Anti-Semitism at UC Berkeley

Flyers blaming the Jewish people for sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Nominee  Brett Kavanaugh  were found  at UC Berkeley today.

From the Facebook page of Tikvah, Students for Israel:

Anti-Semitic flyers found on UC Berkeley campus near Eshleman Hall:

UC Berkeley’s tolerance of anti-Semitism preached from authoritative figures and lecturers like Hatem Bazian  shows Neo-Nazis that our campus allows for racism and enables them to publicly promote their Jewish conspiracies without challenge.

To be clear Nazi imagery on UC Berkeley’s campus is nothing new and has been an issue that Jewish students have been raising to the school administration since 2015. Despite repeated calls for action, the school has neglected to take serious measures to address this issue. Chancellor Christ, you have a serious problem…NOW is the time to take a stand. 

These repulsive anti-Semitic flyers have been appearing across the country, most recently at UC Davis

Tikvah, the Zionist Group at UC Berkeley Fundraising for Victims of Syrian War.

According to the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria, as of this week:

• The total number of victims documented by the Action Group is 3665, including 465 women
• 1672 Palestinians are locked up behind Syrian government’s bars, 106 of which are women
• Yarmouk refugee camp is under the Syrian regime army and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s siege for 1,691 days in a row
• 205 refugees, mainly in Yarmouk Camp, have died due to lack of medical care and malnutrition
• Water supplies have been cut off Deraa Camp for 1427 days, and 167 days in Yarmouk Camp
• The Regime army has been in control of Handarat camp for more than 522 days. More than 80% of its buildings have been completely or partially destroyed.
• Approximately 85 thousand Palestinian-Syrian refugees fled to Europe by the end of 2016
• 31 thousand refugees are located in Lebanon
• 17 thousand refugees are sheltered in Jordan
• 6 thousand refugees are in Egypt
• 8 thousand refugees are staying in Turkey
• One thousand refugees are present in Gaza

Yet the "human rights groups" that claim to care about the Palestinian people are strangely and uncharateristically silent when they can't hold Israel responsible for their suffering.

Real, tangible help instead comes from the last place you'd expect it- from Israel, a nation officially in a state of war with Syria.  

For over four years, the Israeli Defence Forces has been helping injured Syrians who cross Israel’s northern border, and has been supplying Syrian civilians with food, fuel and household necessities.

From The IDF Operation Good Neighbor website: 

The IDF primarily provides 3 types of assistance as part of Operation Good Neighbor:

1. Medical –  Over 4,000 people have been brought to Israel to receive treatment, including hundreds of children. The IDF also transfers medicine, supplies, and equipment to Syrians across the border. An internationally managed field hospital has also been established at an Israeli outpost near the border.

2. Infrastructure – 450,000 liters of fuel have been transferred for heating, operating water wells, and ovens in bakeries. The IDF also transferred seven generators, water pipes to rebuild Syrian infrastructure, and equipment for a temporary school in the region.

3. Civilian aid – The IDF transferred 40 tons of flour to bakeries, 225 tons of food, 12,000 packages of baby formula, 1,800 packages of diapers, 12 tons of shoes, and 55 tons of cold weather clothing.

UC Berkeley's Tikvah Students for Israel is doing their part as well. On Monday, the Zionist  group will be fundraising  to help support Operation Good Neighbor.  Stop by and help them out.  Their table will be at Sproul Plaza from 11-2.

UPDATE:  Rain Date will be Friday, March 16.  See you there!

UC Berkeley's Hatem Bazian anti-semitic tweets

Hatem Bazian, a man who infamously called for an intifada in America has been using his twitter account to spread repulsive anti-Semitism

On July 31, 2017, Bazian,  a lecturer in Berkeley's Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies department. retweeted an anti-Semitic tweet accusing a “Zionist” of “apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, genocide” and theft of “Palestinian land+resources+body-organs

One tweet  features a cartoon of a Jewish man, captioned: “I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs & steal the land of Palestinians.”

The other shows Kim Jong-Un, of North Korea,  wearing a kippah, saying he has just converted his nation to Judaism: “Donald Tlump: Now my nukes are legal & I can annex South Korea & you need to start paying me 34 billion a year in welfare.”

Hatem's anti-Semitism was exposed by Tikvah, the Zionist Voice at UC Berkeley.

On their webpage, Tikvah wrote:

Tikvah, the Zionist Voice at UC Berkeley, condemns every form of Anti-Semitism and expects that people be held accountable for their actions. Professor Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies Department, has shown his true colors after retweeting a truly revolting, Anti-Semitic tweet shown below. It is unacceptable for a lecturer at a highly acclaimed and diverse university to be allowed to spew propaganda and discriminatory content, whether it is in the classroom or online. We are calling on the UC Berkeley to condemn Professor Bazian’s actions and hold him accountable for his Anti-Semitic behavior. We also expect a public apology and a pledge to attend sensitivity training by Professor Bazian.

News of Bazian's antisemitic tweet spread widely through the Jewish papers

UC Berkeley lecturer apologizes for anti-Semitic tweet

UC Professor Tweets Anti-Semitic Propaganda

Pro-BDS UC-Berkeley Professor Slammed for Antisemitic Tweet Accusing Jews of ‘Organ Theft’

After word of the blatant anti-Semitism spread, Hatem Bazian issued a tepid apology, admitting the cartoon was "wrong and offensive".

