RPL in the News: Beyond Borders: Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and the Israel-Palestine Divide
As part of Johns Hopkins University’s new five-part virtual series, “Conflict in the Middle East: Context and Ramifications,” the inaugural discussion, “Beyond Borders: Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and the Israel-Palestine Divide,” offered a comprehensive exploration of the ongoing crisis. Moderated by Sarah Wildman, the panel featured journalist Michelle Goldberg and Palestinian activist Samer Sinijlawi, alongside Dr. Hussein Rashid, Assistant Dean for Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School. The discussion aimed to provide an in-depth analysis of the long-standing tensions between Israel and Palestine, considering their historical roots and potential pathways to peace, with the first session specifically engaging with the intertwined rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
During his analysis, Rashid highlighted the parallels between Islamophobia and antisemitism, emphasizing how both function as racializing mechanisms that define Jews and Muslims as outsiders within European and American imaginaries, “When we think about Islamophobia, it is a mirror of antisemitism. I think both terms are actually misnomers. Historically, antisemitism is a pejorative. It’s about ‘Jews don’t belong here; they’re semites.’ Antisemitism is in fact an antisemetic term historically because it’s about racializing Jews in the European imagination to say that Jews are not European. The same thing we see is happening with Muslims through Islamophobia that gets transported to the United States. It’s an important way to think about this idea of the racialization of religions.”
The conversation evolved to a discussion of the core features key in looking for a way forward. “Solidarity is the question we have. It is the idea of questioning power. There are these permissions to be racist in public now. How do we come together as a community? If somebody’s saying you can’t work with a Muslim because Muslims are antisemitic, or you can’t work with a Jew because Jews hate Arabs—that’s dividing us in ways that prevent solidarity and stop us from questioning power that is invested in keeping us separate.”
Rather than allowing these divisions to fester, he argued that recognizing shared struggles and questioning the structures that perpetuate them is crucial. “Solidarity is not only relevant now, it’s now more necessary than ever,” Rashid underscored. “It’s how we come together and say, who is our oppressor? How are we being oppressed? Who is benefiting us from keeping us separate. I’m very specifically talking about the context of the United States.”
Watch the full event recording at Johns Hopkins University on YouTube.
Note: In compliance with Harvard’s statement policy, Hussein Rashid does not identify as an Assistant Dean at Harvard in public settings.