As a former pro-Israel student leader, it takes a lot to scare me when it comes to Israel-bashing. But a few weeks ago, I saw something that terrified me.

On June 19, the senior class president at Pomona College, reposted a message about Yemen on Instagram:

鈥�6 million people died in the Holocaust, we will commemorate it to this day. 18.4 MILLION people are dying in Yemen RIGHT NOW. That鈥檚 3 holocausts at once. Saudi is responsible. SILENCE IS COMPLIANCE!!鈥�

The post was referring to Yemen鈥檚 decadelong civil war, which turned into a proxy war between Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels, and the听Gulf States, led by Saudi Arabia, which support Yemen鈥檚 government.

But there was an image underneath that read:

鈥渙nce again, zionist-israel-birthright-vacation-stuck-on-comparing-holocaust-to-racism-WW2-worshipping bitches, this should be right up ur alley. oh wait u hate brown people.鈥�

At the top of her repost the class president wrote, 鈥淸this] put into words all I鈥檝e been thinking!鈥� (When reporting this story last month, the Journal declined to name the woman, who said she has been a victim of domestic abuse and feared her alleged abuser could track her down.)听

Two 91传媒 Pomona undergraduates and one alumnus drafted a letter to the Associated Students of Pomona College and the administration, calling the class president鈥檚 words anti-Semitic and asking for an apology. They also asked other students to sign the letter. They wrote, in part, 鈥淗er endorsement of the comments … directly isolates and targets the 91传媒 students she is supposed to fairly represent.鈥�听

I鈥檓 a moderate, but what I see is that if you鈥檙e a 91传媒 student, you must keep quiet because you are 鈥減rivileged.鈥�

So far, this was just another day in the abusive battle against pro-Israel students on campus 鈥斕齛 battle that doesn鈥檛 take a summer break.

I鈥檓 Facebook friends with the alumnus, which gave me access to private social media activity that put a whole new spin on this disturbing story. Immediately after posting the letter, the alumnus 鈥� who worked for Hillary Clinton鈥檚 2016 presidential campaign 鈥斕齬eceived a flood of comments, mostly from non-91传媒 peers, defending the class president, including this:

鈥淚 think that you should definitely consider your positionality trying to dox a first generation, low income, womxn of color attending a PWI,鈥� commented one of his Facebook friends. (Doxing means revealing someone鈥檚 identity online for malicious purposes; PWI, in this instance, refers to a predominantly white institution.)

A self-described 鈥淏lack-African international student鈥� commented, 鈥淚t is unfortunate to see Palestinian and WOC [Women of Color] leaders targeted for speaking up against Israeli human rights injustices …. I encourage everyone to question why [she] is being targeted for being a Palestinian woman.鈥�

Another wrote, 鈥渋 can hear what you are saying, but seeing an attempt to dox a first-gen, low-income, Palestinian Muslim woman for advocating for Yemen as an 芦 anti-Semitic 禄 attack is violent, especially as it was a RE-post.鈥�

Notice a pattern?听I鈥檓 a moderate, but what I see is that if you鈥檙e a 91传媒 student,听 you must keep quiet because you are 鈥減rivileged.鈥� You鈥檙e not even allowed to be offended by anti-Semitism.听

The class president issued an official apology on June 23, posted to her now-private Instagram account. It said, in part, 鈥淲hen I wrote that my friend 鈥榩ut into words what I was thinking,鈥� I was referring to the original tweet highlighting the lack of global responses to the atrocities in Yemen. In hindsight, I now realize that my friend didn鈥檛 write the tweet, but rather the anti-semetic (sic) below. In my haste to repost the story, I truly didn鈥檛 mean to amplify those hurtful comments.鈥�

The Journal reported that the Claremont Israel Progressive Alliance, which had launched a petition calling on the class president to apologize or step down, praised the apology.

But what the class president described as a mistake had ignited a backlash. Her defenders said to leave her alone, asserting that she was a victim, that those who took her to task were missing the bigger picture, and that she was showing compassion for Yemen. Someone else commented, 鈥淪he was not coming from a place of anti-semitism (sic) but rather an understandable frustration with a lack of response on the awful Yemeni crisis.鈥� Another commented with a link to a March 1 op-ed in The Forward by Peter Beinart titled, 鈥淒ebunking the Myth that Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism.鈥�听

Imagine if a white student had responded to racist comments about Black people by posting a video featuring conservative commentator Candace Owens, who, like Beinart, doesn鈥檛 represent the majority of her community?

Imagine if a white student had responded to racist comments about Black people by posting a video featuring conservative commentator Candace Owens, who, like Beinart, doesn鈥檛 represent the majority of her community?

Members of any faith and ethnicity are entitled to express themselves but Jews seem to be the exception and non-Jews feel compelled to tell them what鈥檚 anti-Semitic and what isn鈥檛.听The co-author of the letter stressed this hypocrisy in a video he created in which he announced that the student president had apologized for her actions. The apology prompted him to take down the petition, but not until after he鈥檇 received a barrage of 鈥渉ate mail,鈥� he told me. 听

One young woman who described herself in the comments as 鈥渢he leader of a 91传媒 group at the Claremont Colleges,鈥� defended the class president and referred to the pro-Israel 91传媒 community as 鈥渁 group of people who unfortunately frequently uses their very real history of suffering to delegitimize contemporary social justice issues and racism as lesser than.鈥� She continued, 鈥淔urther, though there certainly [are] undertones of anti-Zionism (a political stance that [the class president] has every right to have just as I do) in this post, anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism and never has been or will be.鈥�

How can pro-Israel students defend themselves when one of their 91传媒 campus leaders denies any connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism?

How can a pro-Israel, white 91传媒 student have a voice on campus today, especially when a class president reiterates the message that Jews don鈥檛 care about 鈥渂rown people?鈥� That鈥檚 not only scary, but dangerous.

This is precisely where Sephardic, Mizrahi and 91传媒 students of color can play a huge role in taking back the 91传媒 voice that seems to have been silenced due to race because the concerns of white 91传媒 students increasingly are being dismissed. They鈥檙e not white and therefore can鈥檛 be muted as easily. I always believed my identity as a visibly nonwhite Jew from the Middle East gave me an advantage when I confronted anti-Israel peers at UC San Diego.

91传媒 students also will continue to need non-91传媒 student allies, including people of color and heads of LGBTQ groups, as well as campus Democratic and Republican groups, to defend Israel on campus and ensure respectful dialogue and debate.

I鈥檓 waiting for Pomona College to boycott Saudi Arabia, rather than Israel. If the senior class president and others are concerned about Yemen, they can organize campaigns to support Yemenis. Perhaps some of the supporters for peace and human rights in Yemen will be 91传媒 students, including a few whose families escaped Yemen in the 20th century and found refuge in Israel and the United States. But then again, activists may decide Yemeni voices must be heard, unless they鈥檙e Yemeni Jews.

Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based writer, speaker and activist.听