Israeli human rights organization, Shurat HaDin, has issued a letter of notice to Princeton Dean, Prof. Gene A. Jarrett, due to the inclusion of the book “The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability” in a course in Humanities. The book blames Israeli soldiers of deliberately maiming Palestinians in order to create a “mass debilitation of Palestinian bodies”.
The book “The Right to Maim” was widely criticized when published by Author Jasbir Puar, an anti-Israeli activist who has already blamed Israeli soldiers for harvesting human organs. According to Shurat HaDin, The book is “nothing more than a modern adaptation of antisemitic stereotypes, reviving and “modernizing” medieval accusations against Jews for harming innocent people, killing children and drinking their blood”, arguing that “It is no better than introducing ‘Mein-Kampf’ or the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ in Princeton’s curriculum.”
Shurat HaDin blames Princeton University in creating “a hostile and divisive atmosphere against Jews and Israeli” in campus, alleging that “The propagation of such content can perpetuate harmful stereotypes, promote misinformation, and contribute to the marginalization of Jewish students and the broader Jewish community. It creates a hostile and dangerous education environment.”.
“Princeton has joined the antisemitic choir of rising antisemitism in US academia, reminding us all that throughout history schools and universities played a decisive role in promoting antisemitism in disguise of science and academic research. Times may have changed, but the strive to justify this old hatred by academic and scientific excuses remains” said Nitsana Darshan Leitner, founder and President of Shurat HaDin, adding that “Only now, the difference is that we – together with many more good people who still remember the terrible costs of making a academia a tool to promote hatred - are here to fight it”.
