It Could Happen Here - Anti-Palestinian Racism

Episode Date: October 19, 2026

In this episode Dana El Kurd outlines what anti-Palestinian racism is and the common tropes used to attack Palestinians and their allies.   Sources: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61db30d12e169a5c45950345/t/627dcf83fa17ad41ff217964/1652412292220/Anti-Palestinian+Racism-+Naming%2C+Framing+and+Manifestations.pdf https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/resources/human-rights/2024-november/recognizing-islamophobia-anti-palestinian-racism-and-antisemitsm/ https://pomeps.org/anti-palestinian-racism-analyzing-the-unnamed-and-suppressed-reality https://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/resources/dismantling-anti-palestinian-racism https://afi.mesana.org/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I'm Melissa Jeltson, host of the What Happened to Her podcast. We're kicking off the season with the Sandra Birchmore story, a case the police rode off as a suicide in a snowstorm. Her family never bought it, and the man they suspected wore a badge. You never know who that devil is because he's wearing in disguise. Sometimes it's a police uniform.

And you can get access to all episodes 100% ad-free with an I-Heart True Crime Plus subscription exclusively on Apple Podcasts, available only to IHeart True Crime Plus subscribers. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for IHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Lisa, tell them about our new show. We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me. I'm Lexi Yuwanu. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa Di Giulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions and at this point in my 50s I've lived it all. Now in my 30s being the founder of new shoes, good taste is my business.

Listen on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon. People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, Little Richard. And we pull apart the story behind the image. Discovering forgotten interviews that change exactly how we see these giants of our culture. We're here for the messy, the brilliant. the human version of our heroes. I'm Immanuel Jochi. I'm Kai Wright.

And this is Big Lives. Listen to Big Lives on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You broke me. You do not deserve happiness. I'm Andrea Gunning. On this season of betrayal, Carl thought he was living a normal, drama-free life until the messages started. Someone's not going to make it out of this alive. Every piece of evidence pointed to the role. wrong guy. He was not going to stop unless we stopped him. Listen to Betrayal Season 6 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Bloomberg's Big Take podcast has everything you need to know about the most expensive midterms in U.S. history, like the money being spent to control the Senate. Everyone has been waiting to see how Trump will spend his big war chest. He was sitting on nearly half a billion dollars. How candidates are rewriting their party's playbooks and how big business is throwing its money into the ring. There's obviously the AI super PACs, which are two sides there, so they're spending sometimes on different sides of races, sometimes on the same side of races. Listen to the big take on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everyone. My name is Dan Al-Kurd, and I'm a researcher and analyst of Arab and Palestinian

politics. Today, I want to read remarks I gave at an event about higher education, where I was invited to give the introductory remarks before a panel of experts were going to speak on the subject of higher ed around the world. And I was asked specifically to talk about attacks on academic freedom here in the United States. And I'm a good sport, always happy to be of service. So I did. But then, I was accused after my remarks of downplaying anti-Semitism. So for this episode, I want to read those remarks that I gave at this event. And then I'll explain why that accusation that was leveled against me is so insidious and harmful and outrageous, and is part of a broader problem of rampant anti-Palestinian racism in the United States. Okay, here are the remarks I made at that event.

Thank you all for attending this panel. I wanted to briefly situate this next discussion in the current political landscape and give a quick rundown of what has been happening. The news is so overwhelming some of these details can be lost. First, I think most of us have heard of the Trump administration freezing funding for a number of universities. Many of these universities have entered into negotiations with the administration and agreed to make changes to the curriculum and internal structures in order to drop the investigations against them and release that funding. For example, Columbia University agreed to pay the Trump administration $220 million,

punish 70 of its students in a variety of ways, including expulsion, and agreed to monitor and report their programs for, quote, unlawful DEI goals. One of the ways Columbia has agreed to monitor their own departments, as the Intercept reported back in April, is by appointing a vice provost in charge of ensuring a balanced curriculum, that's in quotes, within the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department. So the faculty in that department will no longer run the department.

