Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the front page article titled “Report of antisemitic incidents leads to investigation,” which was written by Emily Tarinelli and published in print on Nov. 10. The article reported on a visiting alum’s finding of the phrase “zionists not welcome here” written on a chalkboard in Clapp Hall, which the alum then reported to President [Danielle R.] Holley on the grounds that it did not make the alum feel welcome and she would “not be back.” I am writing to argue a necessary differing perspective of this event.
First off, Zionism does not equate Judaism. There are multiple organizations composed of Jewish people who refute Zionism as it is occurring now. It is a profound intellectual and societal disservice to the brave, strong willed, and principled Jewish students across the country who are being arrested in droves (see Brown University and Brandeis University’s recent slew of arrests) for speaking up against the misuse and weaponization of their sacred faith for American imperial aims. Let it be clear: antisemitism is a real problem and it is deplorable, as is any form of discrimination to any religious group. At the same time, not all Jews are zionists and not all zionists are Jews (see the evangelical christian bloc of the united states which lobbies in Israel’s favor and AIPAC. Support for Israel in the United States cuts more along party lines than religious ones). Therefore, the material reality of zionism is that it is a political process, not a religious one. Zionists are not a protected religious or ethnic group, they are people who believe in and endorse the settler colonial state of Israel as it ethnically cleanses indigenous Palestinians from their land.
I wrote “Zionists are not welcome here” on the chalkboard. I do not regret it. My friend has lost 40 members of her family in the course of a few days in Gaza. Today, before sitting down to write this letter, I watched as a woman, a martyred child’s aunt, in Gaza grasped pieces of a child’s bloody scalp and bits of the child’s fingers in her hands. She desperately tried to align the body parts together to see if they were that of her nephew. This is a fate worse than death. In that breath, and in lifelong solidarity with my Jewish brothers and sisters — and with my Palestinian brothers and sisters as they endure and resist, I condemn the conflation of anti-zionism with anti-semitism. I condemn the suffering of all people, and as Mount Holyoke has taught me to do, I think critically about my choice of words. I sincerely hope that zionists, that is, people who endorse Israel as it carries out genocidal war crimes, are not welcome on this campus. I do this for my friend’s 40 martyred family members. I do this because it is the very least, and the most human, thing that I have the power to do.
Sincerely,
Luisa Cavalcante ’25
Editor’s Note: this letter has been lightly edited for clarity in accordance with the Associated Press Stylebook.