This paper should have done a better job of reporting the Anti-Defamation League’s claims of growing ”antisemitic acts of hate” on Massachusetts college campuses. ”Antisemistism incidents remain up,” [Recorder, May 1]. Buried deep in paragraph 14 is the ADL’s assertion that it “is careful to not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with antisemitism.” But the content of the article proves quite the contrary. In it, the ADL admits that 63% of the purportedly antisemitic incidents reported last year “were related to Israel or Zionism” — i.e., were not acts of hatred toward humans who happen to be Jews. Two of the three specific incidents reported were similarly not attacks on Jews but on the state of Israel: at Smith College, an Israeli flag with a spray-painted swastika; and at Berklee College of Music, a student telling a Jewish classmate that he “cannot stop following Israel’s war against Palestinian children.” The third example was flagrant antisemitism which I won’t repeat.

Lest anyone doubt that Israel’s war on the Palestinian people, funded by the U.S. government, is a genocidal war against children and other innocents, take a look at “65 Doctors, Nurses, and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza,” by Dr. FerozeSidhwa (New York Times, Oct. 9, 2024). There you will find, for example, reports that “44 doctors, nurses and paramedics saw multiple cases of preteen children [including babies and toddlers] who had been shot in the head or chest in Gaza;” and that “25 doctors, nurses and paramedics saw babies who had been born healthy return to hospitals and die from dehydration, starvation or infections caused by their malnourished mothers’ inability to breastfeed and a lack of infant formula and clean water.”

I do not know a single Jew who supports this war, nor do I know a single Jew who considers angry, horrified, conscience-stricken speech against Israel or expansionist Zionism to be an ”antisemitic act of hate.” Conflating antiwar statements with antisemitism is part of the Trump playbook, being used to heinous effect at colleges and universities around the country. This paper should not publish, as news, exaggerated claims that abet that playbook.

Wendy Sibbison

Greenfield