UC Berkeley suspends anti-Israel class

Two Jews, three opinions? Not this time.

Earlier this month, 43 human rights and Jewish advocacy groups signed an open letter to UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks expressing concern regarding a decal class, “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis,” with an obvious political bias and a bigoted agenda.   The course was in clear violation of the UC Regents Policy on Course Content  which states “  Misuse of the classroom... allowing it to be used for political indoctrination...constitutes misuse of the University as an institution.”

The University of California, Berkeley suspended the class on Tuesday. Only 28 students had signed up for it.

It was reported that the facilitator,  Paul Hadweh, “did not comply with policies and procedures that govern the normal academic review and approval of proposed courses for the Decal program”, and for that reason, “approval for the course has been suspended pending completion of the mandated review and approval process. It should also be noted that the Executive Dean of the College of Letters and Science is very concerned about the offering of any course, even a student-run course, which espouses a single political viewpoint and/or appears to offer a forum for political organizing rather than an opportunity for the kind of open academic inquiry that Berkeley is known for.”

AMCHA, a watchdog group with a focus on campus Antisemitism coordinated the letter,  pointing out to the Chancellor that:

A review of the syllabus of  “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis” reveals that the course's objectives, reading materials and guest speakers are politically motivated, meet our government’s criteria for antisemitism, and are intended to indoctrinate students to hate the Jewish state and take action to eliminate it:

• Course Learning Objectives - These make it clear that a key goal of the class is to encourage students to accept unquestioningly the false and defamatory idea that Israel is an illegitimate settler colonial state.  Furthermore, by the end of the course students are required to have "researched, formulated, and presented decolonial alternatives to the current situation,” which, in the context of the other course objectives, means that a significant part of the course will be devoted to thinking about ways to “decolonize” -- that is, eliminate — Israel. 

• Course Readings - All of the course readings, without exception, have a blatantly anti-Israel bias, and most contain language that demonizes and delegitimizes Israel and is recognized as antisemitic by the U.S. government, democratic world leaders, scholars of antisemitism and the Jewish community. In addition, virtually all of the authors of the course readings have either publicly endorsed an academic boycott of Israel, called for the dismantling of Israel, or both.

• Guest Speakers - Both guest speakers listed in the syllabus — Keith Feldman and Hatem Bazian -- have publicly supported an academic boycott of Israel, and Bazian, who is also the course’s faculty sponsor, is himself a well-known leader of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement as well as campaigns to eliminate the Jewish state. 

Roz Rothstein, CEO of Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, praised the decision to suspend the class:

“We applaud the UC Berkeley administration for recognizing that this course was designed for political indoctrination, and not open academic inquiry,” she said. “Approving a class premised on the denial of Jewish history, identity, and rights in their homeland would have been a stain on the university's reputation as both an academic institution and a force for progress in the world.”

Read more about the suspension of  “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis” here:
UC-Berkeley halts class that critics say advocates the elimination of Israel

‘Antisemitic Anti-Zionist' Course at UC Berkeley Suspended Following Exposé, Outcry

U.C. Berkeley suspends student-led Palestine course after Jewish outcry

3-year Study Charges UCLA Department With ‘Antisemitic Activity and Anti-Israel Bias’

A consortium of American Jewish and civil rights groups including the Amcha Initiative have expressed concern that federal funds are underwriting “one-sided, antisemitic programming that masquerades as scholarship,” at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), according to statements released Wednesday.

