What a Federal Court Taught Us and What Universities Must Learn About Anti-Zionism vs. Antisemitism

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

“Anti-Israeli sentiment is not, without more, antisemitic messaging.”

That sentence—quoted by U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns in Boston—is at the core of his January 5, 2026, court order dismissing federal claims against me in the Sussman v. MIT lawsuit. The plaintiffs alleged that my teaching and pro-Palestinian advocacy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) constituted antisemitism, harassment, defamation and retaliation against...