Husam El-Qoulaq. The local angle

Husam El-Qoulaq, a third-year law student at Harvard Law School has achieved his 15 minutes of fame using playground style taunts against a foreign dignitary. His outburst embarrassed and humiliated the school. 

At an April 14, 2016  panel discussion on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations  El-Qoulaq childishly heckled Tzipi Livni during the question and answer period, asking “How is it that you are so smelly?” 

Its more than immature- its anti-Semitic.
As reported by Canary Mission:

On April 18, 2016, three members of the Harvard Jewish Law Students Association demanded a public apology to Ms. Livni, the Jewish students of HLS, and Harvard Law School at large — and observed in response to El-Qoulaq’s question:

“A quick Internet search will show that the stereotype of “the Jew” as “smelly” or “dirty” has been around since at least the 1800s. The Nazis promoted the idea that Jews “smell” to propagandize Jews as an inferior people. The idea that Jews can be identified by a malodor is patently offensive and stereotypes Jews as an “other” which incites further acts of discrimination. The fact that such a hate-filled and outdated stereotype reemerged at Harvard Law School is nothing short of revolting.”

Harvard officials immediately condemned the exchange, but took care to conceal the name of the student involved. The university also deleted the portion of the video featuring the incident.

Martha Minow, Dean of Harvard Law School,denounced the comments, stating:

“The comment was offensive and it violated the trust and respect we expect in our community. Many perceive it as anti-Semitic, and no one would see it as appropriate. It was an embarrassment to this institution and an assault upon the values we seek to uphold.”

The Harvard Law Record took an unprecedented step by closing comments on an article regarding the incident, to prevent El-Qoulaq from being identified.

Why is Harvard bending over backwards to protect the identity of Husam El-Qoulaq?  Are his family major donors?

The local angle? There's always a local angle.

Husam El-Qoulaq graduated with a degree in peace and conflict studies from UC Berkeley, and served a stint as a volunteer commissioner on the City of Berkeley's foreign policy body, the Peace and Justice Commission.

Interestingly, his Linked in profile (since deleted) fraudulently implies he served on the Berkeley City Council. It is not known if he also misrepresented his status in his application to the Harvard law school.

Husam El-Qoulaq never served on the Berkeley city council

Incidentally, the Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento, California sent El-Qoulaq a warning letter for failing to disclose his economic interests after leaving the Berkeley commission

For more information on Husam El-Qoulaq  also known as Husam Coolaq:
Harvard’s disgrace

Husam El-Qoulaq (Coolaq)

Husam El-Qoolaq ID’d As Harvard Law Student Behind ‘Smelly’ Jew Attack on Former Israeli Foreign Minister

An Open Letter To Harvard Law School (HLS) About Husam El-Qoulaq And Tzipi Livni

Harvard Law student asks Tzipi Livni, Israeli politician, why she is ‘so smelly’’
BDS Activist Named as Harvard Law Student Behind ‘Smelly’ Remark Directed at Visiting Israeli Politician

Israel sets up field hospital in quake-stricken Ecuador

Hundreds have died in a massive 7.8 earthquake that has devastated regions of Ecuador. In Canoa, 98% of the buildings have been destroyed.

The Israeli disaster relief group IsraAID  arrived in the country several days ago, and used private planes to reach Canoa.  They set up a field hospital  and began operating it on Saturday evening, focusing on immediate care, emergency medical treatment, child friendly spaces and psycho-social care.

Do Israelis give up precious time with their families over the holidays to help those in need?  Yes they do.

You won't read about this in the mainstream media.
Israeli group sets up field hospital in quake-hit Ecuador

George Galloway launches his campaign (and fails)

h/t Israellycool

Its been a bad week for  notorious bigot George Galloway, currently polling at 0% of the vote in the race for mayor of London

George Galloway inadvertently tweeted out a link to his website http://www.galloway2016.com/  without registering his domain first. Oops.

