Ian Sykes ‘28
Opinions Editor
On March 19, 2026, Holy Cross screened Blind Spot in Rehm Library, a documentary that according to its MyHC page is about “campus antisemitism in the United States, prior to and following the October 7 attacks.” This documentary was produced by StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy organization that, per their website, “inspires and educates people of all ages and backgrounds, challenges misinformation and fights antisemitism.” Sounds great, right? What you might expect is an informative, nuanced documentary from an earnest organization that encourages engaging discussion on an important topic.
But what we got was nothing but disappointment, intellectual dishonesty, and repulsive propaganda.
Before I speak on the documentary, I’d advise that if you feel called to opine on this matter, watch the documentary before saying anything. That’s what I did. But even before that, just looking at its poster should give you a good indication of what’s in store. Not only does it look AI generated, but the signs that the depicted protestors are holding say things like “Tuition Funds Genocide,” “Liberated Zone,” and “Free Palestine.” Are these phrases anti-Semetic? This documentary thinks so. Not even 10 minutes into it, this documentary proclaims that “Israel is a part of being Jewish,” and later one person in this documentary says outright, “anti-Zionism, which is Hamas’s ideology—no Jewish state in any part of the land—is anti-Semitism period. There’s no other way around it.”
That logos is used in the documentary to promote the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which states that anti-Semitism may manifest as a “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.” It also states that accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel than their home nations, comparing the actions of Israel to the Nazis, and perceiving the Israeli state as racist are also suitable definitions of anti-Semitism.
Sure, one could argue that anti-Semitism could fall under those categories, but doing so sets a dangerous precedent that proclamations like these are anti-Semetic unless proven otherwise, which is untrue. (Mind you, the US adopted this definition.) To give this definition real consequences, let me show you that one speaker in the documentary said of pro-Palestinian activists that “they start calling Israel an apartheid state, they start accusing Israel of murdering Palestinian children, which is a modern-day invocation of the blood libel.” Both of these claims are factually true and are not libel. Why shouldn’t I criticize their state for that? For Christ’s sake, at least 50,000 children have died according to UNICEF—a conservative estimate. They are also clearly an apartheid state; they recently mandated the death penalty for all Palestinians accused of terrorism, which is according to the UN “effectively designed to target Palestinians exclusively,” is compounded with “secrecy, and limited access to legal counsel and external oversight.” So, saying that rightly accusing Israel of these atrocities is “blood libel” is flagrantly disingenuous and militantly anti-human, and has absolutely no place in discussion at Holy Cross, let alone in discussion facilitated by it.
But the college thought it did. This documentary, according to an anonymous administrator who oversaw its screening, was a result of a working group within the college dedicated to combatting anti-Semitism. As a seemingly effortless way to take action, departments like JEBI and Student Development screened this documentary, hoping that it’d be a good way to procure genuine discussion on this issue.
Yet they did so without pre-screening it, according to that same administrator. Not only that, but another JEBI administrator prefaced the documentary in Rehm by saying that as far as the conversation regarding this documentary is concerned, anti-Semitism is “a civil rights issue, not a political one.” I’m sorry, but am I missing something? This documentary invalidated Palestinians and heartfully decried earnest discussion regarding this issue, but it’s actually not a political issue? Are you kidding me?
The Holy Cross Student Social Justice Collective, as far as I could tell, were the only students in attendance. We held a walk-out and heckling demonstration, and I yelled there that “no student should feel unsafe, but anti-Semitism and criticizing a genocidal state are not the same.” Of course, Dean Todd sent out his trademark “Post-Demonstration Support” email afterwards, almost as if to say that “we hear you, but our actual mistake is irrelevant.” Thanks a lot for that one. Sure meant a lot.
This event was not a dialogue dinner. It was not an opening to intellectual discussion, nor did it incorporate voices from those bleeding right now. It was pure Zionist apologism, and the rhetoric it endorsed downplayed legitimate human rights concerns, thus justifying genocide. While there was an optional Q&A session for students afterwards, what would be the point of arguing with a Zionist on intellectual grounds which delegitimize your case before you even start talking? All the documentary did was talk down to me, so naturally I felt called to talk down back in the form of protest. If the film were actually about students and not apologism, why didn’t the organizers bring a student to talk with? This documentary discarded the Palestinian perspective as trivial to the conversation about anti-Semitism, and in doing so, it muddied the waters of genuine conversation about this topic and laid an argumentative framework on unabashedly partial grounds. For that, it has no justification.
For an institution like Holy Cross, which prides itself on constructive dialogue and intellectual discussion, to host a politically explosive documentary without pre-screening it and to preface it as “not political” is absolutely appalling, and makes me very disappointed to be a Crusader. Conversations moving forward on this matter should not be so scuffed—especially when promoted by the school—to start, and should also not include information which is better described as propaganda at its basis. We all must learn from each other, and propaganda, much less genocidal propaganda, shouldn’t be the medium through which it happens. Our college must do better.
I will not yield until what is done is right. None of us are free until everyone is free. Free Palestine.
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