Jacobin Radio: Weaponizing Anti-Semitism w/ Warren Montag
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2024
⏱️ 57 minutes
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Summary
Suzi talks to Warren Montag, professor at Occidental College, who was recently targeted for his talk at a college forum about Israel’s war on Gaza and issues it has raised in the US. The specific topic was one Warren had spoken on numerous times since the first Intifada: Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. In retaliation, the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) campaigned to get him fired.
We hear Warren's personal testimony, his view on the history of Jewish opposition to Zionism, and his understanding of how the very discussion of anti-Semitism has become weaponized to discredit and silence critics of Israeli policy. What does this campaign of intimidation and retaliation mean for freedom of expression and inquiry, especially in an atmosphere of book-banning, harassment of librarians, teachers, professors and critics?
Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. |
| 0:17.0 | On today's show, we talked to Professor Warren Monteg, a longtime scholar and activist who has been targeted for speaking out against Israel's war on Gaza. In November, he gave a talk at his university arguing that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. |
| 0:38.0 | What followed was an ADL campaign, the Anti-Defamation League, to get him fired as retaliation. |
| 0:45.0 | Warren joins us with his personal testimony, his take on the campaign to silence |
| 0:50.3 | critics of Israeli policy, what it means for freedom of expression, and so much more |
| 0:55.8 | when our program returns in just a moment. This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Weisman. I'm Susie Weisman. Very pleased to have Warren |
| 1:17.8 | Monteg back with us. He's a tenured full professor at Occidental College and was just targeted recently for a talk at a college forum on the issues raised in the U.S. by Israel's war on Gaza. His topic was one he had spoken on numerous |
| 1:36.2 | times since the first Intifada and that was that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. |
| 1:41.8 | We're going to get his understanding of that as well as the story of what happened |
| 1:46.2 | subsequently and we're also going to ask Warren what this campaign of intimidation and |
| 1:51.3 | retaliation means for freedom of expression, freedom of inquiry, |
| 1:55.8 | and so much more, especially in an atmosphere where book banning and stifling of critical thought, |
| 2:01.2 | harassment of librarians, and professors is broad rampant and |
| 2:06.9 | and dangerous so Warren welcome to the show. Thank you. |
| 2:13.0 | Let me introduce you properly. |
| 2:14.5 | I said that you were a tenured professor. |
| 2:16.4 | You're a full professor of English and comparative literature |
| 2:19.7 | at Occidental College here in Los Angeles |
| 2:22.4 | and the author of several books on the work of. at the Smith, Altisser in his contemporaries, body masses, power, Spinoza, and his contemporaries |
| 2:35.9 | and the unthinkable Swift, and if you just Google Warren Monteg, without the U.E. |
| 2:40.3 | At the end of Monteg, you can find so much more so we're going to spend a lot of time on |
| 2:46.8 | this issue today because it's it's both international and domestic and ominous. |
... |
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