Syrian refugee Aboud Dandachi purchased the domain and redirected it to his organization in appreciation of the assistance given to Syrian refugees by Israeli and Jewish organizations and individuals.

Check it out http://www.galloway2016.com/

San Francisco State University bullies identified as Linda Ereikat and Lubna Morrar

San Francisco State University students  Linda Ereikat & Lubna Morrar have been identified by the website Canary Mission as the leaders of the protest that shut down a Hillel sponsored talk with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

From Canary Mission:
On April 6, 2016, Morrar and fellow GUPS SFSU member Linda Ereikat led a large group of anti-Israel protesters that shouted down Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, while he was speaking at SFSU.

Upon entering the room, Morrar led the group in yelling, “Get the f**k of our campus!” Following which Ereikat led the group in other aggressive and violent chants including “Intifada, Intifada!” as well as, “If we don’t get no justice, then you don’t get no peace” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” — a call for Israel’s destruction.

Barkat’s personal security guards sprang to ensure his safety and a campus police officer arrived while student leaders from the event attempted to dialogue with the protesters. The protesters persisted in their disruption, forcing Barkat to move from the podium to sit with the audience, in an attempt to continue his talk.

TITLE V. Article 2. Standards for Student Conduct of San Francisco State University clearly states

Student Behavior that is not consistent with the Student Conduct Code is addressed through an educational process that is designed to promote safety and good citizenship and, when necessary, impose appropriate consequences.

This includes

Willful, material and substantial disruption or obstruction of a University-related activity, or any on-campus activity.

and

Participating in an activity that substantially and materially disrupts the normal operations of the University, or infringes on the rights of members of the University community.

Will there be "appropriate consequences"? Will SFSU President Les Wong do the right thing?  The odds are not good

`

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is in Israel

San Francisco's Mayor Ed Lee is in Israel

From the J Weekly

The April 10-14 tour takes the mayor and his entourage across Israel and into the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority’s administrative center.

Lee’s visit was organized by the Haifa-San Francisco Sister City Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and the Consulate General of Israel in S.F.

One of the first items on Lee’s itinerary was to meet with Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav and sign a memorandum of understanding between longtime sister cities Haifa and San Francisco. The agreement aims to strengthen contacts and exchanges in trade, investment, science, technology and the arts.

From the Mayor's twitter account:

Is SFSU President Les Wong Part of the problem?

Our community is dismayed and disappointed by the lack of civility and disrespect that we saw this week at San Francisco State University.  Eyewitnesses reported that police and administrators stood by and did nothing while bullies from the General Union of Palestinian students (GUPS) and other groups screamed obscenities in an attempt to disrupt an appearance of Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat on campus  Afterward, the response of university to the disruption was predictably lukewarm.

Imagine if any other student group had been targeted. Would the response have been the same? Where are the safe spaces at SFSU for Jewish students?

San Francisco State University's General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) has been in the news before.  The president of the organization, Mohammad Hammad posted a photo on his tumblr account , declaring "I seriously can not get over how much I love this blade. It is the sharpest thing I own and cuts through everything like butter and just holding it makes me want to stab an Israeli soldier."

The San Francisco State University General Union of Palestinian students neither condemned Hammad's words, nor distanced themselves from them.

Why does SFSU continue to tolerate the intolerable?

It may be a top-down approach.

In a reception last year to celebrate the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diaspora Minor at San Francisco State University, University President Les Wong makes his feelings about the General Union of Palestinian students very clear. Pres. Wong appears between 15:23 and 30:10 in the clip.

In the clip, Les Wong, the president of a tax-payer funded university in a major US city  expresses his admiration for a group that glorifies violence on campus, declaring:



"I want to offer my personal congratulations to the student leadership of GUPS. They have been an inspiration for me. And they have helped me when I have to tell other community groups to mind their own business. GUPS is the very purpose of this great university."

