The moral inversion of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC)

 Shattered glass. Blood. Carcasses of bombed out buses. Broken bodies. Broken families and broken lives.  This is the legacy of the Intifada.

Since the start of the second Intifada, through 2013 1,227 people have been killed by Palestinian terrorism . 8,549 more have been wounded.  Each of these people has a name. And a story. And a family that loved them.

To "Support the Intifada" is to support the deaths of innocents.

The San Francisco based  Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) proudly supports the Intifada and the deaths of innocents.

From an AROC event-  Stickers: "Support the Intifada"

AROC, incidentally was one of the sponsors of a now notorious event at San Francisco State University where attendees were encouraged to make placards declaring  "My heroes have always killed colonizers"

Lara Kiswani is the current  Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. At a BDS panel at UC Berkeley several months ago, Lara was quoted as saying, "Bringing down Israel really will benefit everyone in the world, and everyone in society." To a supporter of Israel who issued a tearful plea for co-existence, she snarled  "As long as you continue to be on that side, I'm going to continue to hate you." 

Lara's hateful rhetoric surprises no one. Hate speech, glorification of terror and genocide are commonplace at AROC sponsored events and rallies.

AROC  and its allied organizations now have the Jewish Community Relations Council in their crosshairs accusing the group of "attacking " Arab, Palestinian and Muslim organizations, and calling the JCRC a 'narrow-minded, special interest group".

A brief glance at the JCRC website shows, in complete contrast to the extremist and hateful rhetoric of the AROC, a community organization deeply committed to justice for all.

JCRC Stands With Community Under Siege

June 18th, 2015

JCRC today mourns the victims of last night’s horrific shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina. We share our condolences with their families and stand in solidarity with the African American community and AME churches across the nati

JCRC Expresses Deep Concern About Racism in Law Enforcement

May 18th, 2015

JCRC is greatly dismayed by the recent tragedies and the continued racial divide within our society. We stand with the African American community, as we have for generations, in calling for an end to racial prejudice and discrimination.on.

Speaking Out in Support of the Yezidis

April 15th, 2015

Tragically, the Yezidi community now lives under precarious threat from ISIS. The Yezidis are a little known community, and it is all too easy to forget, to turn the page, to move on. But today we pause, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, to reaffirm the importance of memory and of action.

The moral inversion of AROC and their arrogant assault on a Jewish community institution proves what we've long suspected. Their vision of "Justice'  is "Just us", and they are not a partner in building a more inclusive Bay Area.

SFSU Hillel Weighs in

San Francisco State University Hillel has been quiet throughout this controversy.   Nearly a month to the date of the incident at Malcolm X plaza, they have released a public statement, calling for community members to sign a petition in support of Jewish students at the school.

From San Francisco State Hillel:

We are deeply troubled by the recent events that have taken place at San Francisco State University, in which individual students have openly glorified violence, including in this latest incident directed against Israeli soldiers. These expressions of violence are unacceptable and have no place in an academic environment. This has already led to an increased sense of fear and intimidation among some students, even while we continue to engage in dynamic and visible Jewish programming on campus. SF State has, in recent years truly become a welcoming environment for Jewish students and we are committed to maintaining that openness.

We appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes by President Leslie Wong's office, the Dean of Students, local law enforcement and security personnel, campus group leaders, and students to ensure that SFSU continues to be a safe place for all students, irrespective of religion, nationality, ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexual orientation or political affiliation, and demand that the work not stop until all students feel safe on campus.

Please sign their petition here 

To San Francisco State Hillel:

The community appreciates that you have been working behind the scenes.  Nonetheless, as the primary representative of the Jewish community at SFSU, you ought to have been the conduit for information, for planning, and for coordinating a community-wide response.   There has been only silence for nearly a month.

Indeed, "individual students have openly glorified violence", but when these "individual students" are the presidents of student organizations at a tax-payer financed institution, it is an indication of a much deeper problem.