 

According to AMCHA:

CNES Israel-related events had an overwhelmingly anti-Israel bias: Of the 28 Israel-related events, 93% were anti-Israel;

• Most CNES Israel-related events contained antisemitic content: Of the 28 events, 75% contained antisemitic content;
• CNES had disproportionate focus on Israel: Of all the public events pertaining to significant Middle East political conflicts, 61% focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict, significantly more than any other conflict. In addition, events were held about 14 Middle East countries. Of those countries, 27% of the events were about Israel, four times more than any other country except Iran;
• CNES favors speakers who engaged in antisemitic activity prior to speaking at CNES: Of the 31 speakers at the CNES Israel-related events, 84% have engaged in antisemitic activity, including the demonization and deligitimization of Israel, denying Jews the right to self-determination, comparing Israelis to Nazis and condoning terrorism;
• Each CNES director had engaged in anti-Israel and antisemitic activity: All three CNES directors from 2010-2013 publicly opposed the UC Israel Abroad Program, despite touting the public abroad program as part of the center’s fulfillment of the Title VI funding requirement. In addition, each of the directors endorsed boycotts of Israel, and one is the founder of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel.
• CNES supported by Saudi government: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests revealed CNES received a donation of $10,000 – $20,000 from the Saudi government-owned Arabian American Oil Company. The Saudi website also includes openly anti-Israel and antisemitic discourse.

From an article by David Bender in Algemeiner.
 

CNES, according to AMCHA, is a major federally-designated National Resource Center, and as such, gets most of its funding funding from the Department of Education under Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The group said the school received $1,383,680 during the period being investigated.

The groups issued a joint statement calling on the U.S. Congress to deny funds to Middle East Studies programs accused of having anti-American and anti-Israel bias, as well as to enact reforms on the funding process.

Congress is currently reconsidering the reauthorization of the HEA, which provides federal funds to 129 international studies and foreign language programs.

According to the 10 organizations that signed the statement- Accuracy in Academia, AMCHA Initiative, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, Endowment for Middle East Truth, The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Middle East Forum, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, Zionist Organization of America – the programs “have devolved into hotbeds of anti-American and anti-Israel activity, disseminating falsehoods both in universities and to K-12 teachers and to the general public.”

 

California taxpayers foot the bill for extremist junket

Via the San Francisco Examiner

California taxpayers, especially Jewish-Americans, were shocked to discover that San Francisco State University (SFSU), which recently increased its students' tuition, paid more than $7.000 for a trip to the Middle East for two of the university's professors to meet with convicted terrorists, according to a number of sources on Friday, including police counterterrorism expert, Jennifer Sackman. 

The details of the trip surfaced when Jewish-American organizations obtained funding documents using the state's California Public Records Act.

Investigative work by the AMCHA initiative shows that California taxpayers have footed the bill for San Francisco State Professor Rabab Abdulhadi’s junket to the West Bank, which she described as "political solidarity tour”. Abdulhadi, her husband and others proudly admitted meeting with convicted terrorists on the trip, subsidized by our tax dollars. Abdulhadi was originally scheduled to present a paper at a Jan. 11 - 14 Conference of the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University in Lebanon at the school's expense, but after receiving university funding to attend , Abdulhadi sent an email to the SFSU Risk Management Office advising that her "name was dropped from the Beirut conference."

San Francisco State University officials have responded saying  the school investigates "any allegations that a member of the University community misused state funds."

An open letter to California State University officials, and courtesy copied to California politicians signed by eight human rights organizations- the AMCHA Initiative, Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel , Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Outreach, StandWithUs, Zionist Organization of America summarizes their findings and urges action:

SFSU Professor of Ethnic Studies Rabab Abdulhadi went on a "political solidarity tour" to Jordan, "1948 areas of Palestine" [i.e. Israel] and the West Bank, a trip whose primary purpose was to build relationships between Palestinian and North American anti-Israel political activists in order to promote antisemitic academic, cultural and economic boycotts of Israel.  Abdulhadi arranged for the delegation she led, which included SFSU Ethnic Studies Professor Joanne Barker and Abdulhadi's husband Jaime Veve, to meet with at least one known terrorist, Leila Khaled, as well as with a Muslim cleric who had been imprisoned by Israel because of his ties to Hamas and who was again incarcerated by Israel a few weeks after meeting with Abudlhadi's delegation, on charges of incitement to violence.