General Union of Palestinian Students Event , SFSU

Les Wong actually visited the university called the "greenhouse for martyrs"  before he signed the MOU between SFSU and An-Najah University.  He spoke about his trip to Palestine, asking "Why aren't we signing more relationships with Arab Universities?", and declared  "as we repair the budget here, as we implement the strategic plan I have not lost sight of the commitment we've made to add faculty to support  students who want to learn more about the Arab world, and for me, Palestine in particular."

Wong adds: "We've tried to do some important things and that is to make sure our soul is still connected to the communities that are important to us, and thats this community. And when we do not participate, serve or respect that community we have in many ways lost our soul."

The students of the Jewish group Hillel would likely agree that SFSU  neither serves nor protects  their community, and that this university had indeed lost its soul. Increasingly it appears that a culture of intolerance is enabled from the top down at SFSU.

Meanwhile, back at San Francisco State University...

One can only imagine SFSU president Les Wong sitting in his office proudly reflecting on the worldwide attention his university is finally attracting.

In the meanwhile, the students are beginning to mobilize and fight back.

This remix of the notorious protest is making the rounds



A petition has been launched, demanding that Les Wong resign as president of San Francisco State University.

Pres. Wong has begun an "investigation", code for "stall until the next thing comes along to divert attention away from this".

Its not over by a long shot.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat in San Francisco

More news from San Francisco State University, from someone who witnessed the fiasco.

Written by Aaron Parker,  published in the Times of Israel

Mayor Barkat’s visit was planned.  University administrators expected both him and the disruptors, who reliably attend all Israeli speaking events here.  The university police were sent in.  But, in a decision that should deeply disturb all who value a civil society, and one that I as a Jew find profoundly demoralizing, the police were instructed not to remove the disruptors and instead to stand by and watch the event be completely shut down.

Please let that sink in. Public university administrators and police stood and watched as the Mayor of Jerusalem, the Jewish student organization that sponsored him, and all of us in attendance, were permanently bullied off the stage.  Officers with guns, and the power that comes from the barrels of those guns, were instructed to stand, watch, and do nothing, as freedom of speech was replaced with a policy of whoever shouts the loudest wins, at least when it comes to shouting down a visiting Israeli dignitary. Those whom we thought were there to protect us and restore order, stood, watched, and did nothing.

The administrators’ and police’s high profile inaction emboldened the mob, which consequently grew louder and more brazen.  We waited and waited for the disruptors to be removed so the event could proceed, but it never happened.  Eventually, Mayor Barkat asked us to huddle around him so he could speak to us over the mob’s chants, but it was a lost cause.

“Get the fuck off our campus, get the fuck off our campus,” the mob yelled at us with bullhorns, indoors, over and over.  “Get the fuck off our campus.”

Aaron concludes:

As a Jewish San Franciscan, I was profoundly shaken by the experience.  I was prepared for the anti-Israel movement to be there.  They’ve grown chillingly disciplined in recent years.  I expected them to be given a space outside the event to yell hateful rhetoric and engage in theatrics.  I was prepared for the likelihood of having to pass them on the way in, threatening me, calling me anti-Semitic epithets, because it’s how they roll.  What I didn’t expect was for them to be given the power by the university to control who speaks and who does not.  I left shaken to my core.

Read it all here: 
 Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat in San Francisco

SFSU President Les Wong's bland response to campus bullying

The Bay Area Jewish community is still shocked by the nastiness and bullying of anti-Israel activists who disrupted a Hillel event at San Francisco State University.

The story has garnered world wide notoriety.

San Francisco State: Yet another shout down of Israeli speaker 

Pro-Palestinian Activists In San Francisco Interrupt Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat Speech, Chanting, ‘Intifada!’

