Congress’s latest ‘antisemitism’ hearing was an ugly attack on Palestinian rights | Moira Donegan

The real purpose of this nasty political farce is to pressure US universities to crack down on criticism of Israel

If you didn't know what was really going on at US college campuses, the congressional hearing on Thursday - in which the presidents of Northwestern and Rutger's and the chancellor of UCLA were called to testify before a Republican-controlled House committee - would do little to inform you.

The House committee on education and the workforce has held six - yes, six - public events to draw attention to the supposed crisis on campus in the months since the 7 October attack on Israel. They've hauled university presidents to Washington to harangue them, allegedly for not being sufficiently punitive toward pro-Palestinian students and faculty. These hearings have been used to belittle and antagonize university faculty and students and have fed racist and anti-intellectual moral panics that have led to the resignations of several of the university presidents who have been called to testify, notably including Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Claudine Gay of Harvard.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist