Raja Swamy
Overview
Raja Swamy [Raja Harish Swamy] has promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and spread hatred of Israel.Swamy is an advocate for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and signed a statement calling on the the American Anthropological Association (AAA) to boycott Israeli academic institutions. He has also pressured artists to cancel their performances in Israel.
Swamy is an assistant professor of Anthropology at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK).
Anti-Semitism
In a September 2001 article titled, “White, Zionist, and Hindu Racism: The Durban Question,” Swamy claimed that modern-day Jews have no connections to the ancient Israelites because they are descendants of Khazar converts, and argued that “ancient Palestinians were the originators of the Jewish religion.”Swamy further claimed that Israel “dish[es] out justice to Jews only and injustice to Palestinians only, requiring Palestinians to carry markers of identity just as the Nazis required Jews to carry markers of identity.”
Swamy also claimed that “Zionism played a central role in assisting Nazism to change the Jewish minority of Germany into a ‘racial’ minority… There is ample evidence that Zionism was not interested in saving the lives of Jews in Europe as much as it was in usurping Palestine and establishing a ‘racial’ state in Palestine, something accomplished with considerable support and encouragement from the Nazi regime itself.”
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On November 20, 2012, Swamy posted on Facebook “oh Israel, oh America, oh western bloodsuckers of the world - you, are f**ked beyond redemption. You are finished!!! VIVA PALESTINE!!!”In his September 2001 article, Swamy wrote that “Zionism is racism” as well as a “racial nationalistic project, seeking to justify and legitimate the colonization and oppression of a people.” He also claimed that Zionism is “nothing but a white supremacist narrative belying the long standing European desire to lay claim to Palestine”
Swamy alleged that in Israel, “the practice of racism permeates everything including the colonization of Palestinian land... and the unapologetic arrogance displayed to critics, reminiscent of the worst racists from Hitler to Botha.”
He also accused Israel of “genocide.”
Pressuring Artists to Boycott Israel
In December 2012, Swamy signed a letter calling on Native American poet Joy Harjo to cancel a planned performance in Israel.In July 2001, Swamy wrote an email to the band Red Hot Chili Peppers with the subject line “Please do not Play in Israel!!!” In his email, Swamy claimed that cancelling their performance would “help bring Israel to account for its wanton cruelty against the Palestinian people.”
In the same email, Swamy compared Israelis to Nazis, writing, “just imagine, how would it have been if the Beatles were made to play in a country where six million people were being massacred while German officers and their wives were drinking and dancing to ‘Its been a hard day’s night…’ Just imagine!”
Endorsing BDS
During the 2017 AAA elections, Swamy was endorsed as a candidate by the Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions as a result of his support for BDS.Swamy is also a signatory to an October 2014 statemen calling on the AAA to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
In June of 2016, the AAA announced that the resolution to boycott Israeli universities was defeated but that there are “other actions planned.”
The AAA vote on the anti-Israel resolution took place from April 15 to May 31, 2016, with approximately half of the AAA membership voting on the resolution. Of the half that voted concerning the resolution, 50.4% voted against it, meaning that only one quarter of AAA’s membership — at most — voted in favor of the resolution.
In an August 2006 article titled “The Case against Collaboration between India and Israel,” Swamy castigated India for upgrading its diplomatic and military ties with Israel, and concluded that it would in India’s “best interest” to sever ties with Israel immediately.
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raja.swamy.3University Website:https://anthropology.utk.edu/people/raja-swamy/
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Tennessee-Knoxville
- Organizations:
- BDS
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- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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