Anti-Israel protesters crash Jerusalem mayor Barkat's speech in San Francisco

Concerned about the unsafe atmosphere at SFSU for students, people have been writing to Leslie Wong, president@sfsu.edu President, San Timothy White, tmolle@calstate.edu (Public Relations), Chancellor California State University and to Reginald Parson, Interim Chief, upd@sfsu.edu SFSUPD

The bland response of  Les Wong follows:  h/t Fousesquawk  

Thursday, April 07, 2016

Dear SF State community,

I am concerned for the state of civil discourse on our campus. There have been a number of events this academic year which have caused me to think extensively about our values and our mission.

Nir Barkat, Mayor of Jerusalem was invited to speak yesterday on campus by SF Hillel, a student organization. The Mayor’s talk, held at Seven Hills, was disrupted by a small but loud group of protesters. Members of our community who attended the event were deprived of an opportunity to hear from the Mayor.

As an inclusive academic institution, we strive to make San Francisco State University a welcoming environment for all. Students are encouraged to engage in thoughtful and respectful dialogue about difficult or controversial issues and, at the same time, to respect the rights of others to do the same. While there is a right to dissent, we must also uphold the right to speak and to learn.

The Dean of Students and University Police will perform a full investigation of this incident to determine if any violations of campus policy occurred. In addition, I am committed to examining the university’s planning and response mechanisms to better ensure that student events of this nature can occur unimpeded in the future.

We must come together as a campus to foster a supportive and collegial environment in which disagreements can occur thoughtfully and respectfully. We must strive to live our values — and to be a safe place where all the members of our community are free to listen and to learn.

I would appreciate your support in promoting this core value so the entire SF State community can feel welcome and safe to engage in the free exchange of ideas and views that is essential to our campus.

Les Wong
President
San Francisco State University

Pass the Popcorn: Stanford SJP cancels Nakba tour because of Alison Weir's participation

Paul Larudee has friends in all the wrong places. He's hobnobbed with Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. He sat cheering in the audience while fellow flotidiot Ken O'Keefe regaled the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists with fake Talmud quotes and blood libel. And he is a vocal supporter and promoter of white supremacist Alison Weir.

According to Paul,  Stanford Students for Just Us in Palestine cancelled a presentation on the so-called Nakba at the eleventh hour because of Alison Weir's participation. The talk was arranged by the Free Palestine Movement, the ISM – Northern California and the al-Awda Palestine right to Return Coalition. 

Yep. Alison Weir is so caustic, so toxic, she's been rejected by SJP.  Ponder that, and pass the popcorn.

From Paul

Last night, Mariam Fathalla and Amena Elashkar were scheduled to speak at Stanford University, sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine. The previous day, I had asked Alison Weir, who has been giving talks on Palestine for 15 years all over the country, to meet with Amena and give her advice on reaching American audiences since this is Amena's first trip to the U.S. It was an excellent, fruitful meeting. 

I then said it would be valuable if Alison could hear Amena's presentation to see if she would have any suggestions. Alison is extremely busy but agreed to come down to Stanford with us for that purpose.

When Alison learned we did not yet have any written materials along to provide the audience, she brought some along with her for us to use and also gave us some of her books that we could sell to help raise money for the tour. We had already discussed that IAK would supply their excellent written materials for the tour.

We had no idea that Alison would turn out to be an issue, or that some members of the Stanford SJP would object to what Amena might wish to say.  We view Alison as an extremely committed and popular antiracist writer, speaker, and activist, and people even follow her work in refugee camps in Lebanon.  We know that some groups oppose her and If Americans Knew, but we also think that most do not, and that in any case this should not be an issue in the Nakba Tour.  Alison, however, is not not one of the national organizers of the tour, and she was not intended to be one of the speakers or to have any role in the presentation at Stanford. She was simply there as a favor to us, as described above.

However, some members of the SJP immediately objected to Alison's presence, perhaps assuming she was going to speak, and also to the presence of her book and the If Americans Knew materials. We immediately explained that Alison was not to be a speaker and was just there to sit in the audience and that we had invited her to come with us. We also agreed to remove the books, but said we were disturbed that they also wished to censor the materials we could make available on our own tour. In all my years of activism, I've never heard of such a thing.