On at least 4 official University documents signed by several SFSU and CSU administrators, including SFSU President Wong and CSU Chancellor White or someone from his office, Abdulhadi concealed the fact that the true purpose of her trip was political activism to promote efforts to harm the Jewish state, as well as the fact that she had planned to meet with individuals affiliated with organizations on the U.S. State Department's list of Designated Terrorist Organizations.  Presumably by concealing these crucial facts, Abdulhadi was able to receive from the SFSU Office of Human Resources, Safety & Risk Management approval to travel to "high risk" countries and insurance coverage paid for by the University (and California taxpayers), and she was able to receive from the University (and California taxpayers) more than $7,000 dollars for her transportation, lodging and food during the 21 days of her "political solidarity tour."

We believe that there has been an egregious abuse of university and taxpayer funds as well as potential violations of California state law prohibiting the use of state resources for personal or political purposes. 

 Read more here

The National Lawyers Guild, GUPS, and SFSU: Red Herring. Its whats for Lunch.

h/t Gary at Fousesquawk

Red Herring.  Its what's for Lunch.

Once again, the National Lawyers Guild proves that their commitment to advancing an ideology bypasses their commitment to constitutional law, justice or peace.

On Nov. 7, an event sponsored by the General Opinion of Palestinian Students at San Francisco State University featured signage stating "Our heroes have always killed colonizers", which was roundly condemned by university administrators, and advocacy groups.

In an open letter than never once mentions the controversial phrase, the National Lawyers Guild has come out with a statement declaring this as  "controversial political speech  rather than hate speech", and therefore safeguarded by protections under the first amendment. The statement, undersigned by NLGSF President R. Michael Flynn   and Rachel Lederman NLGSF President-Elect   neglects some appreciable aspects of first amendment law.  Speech that involves incitement, false statements of fact and threats is generally not protected by the first amendment.

But as importantly,  the NLG letter is a red herring.

A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. The basic idea is to "win" an argument by leading attention away from the argument and to another topic. This sort of "reasoning" has the following form:
Topic A is under discussion.
Topic B is introduced under the guise of being relevant to topic A (when topic B is actually not relevant to topic A).
Topic A is abandoned.
This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because merely changing the topic of discussion hardly counts as an argument against a claim.

At no point did San Francisco State University President Les Wong speak of anything that could be construed as limiting the "academic freedom" or the " right"  of the General Union of Palestinian students to make complete fools of themselves not only on their home campus, but in the marketplace of ideas. Rather, he stated:

* As president, I was deeply disturbed by incendiary language that marred an annual commemoration of a cultural mural on campus.
* I am dismayed by the glorification of violence that this message conveys.
* The university is a place where dialogue, debate and the marketplace of ideas are cherished.

However, incitement to violence is not protected speech. The litmus test remains: Was the language of the sign mean to intimidate?

Given the reputation of GUPS on campus, their past history and their current rhetoric, many believe it was.

From the Simon Weisenthal Center

Simon Wiesenthal Center officials today warned San Francisco State University of a potential threat to its Jewish students after the Amcha Initiative uncovered a picture on Tumblr allegedly posted by the President of the University-sanctioned General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) in which he is shown holding a knife with the caption saying, “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 Tumblr post has since been removed. See larger image of Tumblr page here).

Copies of the picture were forwarded to SFSU President Leslie Wong by Amcha and the Wiesenthal Center, and in a phone conversation earlier today with Wong’s office, Center officials warned that such avowedly violent statements, especially when linked with another recent GUPS campus event where participants used a stencil saying, “My heroes have always killed colonizers,” pose a potentially significant threat to the university’s Jewish students.

“It is outrageous and unacceptable that the leader of a University-funded group would invoke a message of death and violence,” said a Wiesenthal Center official.

Indeed it is.

From the Tumblr account of Mohammad Hammad, president of SFSU GUPS

To R. Michael Flynn  and Rachel Lederman of the National lawyers Guild, in San Francisco:   Is Mohammed Hammad, president of GUPS stated desire to stab an Israeli soldier protected free speech or is it a threat? Is this legitimate discourse, or is this incitement to violence?  Is this speech protected as academic freedom or does it represent a clear and present danger to others?