As the Middle East Studies Association, in a statement back in March 2025, noted, placing the department under, quote, administrative receivership is a fundamental abrogation of the autonomy of university governance. Like at Columbia, a lot of these investigations and targeting of universities has focused on the presence of DEI programs and allegations of anti-Semitism. The Trump administration has been aided by recent Supreme Court rulings, particularly the cases of students for fair admissions versus the University of North Carolina and Student for Fair Admissions versus Harvard. These cases overturned the 2003 case of Greta versus Bollinger that had allowed higher education institutions to consider race in admissions. Using this ruling, the Trump administration has gone after universities with programs that assist students of color, as well as initiatives focused on diversity. Allegations of anti-Semitism, especially in the wake of campus protests over the past two years, have also been used to attack universities. the American Association of University Professors, in partnership with the Middle East Studies Association,

analyzed the data on the Title VI complaints around anti-Semitism, which have indeed ballooned over the past two years. In their report titled Discriminating Against Dissent, they found that most government investigations of anti-Semitism, 78%, are prompted by complaints received from outside of university and college campuses, including from people and organizations who have no relationship with the schools under investigation. Of the 102 complaints filed with the Office of Civil Rights that the report analyzes, all but one focus on speech critical of Israel. The report documents the surge in investigations since October 7, 2023, with more investigations opened in the last two months of 2023, 25 investigations,

than in all previous years combined, 24 investigations. investigations broke record numbers in 2024, 39 investigations, and are on track to do so again in 2025, with 38 investigations as of September 30th. This was back in 2025. So the Trump administration has used both of these things, DEI and anti-Semitism, to investigate universities. At the same time, they have also attacked the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Institutes of Health, all federal funding sources for the majority

of research that happens at universities across disciplines, the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The Trump administration has additionally attacked foreign students and the processes by which they are able to get visas to study in the United States, which is another way to get at a major revenue source for many universities. Finally, and most recently, the Trump administration put together what they called the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. This compact offers universities that sign preferential treatment for federal federal research money in exchange for agreeing to a list of conditions. Conditions include freezing tuition, capping international enrollment, requiring the SAT, and limiting faculty speech on political issues.

Only one university thus far has indicated their willingness to sign, the University of Texas at Austin, with most rejecting and a few expressing reservations. Whatever you personally think of these trends, I think what they make clear is that there is a concerted effort to change the trajectory and scope of higher education in this country. and members of the Trump administration have certainly made this explicitly clear. Vice President J.D. Vance speaking to the National Conservatism Conference back in 2021, said, quote, we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country, and that, quote, universities are the enemy.

So this is the reality we are facing, and there is an urgency in understanding how this impacts the quality of education in American universities for students, the quality of faculty research, the ability of universities to maintain their independence, and the role of universities in generating social mobility for marginalized people. You've heard the chaos. Now you can see it. Do we want to jump right in? Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free IHard Radio app. Make some noise.

Wooee! Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like Bestie Listen, Hey Jonas and Las Culturistas. Now with full video. I'll just leave that there. It's the same hosts and the same chemistry with all the hilarious moments you've been missing right on your screen. Open the free IHard Radio app. Search video podcasts and tap watch. I'm Melissa Jeltsin and in my new podcast what happened to her, I'm bringing you new stories and conversations every week. Stories about women whose deaths were too quickly ruled a suicide.

She was starting to get worried and get scared for her safety. Stories of survival. The only difference between me and her, frankly, was a little bit of luck. Because by all rights, I should be dead. Cases that everyone else called closed. They can't convict her, right? Like, she has so much evidence. These stories all start in the same place,

with a woman failed by a system that didn't believe her, that didn't protect her, that didn't see her. No child should ever experience that. And we were babies. She did all of these brave things and came out and spoke about it, and he got a year. You never know who that devil is because he's wearing this. skies. Sometimes it's a police uniform. Listen to what happened to her on the Iheart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Lisa, we should tell them about our new show. Oh my God, Lexi. We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me. I'm Lexi Yuw. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa Di Giulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions. And at this point in my 50s, I've lived at all. I'm not going to get anyone fighting. That is wild. I learned that about you today.