Amena then began discussing the situation with the students, and was extremely upset when they told her that she could not speak truthfully about her feelings and the feelings of the thousands of dispossessed Palestinian refugees living in camps about their situation, about the Nakba, and about whether or not Israel has "the right to exist" that Israel partisans claim.  This was not an issue at the two previous talks.

When it became clear that they wished Amena to censor her excellent talk, she refused to do so and the event was canceled. 

We think it is extremely important that people hear from Amena and Mariam. They represent millions of Palestinian refugees whose rights and views have been trampled upon and who are often ignored. Thank you for helping us bring their voice to the discussion. It is long past time that they are heard.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Paul Larudee, Tour Coordinator

UPDATE:

Stanford SJP responds,via their Facebook page

On Wednesday April 7, Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine decided to cancel our event “The Exiled Palestinians.” This was due to the presence of Alison Weir, who has openly expressed anti-Semitic sentiments. Although she was not invited, Ms. Weir came to our event with the purpose of selling copies of her book and distributing materials promoting her personal website. When asked to remove her materials, she eventually removed her books but left other materials advertising her website. We expressed our discomfort with her materials as well as her presence at our event given that she claimed to be associated with the event, but she refused to leave....

We are sorry that we could not host this event as an opportunity to hear Palestinian voices, however we remain committed to making sure that our spaces do not play host to individuals who advance white supremacist discourses.

In the  "Comments" section, local anti-Israel activist Jane Jewell blames this little family spat on (wait for it....) the "Zionists", writing:

Don't be too hard on the Stanford students. They are clearly being used. They are young adults, with their whole lives ahead of them, looking for a good job when they leave university to start them off on their careers. Many Zionists have a lot of money and power when it comes to helping students get on the first rung of their career ladder. In fact, Alison Weir's book, Against Our Better Judgment, describes their colossal influence in this country. At all costs, students must not be given the opportunity to read this outstanding little book. I would not be at all surprised if one of them was approached by some behind the scenes Zionist with a comment like, "you are looking for a job in law when you leave here, isn't that right? You don't want to be associating with people like Weir, or your chances may not be so good."

In fact, I would put my money on it. Otherwise, why else would an organisation supposed to be supporting Palestine, cancel speakers about the Nakba? It would be like a Jewish organisation refusing to have a holocaust survivor speak. 


This is the only explanation of why the students, supposedly for Justice in Palestine, would cancel a speaker on the Nakba.

The Palestine Exception: Free Speech for me, but not for thee

From Ollie Benn, Executive Director of San Francisco State University Hillel:

An unfortunate and embarrassing incident happened today on SF State's campus.

A high profile political figure was shouted down and prevented from speaking. Many students came to hear Jerusalem Mayor Nir Birkat, as they had previously for other Hillel speakers this year representing a wide array of views. But a small group of hecklers came today solely to prevent the campus community from hearing a viewpoint they did not like. Unfortunately they succeeded.

There is a concerning trend that college campuses are not spaces where diverse viewpoints are tolerated. Recently, we have seen acts of outright hostility and physical aggression when one person did not agree with the views of another on campus.

We've tried incredibly hard at SF Hillel to be a responsible partner on campus for civil discourse, and to contribute to a more positive environment for dialogue, tolerance and education. Today's disappointing events demonstrate that one party alone cannot effect change; it requires the commitment of the entire University community to create a diverse place of learning that is tolerant, respectful and dedicated to its academic mission.

We are working with our partners on and off campus, and will provide further updates in the coming days and weeks. We will ensure that campus continues to be a space that promotes the robust exchange of ideas.

We are once again proud of our Hillel students who were not intimidated by today's interruptions. Even though the Mayor could not continue his public remarks, many Hillel students stayed to learn from Mayor Barkat in a smaller group, and to ask him their earnest and challenging questions, over the shouts of those who tried to silence them.

From Hillel International:

Hillel International joins San Francisco Hillel (SF Hillel) in expressing our outrage that Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was shouted down and prevented from speaking at San Francisco State University this evening. It is incumbent on all university leaders to ensure that diverse voices are treated with respect on campus and that attempts to forcibly prevent free speech not be tolerated.

“Colleges and universities cannot allow a vocal minority to inhibit the free speech of others and prevent the free exchange of ideas to which our higher education system is based,” said Eric D. Fingerhut, president and CEO of Hillel International. “We will work with the administration at San Francisco State University, as well as college administrators across the country, to ensure that distinguished speakers such as Mayor Barkat are welcomed on campus and given the opportunity to freely express their views.”

In response to the incident, Nir Barkat stated.

"Anyone who thinks that calls for violence and incitement will be able to silence us or divert us from our position is mistaken," Barkat said in response to the incident. "We will continue to build, develop and strengthen the State of Israel and within it a united Jerusalem and we will continue to voice our opinions and our legitimacy when we are invited to do so, even in places where they try to stop us."

Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on campus

What we’re reading:

Anti-Semitism on California Campuses

The problem on campuses across the country is that pro-Palestinian activists, in their zeal to seek self-affirmation, statehood, and "social justice," have waged an extremely caustic cognitive war against Israel and Jews.

Being pro-Palestinian on campuses today does not necessarily mean that one is committed to helping Palestinians be productive, live well, build a free and open nation or create a civil society with transparent government, a free press, human rights, and a representative government.

What being pro-Palestinian seems to have come to mean is continually denigrating and attacking Israel with a false historical narrative and the grotesquely misused language of human rights. What is claimed to be anti-Israel sentiment often rises to the level of raw anti-Semitism.

It is enough to make Jewish students, whether or not they care about Israel at all, uncomfortable, unsafe, or even hated on their own campuses.

Will free speech on Israel survive progressive censorship? 

Today the ACLU and progressive farleft activists, many of them Jewish, fail to object to the assault on pro-Israel free speech on American college campuses and in the public arena, no doubt because the calls for denial of free speech come from their own ranks.

Pro-Israel speakers are now routinely shouted down, forced off the stage of public discourse by Palestinian and “social justice” activists. Just ask ambassador Michael Oren, or Palestinian human rights advocate Bassem Eid, whose crime was talking about co-existing with Israelis. At Brandeis University, Brandeis president Frederick Lawrence withdrew Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s invitation to speak there, because she speaks out against Islamic female genital mutilation and other human rights violations in the Islamic world...

They further claim that shouting down pro-Israel speakers is their form of free speech. George Orwell must be turning over in his grave.

Putting anti-Semitism on the radar at the University of California and beyond

Last week, the Regents of the University of California unanimously approved a landmark Statement of Principles Against Intolerance containing the following language: “Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.” Although the statement has been widely hailed within the Jewish community for its unprecedented acknowledgment of anti-Zionism as a source of anti-Jewish hostility, many have overlooked an aspect of the statement’s language every bit as significant when it comes to ensuring the safety and well-being of Jewish students: the Regents’ clear call for anti-Semitism, in all of its forms, to be treated like every other kind of discrimination at the University of California – no more, but certainly no less.

Why is this so significant? Because for far too long the problem of anti-Jewish bigotry has not been on the radar at the University of California... 

Furthermore, when attempts were made to put anti-Jewish hostility on the UC radar, they were aggressively and successfully suppressed by the very groups most responsible for creating that hostility. For example in 2012, within days of the publication of a Jewish Student Campus Climate Report commissioned by then UC President Mark Yudof, which found that “Jewish students are confronting significant and difficult climate issues as a result of ... anti-Zionism and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)”, anti-Zionist student and community groups viciously attacked the report and demanded it be withdrawn. 

Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism

What we're reading today:

Rejecting Zionist Principles Is a Rejection of Jews By Daniel Gordis

The lopsidedness and relentlessness of critique to which Israel is subjected (and from which Palestinian leadership and policy are largely exempted) is fueled by a fundamental rejection of the idea of a Jewish State. Given that the State of Israel was created first and foremost to ensure the safety and flourishing of the Jewish people, that rejection constitutes an assault on the safety of the Jewish people. It is thus by definition the newest form of the centuries-old virus called anti-Semitism. It is illegitimate. It is immoral. And it needs to be stopped.

Anti-Zionism is the new Anti-Semitism by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

What then is anti-Semitism? It is not a coherent set of beliefs but a set of contradictions. Before the Holocaust, Jews were hated because they were poor and because they were rich; because they were communists and because they were capitalists; because they kept to themselves and because they infiltrated everywhere; because they clung tenaciously to ancient religious beliefs and because they were rootless cosmopolitans who believed nothing.

Anti-semitism is a virus that survives by mutating. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries they were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, Israel. Anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism.

Anti-Zionism is a hateful ideology. It has no place at UC by Judea Pearl

Anti-Semitism targets Jews as individuals; anti-Zionism targets Jews as a people. Anti-Semitism would deny Jews equal standing as human beings; anti-Zionism would ban Israel from equal membership in the family of nations.

If we examine anti-Zionist ideology closely, we see that its aims are: to uproot one people, the Jewish people, from its homeland, to take away its ability to defend itself in sovereignty, and to delegitimize its historical identity. It is racist and fundamentally eliminationist.

Alison Weir: One way or another, its the Jews fault

Alison Weir's March 30 talk at the Walnut Creek Library was apparently fraught with difficulty. And hyperbole. But mostly hyperbole.

Instead of speaking to her usual cadre of true believers, she found her audience peppered with people who actually knew the truth.
It wasn't pretty for her.
Now, her and her minions can not  figure out who to blame.
Alison Weir, who sees StandWithUs in her tea leaves and in her cornflakes sent out a press release blaming the educational non-profit group, StandWithUs.
Can you say "Libel", Alison?

Are Alison Weir's difficulties  StandWithUs's fault or are they JVP's fault?

Does it even matter, as long as you can blame it on the Jews?

What we know, so far:

The so-called "threat" took the form of a group of local  high school students who gave out flyers and stood quietly with signs and flags.

Alison calls that a threat. The rest of us call it protected free speech.

Although their flyer references JVP, they appeared too thoughtful, nuanced and well informed to be associated in any way with that extremist group. 

Thomas Paine reminded us that it is "an affront to truth to treat falsehood with complaisance." Bravo to the young people to stood up and challenged Alison Weir.

Snapshots from Concentration Camp Gaza. The Al -Jayyar chocolatier

More snapshots from Concentration Camp Gaza.  The Al- Jayyar chocolatier.

Trigger warning:
The scenes of tragedy, suffering and deprivation can be overwhelming

This is the Gaza you'll never see in the mainstream media

From the looks of its Facebook page,  Al Jayyar for chocolate is becoming a popular destination in Gaza

If you are not deeply moved by these scenes of  heartbreaking suffering in Gaza can you in good consciousness call yourself a human being?

Tikvah: Students for Israel at UC Berkeley: The Tables Turned

The precious wildflowers of  UC Berkeley's Students for Justice in Palestine had originally planned a "die-in" for Israeli Apartheid Week, but postponed it because of the weather.

The pursuit of lofty goals such as justice are best left for sunshine and clear skies, after all. You might get dirty, otherwise.

On Thursday, March 31, a handful of  Berkeley SJP students, accompanied by a few community activists took to the streets of Berkeley to block traffic and shout vague platitudes at pedestrians and passing vehicles.

Students for Justice in Palestine is unsurprisingly at home in both the physical and the metaphorical gutter.

Tikvah, Students for Israel at UC Berkeley was ready for them.

SJP die-in , UC Berkeley

Kol hakovod, Tikvah. You make us proud.