To R. Michael Flynn  and Rachel Lederman , a final question: If this form of racist rhetoric was directed towards any nationality but Israelis, would you still publicly advocate for it?

From Elder of Ziyon: SFSU's GUPS president explains that he wants to see all Israelis dead

This story isn't going away any time soon.

More details are emerging regarding the GUPS event at San Francisco State that featured placards inciting violence and glorifying murder. The Electronic Intifada has jumped into the act, attempting to pawn off responsibility for the offensive stencil ("My heroes have always killed Colonizers" ) on the San Francisco State University Student Kouncil of Intertribal Nations, (SKINS).

Swing and a miss.

They are late to the game. They’ve missed some rather striking information regarding the President of GUPS, revealed by blogger Elder of Ziyon.

It seems the President of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS)  at San Francisco State University , Mohammad Hammad  isn't quite the  "peace activist" he pretends to be.  On the Facebook page of his organization, he wrote:

We are appalled at this blatant attack against the integrity and principled position that GUPS has maintained throughout its history. We are horrified by the baseless attack and allegations of anti-Semitism that have been leveled against GUPS and the Cesar Chavez Student Center, the organizers of the 6th annual anniversary of the Palestinian Cultural Mural honoring the late professor Edward Said."

Principled?
Maybe not.
Baseless?
I don't think so.

From our friends at Elder of Ziyon:

SFSU's GUPS president explains that he wants to see all Israelis dead

Apparently,  Hammad has three Tumblr accounts, which have all recently become password protected: palestinianliberator, canttouchthisnuhnuhnuh, and astrangerdanger. Between the time that the disgusting signs were publicized and the time that the GUPS realized that they have a public relations problem, Hammad described to his friends on Tumblr exactly who the target of the signs are - and his opinion does not refer only to to Jews who lived in Israel in the 1940s:

 You know what?

 Israelis ARE colonizers, there is literally no way around it

And you know what else?

My heroes HAVE always killed colonizers

I literally see nothing wrong with this

and my only regret is that not all colonizers were killed 

Here is an essay Hammad wrote last April (again, from his recently taken down Tumblr account) where he explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel, with violence if necessary: 

I will no longer support the two-state solution, and will vie for the liberation of Palestine through the reclamation of the lands that are rightfully ours through any means necessary. If the Israelis want to live in peace with us, so be it, but this peace will NOT be on their terms. It may be Palestinian freedom fighters who pull the triggers, but whatever lives are lost in the battle for liberation rest squarely on the shoulders of Israel.

Until return, and until liberation, one-state for Palestinians through any means necessary.

The president of GUPS has made it crystal clear, in his own words, that he interprets the "MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS KILLED COLONIZERS" sign as a call to kill Israeli Jews (he is not calling to kill Israeli Arabs!)Let's see GUPS try to spin this. 

I predict they will go on a wild attack, because misdirection is the last refuge for people caught with their pants down.

Elder is likely right on this one.  In spite of widespread condemnation  across the board, the offending students have dug in their heels and refused to apologize. Instead, they are channeling their venom towards Tammi Benjamin, the courageous human right activist that helped expose them. Attacking the messenger- its the cowards way out.

AMCHA asks CSU General Counsel to Address Legality of Anti-Semitic Webpages on CSUN Server

From our friends at the AMCHA Initiative: Recently, a lawsuit was filed against California State University Monterey Bay, alleging that a professor at that university had illegally used public resources in sending an email to students encouraging them to vote “yes” on Proposition 30.  In commenting on the CSUMB professor's behavior, CSU General Counsel Christine Helwick stated: "We have previously reminded faculty and staff that it is not permissible to use state resources including classroom time for any political advocacy. This email [encouraging students to vote "Yes" on Prop 30] clearly crossed that line and the campus is taking appropriate personnel action." Generel Counsel Helwick's statement is based on a California statute which makes it illegal for any state employee to use public resources for political or personal reasons. In an effort to ensure that there is no double standard in CSU’s enforcement of California law, the AMCHA Initiative co-founders wrote to CSU General Counsel Helwick and asked her, in light of her recent statement, to rule on the legality of CSU Northridge Mathematics Professor David Klein’s use of the CSUN webserver to post his anti-Semitic webpage promoting the boycott of Israel.  You can see AMCHA's letter to General Counsel Helwick HERE.