Now in my 30s, being the founder of new shoes, good taste is my business, and I've always got something to say. If men were just honest about this, there would be so much more peace in the world. We're going to talk about dating, relationships, beauty, getting older, and a little wiser. We're best friends, but we don't always agree.

Because you told us how accommodating you. are. Obviously, I would do what I think I could do to fight the fight, but there's only so much fight I can fight. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to me. Liar. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I don't really care. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power.

It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interest and they complain about the very thing they're receiving. It's raw. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men.

Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off, I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Y'all going to scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same vein. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. Twelve seats. Those are moving south. So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 2030,

you better be hitting the ground going hard in the South now. And download Roland Martin Unfiltered on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts. You broke me. You do not deserve happiness. I'm Andrea Gunning. On this season of betrayal, we meet Carl Bryant. Carl thought he was living a normal, drama-free life until the messages started. You will have hell to pay.

For nine months, someone infiltrated every aspect of Carl's life, threatening to ruin him. Cyberstalking, swatting, extortion, impersonation. And then the text threats escalated. Someone's not going to make it out of this. alive. This department. It's playing out in real life, not just on the phone. Every piece of evidence pointed to one man.

But every piece of evidence was a lie. He was not going to stop unless we stopped him. Listen to Betrayal Season 6 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, so that's what I said in my introductory remarks. Before I turned it over to the same. speakers. Again, I was accused of downplaying anti-Semitism, and I was also likened to neo-Nazis why? For citing the report by the AAUP. In case people don't know, this is a very insidious trope of anti-Palestinian racism, often leveled at Palestinians. The idea that Palestinians are

inherently anti-Semitic, that they are akin to Nazis, that their identity is not a national one similar to every other nationality, but that Palestinian is a type of ideology centered on the hatred of Jews. That is anti-Palestinian racism. U.C. Berkeley's Department of Ethnic Studies has a pretty useful video on the subject on how anti-Palestinian racism is predicated on the assumption that Palestinians are a threat to public order, and that it presupposes Palestinians, quote, do not enjoy the same rights to safety and flourishing as others. Now, this overlaps with racism against Arabs and white supremacy against people of color generally. It overlaps with Islamophobia, but it is also something distinct. There's a large literature on this. Dina Hurwitz and Walter White,

writing for the American Bar Association, highlight how, quote, anti-Pasinian racism may also be Islamophobic, but importantly, not all Palestinians are all Arabs are Muslim, just as not all Muslims are Arab. Anti-Palestinian racism foments a distinct form of discrimination faced by Palestinians and those advocating for Palestinian rights, including non-Arabs and non-Muslims, for example, Christians and Jews. Palestinians and their advocates encounter anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia, regardless of whether they identify as secular, Muslim, Christian, Druze, or Jewish. End quote. The Arab-Canadian Lawyers Association has a report, also on this subject titled Anti-Palestinian Racism, Naming, Framing, and Manifestations. And they define it right on

the first page. Quote, anti-Palestinian racism is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames, or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives. Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms, including denying the Nekba and justifying violence against Palestinians, failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging, and rights in relation to occupied Palestine, erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians, excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies, defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander, such as being inherently anti-Semitic, a terrorist threat slash sympathizer, or opposed to democratic

values. And finally, political scientists Yasmin Abu Laban and Abigail Bacan wrote a helpful essay on the matter for the project on Middle East political science, which I will link in the show notes as well. They write, quote, anti-Palestinian racism is a form of racism which does not say its name. Anti-Palestinian racism relies on various forms of coding to hide divisive undemocratic practices of exclusion in an age where over racism is considered ideologically distasteful. Now, they were writing a few years ago, so I'm not sure how distasteful it remains. But let me continue, quote, The complexity is furthered in that the language of anti-Semitism and Jewish suffering,

language that addresses systemic racism against the Jewish people is a central means through which to code anti-Palestinian racism and thereby suppress claims for redress. I am currently, while recording this podcast for you all, doing this thing where I'm going to great lengths, to prove that what I experienced is it just in my head. It isn't just me being overly sensitive, that it isn't a situation where maybe the person who complained had a good reason,

that this was anti-Palestinian racism. There is this huge body of work and so much evidence outlining what anti-Palestinian racism is. There's even an argument that it animates broader Islamophobia in the United States. And it is a very real problem. But as Tony Morrison said, quote, the function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again your reason for being.

