesley News (@Wellesley_News) October 12, 2022

The newspaper said they have been harassed online and been the subject of hate speech after endorsing the “Mapping Project.”

“They say that this is a service they’re providing so that people understand how things are related and people are related,” Bryen told the DCNF. “I would just have the question, who is related? Jews, Israelis, Zionists, pro-Israel Jews, anti-Israel Jews, Jews who don’t care about Israel. They lumped in together, all kinds of people simply because of their religious beliefs. That is the definition of antisemitism.”

The Wellesley News did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.