Parents with children at SFSU, and the overall Jewish community look to Hillel for proactive leadership in university matters such as these.  Please make an effort to communicate more effectively with your constituency.  Thank you for your continued efforts, and remember than we are all partners in insuring a safe and successful experience for our students.

Incitement at San Francisco State: The Saga continues

What do you do when you are caught being a jerk?

After photos surfaced of San Francisco State University students carrying placards "My heroes have always killed colonizers" , a reasonable person might have expected an embarrassed "My bad", and an apology.

That didn't happen.

Instead, the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) at San Francisco State University  dug in their heels, refused to budge an inch and  instead have endlessly repeated a mantra extolling their eternal victim hood.

Instead of an apology we have a petition. The hubris and moral bankruptcy of GUPS is staggeringly arrogant and frighteningly perverse. Yes, they are calling incitement to violence and murder  a "principled position".   They defacto threaten the entire student body in the name of justice(aren't we all "colonizers" on native lands?), and yet they fear for their own safety. And they claim that "academic freedom" protects their right to glorify murder.

 Their petition follows:

Dear President Wong,

We are writing in response to the email sent to you and others by Tammi Benjamin, AMCHA initiative. We are appalled at this blatant attack against the integrity and principled position that GUPS AMED has maintained throughout their history. We are horrified by the baseless attack and allegations of anti-Semitism that have been leveled against GUPS, AMED, and the Cesar Chavez Student Center, the organizers of the 6th annual anniversary of the Palestinian Cultural Mural honoring the late Professor Edward Said.

We are proud to continue the rich legacy of justice-centered student activism at SFSU. GUPS has historically stood for justice in/for Palestine and has linked our struggle with that of all people’s struggles for self-determination, justice and peace.

We are concerned over our own safety and the safety of our friends, allies, and all those standing in solidarity with our movement, especially when their photos and names have been posted online as if to make them a moving target for violence.

This belligerent smear campaign meant to slander the Palestinian movement on campus has directly created a hostile environment that makes it impossible for us to express our views and exercise our academic freedom.

We call upon you, President Wong, to:

    Condemn this smear campaign
    Uphold our academic freedom as a core value of SFSU
    Ensure our safety and the safety of all

List of Endorsers and Signatories:

Student Kouncil of InterTribal Nations (SKINS)

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan (MEChA de San Pancho)



As of today, only 2 SFSU organizations have endorsed this petition, and only a handful of people have signed on. 

Urge San Francisco State University President Wong to denounce hate speech on campus

It certainly wasn't your kid sister's arts and craft project. Last month, the San Francisco State General Union of Palestinian students along with several community organizations sponsored an event on campus, creating signs that incited hate, violence and murder.
The AMCHA Initiative has picked up the story and has written to SFSU President Wong, asking him to denounce the hateful speech. (h/t  Gary )

Their email follows:

SFSU Student Group Activity Glorifying Murder of Jews
Sponsored by College of Ethnic Studies Initiative

Action Alert: Urge SFSU President to Publicly State Whether Antisemitic Behavior is Acceptable

For many years, the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS), a registered and funded student group at San Francisco State University, has held on-campus events and activities with antisemitic content.  Often the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative (AMED) in the College of Ethnic Studies co-sponsors GUPS events, such as last March's "Israel Apartheid Week", giving academic legitimacy to campaigns to boycott Israel and calls for the elimination of the Jewish state.

Recently, AMED co-sponsored a GUPS event that included an activity glorifying the murder of Jews.

At the event honoring Edward Said, who rose to prominence popularizing the idea that Zionists are colonizers and Israel is an illegitimate state, the GUPS students set up tables with stencils for making posters with images of known terrorists as well as with the words "MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS KILLED COLONIZERS," which students displayed in the campus square. 
AMCHA sent a letter to SFSU President Leslie Wong regarding this antisemitic activity and urged him to answer the following questions:

1) Is it acceptable behavior for GUPS, a University sanctioned and funded student organization, to run an antisemitic on-campus activity that encourages students to glorify the murder of Jews?