So every time we take the accusation at face value and launch into just a into mustering all the evidence that the accusation is false, compiling the research and reports. That is a waste of time. Arguably, even this episode is me wasting my time in the way that racists intended. But I also think there is an important function of discussing anti-Palestinian racism, both for this episode and for the broader discourse. The function is to start more immediately identifying it, pointing and calling it out, and distinguishing it as a separate thing that Palestinians in this country face. Because for Palestinians in this country and a number of other countries, but I'm speaking about the United States here, the situation has gotten worse. And for Palestinian academics,

which I can specifically speak to, the situation on higher education has gotten worse. The Middle East Studies Association has launched something called the Academic Freedom Initiative, where they collect data on how institutions of higher education are cracking down on their employees and students in a variety of ways around the issue of Palestine. And let's be clear, they weaponized the issue of Palestine to take away faculty governance or any kind of independence, whatever is left of it on these campuses. So, for example, the Academic Freedom Initiative record 139 instances of employment retaliation. So that's the universities retaliating against their employees, with 46% of those who faced retaliation eventually terminated from employment altogether.

According to the latest update on their website, August 20, 26, 62% of Title VI investigations at universities about anti-Semitism were instigated by outside actors outside the university. And out of 116 events that they record universities interfering with, events related to Palestine, 55% were cancelled. This is the state of affairs in higher ed. Anti-Palestinian racism is rampant, but it's also, of course, rampant in other sectors and in our discourse.

And last but not least, this country's official policies. But allies can refuse to allow this to go unchecked and can start to insist that this kind of racism is identified and not tolerated. So the racists wanted me to waste my time. But hopefully this can also be a call to action to stand up against anti-Palestinian racism more staunchly than before, because we need it. That's all I have for you today. Thanks for listening.

It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Coolzone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. I'm Melissa Jeltson, host of the What Happened to Her podcast. We're kicking off the season with the Sandra Birchmore story, a case that the police rode off as a suicide in a snowstorm. Her family never bought it, and the man they

suspected wore a badge. You never know who that devil is because he's wearing in disguise. Sometimes it's a police uniform. And you can get access to all episodes 100% ad-free with an I-Heart True Crime Plus subscription exclusively on Apple Podcasts, available only to IHeart True Crime Plus subscribers. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for IHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Lisa, tell them about our new show. We have a new podcast. It's called Don't Lie to Me. I'm Lexi Yuwanu. We're two best friends, 22 years apart, but so close at heart. And I'm Lisa Di Giulio, the old one, which means we have wildly different references, occasionally different opinions, and at this point in my 50s, I've lived it all.

Now in my 30s, being the founder of new shoes, good taste is my business. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon. People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, Little Richard. And we pull apart the story behind the image. Discovering forgotten interviews that change exactly how we see these giants of our culture. We're here for the messy, the brilliant, the human version of our heroes. I'm Emmanuel Jochi.

I'm Kai Wright. And this is Big Lives. Listen to Big Lives on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. broke me. You do not deserve happiness. I'm Andrea Gunning. On this season of betrayal, Carl thought he was living a normal, drama-free life until the messages started. Someone's not going to make it out of this alive. Every piece of evidence pointed to the wrong guy. He was not going to stop unless we stopped him. Listen to Betrayal Season 6 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your Podcasts.

Bloomberg's Big Take podcast has everything you need to know about the most expensive midterms in U.S. history, like the money being spent to control the Senate. Everyone has been waiting to see how Trump will spend his big war chest. He was sitting on nearly half a billion dollars. How candidates are rewriting their party's playbooks and how big business is throwing its money into the ring. There's obviously the AI super PACs, which are two sides there. So they're spending sometimes on different sides of races, sometimes on the same side of races.

Listen to the big take on the IHeart radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.