AMCHA reveals to State Assembly members the anti-Jewish bigotry of California Scholars for Academic Freedom In late September, a group of faculty members who call themselves the California Scholars for Academic Freedom (CS4AF) wrote a letter to the California State Assembly opposing the Assembly’s unanimous passing of HR 35, a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in institutes of higher education.  This letter also openly praises boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) campaigns against Israel. CS4AF claims that their primary goal is to protect California scholars from violations of academic freedom. However, their true mission is to protect faculty that promote academic boycotts of Israel at their universities.  The founders of CS4AF are also co-founders and organizers of the anti-Semitic U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which they feature prominently on the CS4AF website.  Ironically, an academic boycott of Israel has been declared a violation of academic freedom by the American Association of University Professors. Additionally, many of CS4AF signatories have participated in creating a harassing and anti-Semitic environment for Jewish students by engaging in various activities such as supporting campus BDS movements, organizing anti-Israel events on campus, and trying to shut down University sponsored study abroad programs in Israel. AMCHA Initiative co-founders wrote to all the members of the California State Assembly to make them aware of the true intentions of CS4AF and to expose how many of the letter’s signatories have misused their university's name and resources to promote their political hatred of the Jewish state and engage in efforts to harm it.  You can see AMCHA's letter to state legislators here.

Cal State Northridge Prof. David Klein: Still at it

The story:

Cal State Northridge Mathematics Professor David Klein, a founding member of the Academic Boycott of Israel campaign has used his CSUN website as a springboard to spread anti-Israel propaganda of the most vicious kind. Does the principle of academic freedom protect faculty and administrators who use their university positions and state resources to promote a political agenda? Or does using a tax-payer supported website and email address grant university imprimatur and legitimacy to anti-semitism and racist incitement?

The Amcha Initiative has taken the lead on this issue, and is in regular correspondence with the Cal State regents.

The following is the timeline of the AMCHA Initiative’s Correspondence with CSUN President Jolene Koester

November 22nd, 2011
AMCHA co-founders sent a letter to President Joelene Koester, apprising her of Professor Klein’s anti-Semitic webpages and urging her to have them removed from the CSUN server:

AMCHA co-founders’ initial letter to President Koester, sent November 22nd, 2011

December 5th, 2011
President Koester sent AMCHA co-founders a response to our initial concerned email. While graciously acknowledging our concerns, she failed to address them, instead excusing the hateful content Professor Klein’s inappropriately promotes on a CSUN website.

President Koester’s response to AMCHA’s initial letter, sent December 5th, 2011

December 7th, 2011
Two days later, AMCHA co-founders sent President Koester a response. It thanked President Koester for her attention but criticized her for not not removing Professor Klein’s anti-Semitic webpages.

AMCHA co-founders’ response to President Koester, sent December 7th, 2011

December 8th, 2011
President Koester responds to AMCHA co-founder, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, in a dismissive email that simply says: “Too bad.”

President Koester’s dismissive email, sent December 8th, 2011

December 9th, 2011
After President Koester received numerous emails from AMCHA Initiative supporters regarding her message to Tammi containing the words “too bad,” President Koester sent out the “message of apology” linked to below.

President Koester’s “message of apology”, sent December 9th, 2011

December 12th, 2011
AMCHA co-founder Tammi Rossman-Benjamin responds to President Koester’s apology. In her response, Tammi reiterates CSUN’s obligation to remove defamatory and offensive content from its websites.