2) Is it acceptable behavior for AMED, an official academic unit, to sponsor an event that includes an antisemitic on-campus activity that encourages students to glorify the murder of Jews?

You can see AMCHA's letter to SFSU President Wong HERE.

Please consider writing your own letter to President Wong, reiterating the questions AMCHA has posed and urging him to answer them immediately. If you are an SFSU or CSU student, relative, alumnus, faculty, staff or donor, you may want to note your affiliation with the CSU system in your letter.

President Wong can be reached here

San Francisco State University: Dangerous Incitement to Violence

Not that long ago, San Francisco State had a well deserved reputation for being a scary place for pro-Israel and Jewish students. This is the school that displayed flyers featuring a Palestinian baby on a soup can label, captioned  "Palestinian Children Meat, slaughtered according to Jewish rites under American license".  This is the school where Jewish students were physically assaulted, spat on and screamed at  "Too bad Hitler didn't finish the job," "Get out or we will kill you," "F**k the Jews," "Die racist pigs." at a vigil commemorating the Holocaust.

It was never about free speech or academic freedom. It was pure racism, unbridled Jew-hatred, and had it been directed towards any other minority on campus, it would not have been tolerated.

Anti-Semitic imagery from San Francisco State University, 2002

From "Peace with Realism":

Laurie Zoloth, Professor of Ethics and Director of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State, reports that such posters, as well as posters proclaiming "Jews=Nazis," have become common. She also states: "I cannot fully express what it feels like to have to walk across campus daily, past posters of cans of soup with labels on them of drops of blood and dead babies, labeled 'canned Palestinian children meat, slaughtered according to Jewish rites.'" 

In an open letter Zoloth described what happened at a "Peace in the Middle East" rally sponsored by SFSU Hillel on May 7, 2002 when a group of students, numbering around 50, remained to chant afternoon prayers. The following account has been confirmed by other witnesses:

Counter demonstrators poured into the plaza, screaming at the Jews to "Get out or we will kill you" and "Hitler did not finish the job." I turned to the police and to every administrator I could find and asked them to remove the counter demonstrators from the plaza, to maintain the separation of 100 feet that we had been promised. The police told me that they had been told not to arrest anyone, and that if they did, "it would start a riot." I told them that it already was a riot.

Finally, Fred Astren, the Northern California Hillel Director and I went up directly to speak with Dean Saffold, who was watching from her post a flight above us. She told us she would call in the SF police. But the police could do nothing more than surround the Jewish students and community members who were now trapped in a corner of the plaza, grouped under the flags of Israel, while an angry, out of control mob, literally chanting for our deaths, surrounded us. Dr. Astren and I went to stand with our students. This was neither free speech nor discourse, but raw, physical assault....

There was no safe way out of the Plaza. We had to be marched back to the Hillel House under armed S.F. police guard, and we had to have a police guard remain outside Hillel.

 
Apparently some are longing for a return to those days of infamy.

Last Thursday, a rally was held at San Francisco State to celebrate the 6th year anniversary of the Edward Said mural at the school  The 6th Annual Palestinian Mural Celebration  was entitled "We Speak for Ourselves; Honoring our Forebearers"      The event  was co-sponsored by the local Arab Resource Organizing center, and the Middle East Children's Alliance, as well as AMED , the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas program at SFSU.

The program began in Malcolm X Plaza. There were tables adorned with kaffiyahs, and bumper stickers that read "End Israeli Apartheid" and "End US funding of Israel."  There were also tables for art projects. There were cans of spray paint and stencils glorifying convicted PFLP airline hijacker Leila Khaled, and there were stencils inciting extremism and murder. 

At San Francisco State, a young man proudly shows off his art project "My heroes have always killed Colonizers"

Again San Francisco State crosses the line.  "My heroes have always killed colonizers" is an outrageous incitement to violence, doing nothing to promote intellectual discourse on campus.  Please contact the Office of the President Leslie Wong  to express your concern over these threats to campus climate, and your concern for the safety of students on campus