Coming from Bazian, a man with a long history of divisive, offensive rhetoric, the words were meaningless.

Tikvah Rally for Israel

From our friends at Tikvah, Students for Israel at UC Berkeley

Thursday, November 2, 2017, marks 100 years since the Balfour Declaration was penned. On this day, we will defend the right of the state of Israel to exist, and the right of Jews to live in their national and historic homeland. We will counter the lies spread about Zionism and Israel, and will share the truth with our campus community. 

Please join us to show your support for Jewish existence in the Land of Israel, and to stand up against the bigotry and lies that are propagated about the Jewish homeland. We will have posters, shirts, and flags for you!

Join Tikvah and other pro-Israel students on campus in solidarity, as they stand up for Israel's right to exist with safe and secure borders.

Sproul Plaza. Thursday November 2.  11-1.

SJP "Students for Just Us In Palestine" will be there, too.

UPDATE
Photos from the rally.

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.

Berkeley's Tikvah: Students for Israel responds to hate on campus

From Tikvah: Students for Israel. at UC Berkeley. A poignant reminder of  why checkpoints and security precautions are still needed in Israel

Notorious Anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan at UC Berkeley this weekend

From the ADL
Louis Farrakhan In His Own Words

On Jews:
“Do you know Jewish people were not the origin of Hollywood, but they took it over?”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12

“In 100 years, they control movies, television, recording, publishing, commerce, radio, they own it all. Magazines. Why do you want all, everything?”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12

“Did you know that the Koran says that Jews are the most violent of people. I didn’t write it, but I’m living to see it.”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12

On Gays:

"And the Christian right, with your blindness to that wicked state of Israel…can that be the holy land, and you have gay parades, and want to permit to have a gay parade in Jerusalem when no prophet ever sanctioned that behavior. HOW CAN THAT BE THE ISRAEL, how can that be Jerusalem with secular people running the holy land when it should be the holy people running the holy land. That land is gonna be cleansed with BLOOD!"
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/06


“I call them the so-called Jews because to be a Jew you have to adhere to the statutes and laws that create the special relationship. How can you be a Jew and promote homosexual marriage?”
National Black Agenda Convention, Boston, 3/18/04

"But all of a sudden in the night clubs, they started having transvestite shows, drag queens… Scripture say no liar, no adulterer, no effeminate will get in the Kingdom."
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/23/03

From our friends at UC Berkeley's Tikvah

"This Saturday, (March 10 9:00 - 11:40am Wheeler Auditorium)
Louis Farrakhan will deliver the keynote address of the Afrikan Black Coalition Conference at UC Berkeley. Throughout his career, Farrakhan's hateful rhetoric has targeted Jews, the LGBT community, and Israel. From referring to the Jewish people as "the Synagogue of Satan" or "bloodsuckers" to asserting that "the real anti-Semites are those who came out of Europe and settled in Palestine, and now they call themselves the true Jews," Farrakhan consistently espouses antisemitic conspiracy theories while negating the Jewish people's right to their religion and their land.

Organized by the UC Berkeley Black Student Union, an ASUC sponsored group, Farrakhan’s visit directly attacks Jewish students on this campus. Farrakhan’s hatred cannot be tolerated. It is unfathomable that the BSU has no issue in inviting such an abjectly offensive speaker to campus.

As recently as last week, Farrakhan delivered a speech described by the Anti-Defamation League as “a textbook example” of contemporary antisemitism. According to Abe Foxman, the director of the ADL: “In the past few years Farrakhan has turned his message and the mission of the Nation of Islam into a wide-ranging campaign to demonize and scapegoat Jews.” Just days after declaring, “The government of America is owned lock stock and barrel by those Zionists that love Israel above the United States of America,” Farrakhan will speak on our campus.

But Farrakhan’s bigotry is nothing new, nor reserved solely for Jews. His prejudiced outbursts include such statements as “murder and lying comes easy for white people” and “the Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man.” Whether accusing Jews of controlling American politics, demonizing Jewish people, or proclaiming his friendship for Moammar Gadhafi, Farrakhan’s ideology serves only to promote hate.

Please take the time to let the BSU and campus leaders know that this event is unacceptable; relevant email addresses are listed below. More information about our response to this event will be forthcoming."

Salih Muhammed, Chair of the Black Student Union salih_muhammad@yahoo.com

Jonathan Poullard, Dean of Students poullard@berkeley.edu

Vishalli Loomba, ASUC President president@asuc.org

Conference organizers are on Twitter with the hashtag #ABCatCal. Give them a tweet, and let them know how you feel about Louis Farrakhan, please.

Celebrating Israel Peace and Diversity Week with Tikvah

UC Berkeley's Tikvah students for Israel celebrated Israel Peace and Diversity Week March 7-11 2011 with a joyous celebration of Israel's democracy, diversity and innovation. Students, staff, faculty and community members joined together for an exciting week of programing, highlighted by Israeli music and folk dancing in Sproul Plaza.