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin’s response to President Koester’s apology, sent December 12th, 2011


********
David Klein, exhibiting characteristic arrogance, is clearly still at it. The following is a copy of an email sent by David Klein from his CSUN email earlier this month, and forwarded to us. Klein is shamelessly using tax-payer resources to push his political agenda

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: David Klein
To: ************
Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 11:10 AM
Subject: Congressional candidate supports BDS

All,

If you have friends in the 30th congressional district (in the San Fernando Valley), please urge them to vote for Mike Powelson. He is running as the Green Party candidate against Brad Sherman and Howard Berman, two extreme zionists. Powelson supports BDS of Israel. Here is his website:

http://michaelpowelsonforcongress.org/

David Klein

************

Do you object to tax-payer resources being used to push a biased and hateful political agenda? Do you object to tax-payer resources being used used to push ANY political agenda? Send CSU President Reed a quick email creed@calstate.edu

Speech might be free, but we still pay for bandwidth. David Klein should transfer his hate-filled agenda to a non-university server.

Harassment of Jewish students on UC campuses demands your attention

An open letter to UC President Mark Yudof, authored by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith of the AMCHA Initiative

Dear President Yudof:

Last week, two shameful events occurred on University of California campuses that made Jewish students feel targeted, intimidated, harassed, and unsafe. We charge the UC administration with failing in their basic responsibilities: to protect Jewish students from a hostile environment and to ensure their rights to freedom of speech.

On February 27 at UC Davis, Jewish student groups sponsored the presentation of talks by two Israelis, one Jewish the other Druze. The speakers were repeatedly interrupted by hecklers, whose intent was clearly to disrupt the proceedings. Not only did a heckler hurl outrageous accusations against one of the speakers, calling him a "rapist" and "child molester," but the heckler brazenly stated: “I will stand here and heckle you until you leave…My only purpose is that this event is shut down.” The heckler also told audience members that he was paid $50 by "Muslim students" to disrupt the event.

Twenty-four hours before the Jewish students' event, members of the UCD Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) sent a communication to SJP supporters outlining a two-pronged strategy for shutting down the event: they would pack the room with pro-Palestinian students who would leave en masse in the middle of the event, and some students would remain to continuously heckle the Israeli speakers. Both parts of the strategy were carried out at the event, as you can see HERE, and the event ultimately had to be curtailed because of the disruption.

Besides illegally conspiring to disrupt a lawful meeting and thereby suppress the freedom of speech of the Jewish students and their speakers, members of the SJP and their supporters created a physically and emotionally hostile environment for the Jewish students. According to one eyewitness:
"As fear of physical altercations mounted, several "911" calls were made. The campus police appeared but refused to remove, reprimand or otherwise take any action against the disrupters. The police stated they were given "orders" not to take action against the disrupters, but instead, to close down the program if it got out of hand."

Shockingly, and in stark contrast to your repeated assertions that the University is committed to protecting the rights of free speech and ensuring the safety of all students, the campus police did nothing, and even refused to take the names of disrupters. In addition, at least two high-level UC Davis administrators were present at the event, and they, too, refused to respond to these egregious violations of University policy and state law, which left Jewish students feeling unsafe and violated.

A few days later, on February 29, SJP students at UC San Diego brought to the Associated Students Council for the third consecutive year a resolution asking the University of California to engage in a secondary boycott of Israel by divesting from American firms that do business with the Israeli Defense Forces. The resolution was defeated after seven hours, but the Jewish students and faculty who supported Israel were harassed and bullied by pro-Palestinian supporters and falsely accused of racism.

Several Jewish attendees felt targeted and threatened at the meeting: A UCSD faculty member reported that it was “emotionally difficult to bear the hatred and lies.” The president of the student group, Tritons for Israel, stated that “Jewish students feel targeted, and Jewish students don’t feel as safe or comfortable on campus.” Another Jewish student said, “ I am unsafe on this campus when there is talk of divestment…and by voting ‘yes’ you are making the campus very hostile for students who go here.” The Hillel Director stated: “Many of our students clearly suffered a traumatic blow from that experience. I witnessed the verbal assault on Jewish students and the tears that followed.” At the conclusion of the meeting, one Jewish student, concerned that other Jewish students might be physically assaulted on their way home, cautioned them to avoid walking alone. (In this video, Jewish students at UCSD describe the hostility they experienced as a result of the anti-Israel divestment campaign on their campus).

