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At the same time, the demonstrations have been repeatedly accused of overt, or at least of implicit, antisemitism. There undoubtedly have been troubling incidents: Over the weekend, an image went viral of a sign posted outside an encampment at George Washington University reading, “Students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe.” But nearly all of the instances of antisemitism that have tarred the protests on college campuses over the past two weeks have taken place off campus—that is, not within the encampments.

The allegations of antisemitism are familiar to anyone who has followed the larger debate about pro-Palestinian speech over the last six months, both on college campuses and Capitol Hill. To vehemently criticize Israel’s long mistreatment of Palestinians, or dare to suggest that Palestinians deserve their own territory and autonomy, is to invite accusations of antisemitism. Words and phrases that have a complicated history, and thus don’t have universally accepted meanings—like “From the river to the sea” or “intifada”—are now treated as explicitly antisemitic.

The notion that the protests are inherently antisemitic, which ignores the fact that many of the protesters are themselves Jewish, is of course pushed by the right and even some Democrats to dismiss or obscure the actual reason the protests exist. But it’s also providing cover to college administrators—and the politicians who are pressuring them—to clear the encampments, often by calling in police and causing violence. The encampments are a thorn in the side of administrators not because they are fomenting hate on campus, as some disingenuously claim, but because they have outraged donors and led to intense bipartisan scrutiny from pro-Israel politicians. Political and economic pressure from outside the university—not the actions of the protesters themselves—appears to be the largest, most important driver of the often disproportionate response to the protests.