CNN (December 16, 2024) chose not to investigate the ADL’s accusations of antisemitism against speakers at a recent conference of the National Association of Independent Schools, but rather to simply repeat and amplify the ADL’s dishonest and slanderous narrative.
Serving over 2,000 private schools in the United States and internationally, the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) claims to help their members to
deliver exceptional learning experiences through research and trend analysis, leadership and governance guidance, and professional development opportunities for school and board leaders.
The People of Color Conference (PoCC), an annual event that has taken place for decades, is the flagship of NAIS’ “commitment to equity and justice in teaching, learning, and sustainability for independent schools.” According to their website, the theme of the 2024 conference was “a call to action for the unique time we’re experiencing.”
The 2024 PoCC in Denver, attended by over 8000 educators and students, featured a talk by a physician, Dr. Suzanne Barakat. The former executive director of the Health and Human Rights Initiative at UC San Francisco, Barakat is renowned for her expertise in mental health of Arabic-speaking communities worldwide and as an advocate against Islamophobia, she recorded a TED talk after her brother Deah, his wife Yusor and her sister Razan were murdered in an anti-Muslim hate crime in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 2015.
CNN’s headline, “US Private Schools Group Apologizes After Criticism of Antisemitic Remarks During Conference,” makes the NAIS apology the story rather than the ADL’s false accusation of antisemitism against Barakat and Ruha Benjamin, a widely acclaimed professor of African-American history at Princeton University who also spoke at the NAIS event.
In its coverage, CNN reported the ADL’s claims that the remarks were antisemitic, even as the network noted that it had “not seen a transcript or recording of the remarks.” Genuine reporting on NAIS, the PoCC, and the ADL’s and other pro-Israel groups’ insistence on blasting any criticism of Israel as antisemitic, would have included — at a minimum — the content of the speakers’ remarks and reactions from conference attendees (including those for whom the mere acknowledgement of Palestinians’ existence marked a watershed compared to previous PoCCs). And more serious reporting would have noted the extent to which NAIS already promotes the work of the ADL and similar pro-Israel organizations, as well as taken note of the cases of teachers at NAIS member schools who have been fired or forced to resign because they spoke up for Palestinian rights.
Instead, CNN failed to note the remarks about genocide and Israeli racism did not mention Jews at all, nor did they note that the remarks reflected well-researched conclusions of experts at the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’tselem and hundreds of legal and human rights experts across the world.
Labeling criticism of Israel as antisemitic is a tactic of Zionist advocates to normalize Zionism, including in educational spaces, a practice that incorrectly claims this political criticism is in fact religious hate speech. This distorted definition of antisemitism is being promoted in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, the codification of which is considered a “best practice” for K-12 education by the ADL and their allies.
CNN relied extensively on the complaint letter to NAIS sent by the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Jewish Federations of North America and PRIZMAH: Center for Jewish Day Schools, without noting the political motivations of the accusers. It does not even appear that CNN verified the complaints of the Jewish students whose stories form the basis of the complaint.
CNN quotes the complaint saying that “Jewish students and faculty were forced to hear” their colleagues applauding what they characterized as antisemitic rhetoric, presenting audience support for the speakers as further proof of antisemitism rather than as broad commitment to truth, equity and justice that fully includes Palestinians.
Ruha Benjamin, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University and one of the speakers the ADL and their allies slandered as antisemitic, responded to NAIS’ capitulation. She pointed out (New York Times, DATE):
The weaponization of the charge of antisemitism is a disservice to everyone. Such accusations are watering down its meaning and wielding it against anyone who dares name the reality that Palestinians are living.
Giving extensive space to allegations of harm to Jewish students, CNN reports on the apology by the National Association of Independent Schools, and doesn’t even consider the impact of NAIS’s apology on Palestinian students or on the speakers who were slandered. An action alert by Zinn Education Project aimed at NAIS notes that Dr. Barakat has received numerous death threats since NAIS issued its apology to the ADL et al.:
NAIS President Debra Wilson jeopardized the safety of the speakers and undermined the conference’s commitment to equity and justice by irresponsibly framing their remarks as “divisive” and mischaracterizing their credibly-cited critiques as antisemitic. These failures have emboldened those who weaponize intimidation and hate to silence differing views, and reduced the public reporting on the PoCC to a reflection of the very injustices it was created to confront.
The CNN article lists several other cases of accusations of antisemitism against educators – like the ADL, mixing what most would consider “real” antisemitism with weaponized false accusations). At no point does the article note that false accusations of antisemitism, whether through slander or lawfare, are a key tactic of the ADL and their allies, and these frequently target educators of color.
CNN should have written a story about the ADL bullying NAIS, causing it to immediately (within two days) issue an apology, that not only validates the mischaracterization of the speakers’ remarks as antisemitic, but also promises to censor future speakers, a stunning confession from an educational organization. (The apology links to resources of the ADL and other complainants, further entrenching their influence on schools.)
Characteristically, the ADL found the apology lacking and sought to extract additional concessions from NAIS. They asked NAIS to become a spokesperson for the ADL’s politicized agenda, and, using a common right-wing tactic, the ADL is mobilizing tuition-paying private school parents to pressure the NAIS to concede.
Without this context, CNN’s “coverage” of the NAIS event can hardly be considered journalism. Instead it is an advertisement for the ADL that endorses rather than challenges the conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism, a growing tendency that threatens the teaching, learning and critical thinking that are essential to democracy and one that perpetuates racism against Palestinians.