In light of your May, 2010 statement that the University of California would not divest from Israel, the SJP resolution was a wholly symbolic gesture intended to further the well-coordinated international campaign to economically strangle the Jewish state and bring about its destruction, a campaign which the US State Department has deemed anti-Semitic. Sadly, the resolution effort revealed the utter ineffectiveness of what you had previously touted to the Jewish community as one of your “assertive” moves to address anti-Jewish bigotry.

Please understand that the student groups behind these incidents are not like other University-funded student organizations. The SJP has as its primary mission the promotion of anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns and others efforts to harm the Jewish state. SJP chapters on UC campuses are closely allied with Al-Awda: the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, an organization which advocates the elimination of the Jewish state and has ties to terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah that call for the murder of Jews world-wide. Many students in the SJP are also members of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), an organization founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, a virulently anti-Semitic Egyptian-based organization dedicated to instituting Sharia law and a Muslim empire throughout the world, in part by means of violent jihad. According to an NYPD police spokesman, "some of the most dangerous Western Al Qaeda-linked/inspired terrorists since 9/11 were radicalized and/or recruited at universities in MSAs," and more than a dozen former MSA leaders and members have been convicted of terrorist activities and plots. In addition, some pro-Palestinian UC students have expressed support for the Iranian regime, whose supreme religious leader recently called for the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of all Jews. In fact, one student who participated in the disruption of the Jewish students' event at UC Davis can be seen holding an Iranian flag in the left-hand side of a video clip of the event.

These two incidents cannot be written off as political disputes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students. The culpability for the harassment and intimidation lies squarely with the students from pro-Palestinian organizations and their supporters, who have directed their unmitigated, anti-Semitic hatred of the Jewish state against Jewish students who openly identify with it.

The two incidents that took place last week are by no means isolated events. They are merely the most recent examples of the longstanding and pervasive pattern of emotional and physical harassment that has been directed specifically at Jewish students, primarily by members of Muslim and pro-Palestinian student organizations with virulently anti-Semitic agendas. To make matters worse, the SJP and MSA students and their anti-Israel campaigns have found considerable support from numerous other student organizations, as well as from UC faculty and administrators. (For example, an Israel Apartheid Week event presented by the UCSD-MSA in 2010, which was replete with speakers, exhibits and imagery that demonized and delegitimized Israel and her supporters, was endorsed by the SJP and 8 other student organizations, and sponsored by 18 academic departments and administrative units on that campus, including the Literature and Ethnic Studies Departments and the Office of Graduate Studies and Thurgood Marshall College).

We must state the obvious: Jewish students face a concerted campaign of hatred, harassment and intimidation that has been promulgated by fellow students, professors, and administrators. No other minority on campus has been subjected to such a campaign, nor would the University administration tolerate such bigoted behavior were it to be directed against any other minority. In this regard, we believe that the University of California has a clear and discriminatory double standard towards Jewish students, one which is anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent.

On several occasions we have called for transparent, well-articulated policies to guarantee the safety of Jewish students and to ensure them an environment that is neither hostile nor threatening, and on each occasion you have ignored our request. We still believe these are essential and urge you to implement such policies as soon as possible.

Now, however, we call on you and the UC Chancellors to issue a public statement that: 1) condemns the campaign of intimidation and harassment of Jewish students that violates their rights to freedom of expression; and 2) denounces the economic and academic boycott of Israel and acknowledges its hostile impact on Jewish students.

We also encourage other members and supporters of the California Jewish community -- many of them UC alumni, parents, and donors -- to add their voices to ours in urging you to issue such a statement.

The Jewish community will not remain silent while Jewish students continue to be harassed and intimidated on UC campuses, and University administrators turn a blind eye.


Sincerely,

Leila Beckwith
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
Leila@AMCHAinitiative.org


Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Lecturer, University of California at Santa Cruz
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
Tammi@AMCHAinitiative.org




Cc: University of California Chancellors
University of California Regents
UC Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture, and Inclusion (c/o Jesse Bernal)
California Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
California State Senator Lois Wolk (Davis)
California State Assembly Member Mariko Yamada (Davis)
California State Assembly Member Jim Nielsen (Davis)
California State Senator Christine Kehoe (San Diego)
California State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (San Diego)

Combating Anti-Semitism on campus. We Need your help

Your help is needed by The AMCHA Initiative (Tammi Benjamin's group working to combat anti-Semitism on college and university campuses in California). Please take a moment to sign this petition, and forward it to your friends:

"We need your help.

In response to our AMCHA Initiative petition to California State University Chancellor Charles Reed, urging him to remove Professor David Klein's a...nti-Semitic web pages from the CSU Northridge server, the U.S. Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) has initiated their OWN petition to Chancellor Reed, urging him to protect Klein's "academic freedom" to post web pages advocating the boycott of Israel and the termination of the CSU Israel Abroad program. USACBI has put out the following call to their supporters:
"The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel urges all supporters of Palestinian rights, the BDS movement, and academic freedom not only to sign this petition, but also to build upon David's work, by starting campaigns to educate about the reality of Study Abroad in Israel and holding events and activities on academic and cultural boycott on March 30, 2012 at their own colleges and universities."

The USACBI petition has collected over 900 signatures. Although we have collected about 1,700 signatures, we would like many more before submitting it to Chancellor Reed in the coming week.

We believe the battle over Klein's web pages is an enormously important one, with extremely serious implications. If Klein and USACBI prevail, faculty on all 23 CSU campuses will have the green light to freely use tax-payer funded university resources to promote their campaign to harm Israel and the Jewish people, and nothing can be done to stop them."
Please help us by circulating the following URL on your blog, email list, Facebook page, etc., and encouraging as many people as you can to sign and circulate the AMCHA Initiative petition:

Please sign: Letter to California State University Chancellor Reed regarding anti-Semitic website

Fresno Zionism visits David Kleins' CSU Northridge webpage

"Freedom of speech implies that a government-funded institution may not deny someone the right to speak except in some narrowly-circumscribed cases. But it does not imply that the institution must be required to provide a megaphone, in the form of a university supported web server, to practice slander and defamation."
Fresno Zionism


From FresnoZionism

"A Mathematics professor at California State University, Northridge, David Klein, maintains one of the ugliest hate-Israel pages I’ve seen in some time. For example:

Israel is the most racist state in the world at this time

Zionism calls for a Jewish state. Israel defines Jewishness, in part, in genetic terms. A person is legally Jewish if his or her mother is Jewish, regardless of place of birth or religious belief. Israel is an apartheid state that systematically discriminates against the indigenous population, enforcing, for example, Jewish-only buses and Jewish-only roads. The result of Israeli state policies has been a 60 year program of ethnic cleansing, including expulsion of the Palestinian population, military occupation, and mass murder.

Everything in the above paragraph is false except “Zionism calls for a Jewish state,” and even then his understanding of ‘Jewish state’ is wrong. There are links (which I didn’t reproduce) to other anti-Zionist sites like counterpunch.org, the “Campaign to end Israeli Apartheid,” “Electronic Intifada,” etc. which are supposed to support his statements.

This page and several others (including one defending former academic and “Holocaust Industry” author Norman Finkelstein) are linked to Klein’s main Mathematics Department page.

The AMCHA initiative complained to the University, calling Klein’s page antisemitic and demanding its removal. The University President, Jolene Koester, responded that a review showed that there were no violations of University web use policies and that “the conclusions are based on the important tenets of academic freedom and free speech, which are central to the values and traditions of academia and, indeed, a democratic society.”

They should be ashamed...."

Read the full post here