New AMCHA Initiative Report reveals alarming surge in Campus anti-Semitic incidents

The Amcha Initiative is releasing a new  report  tomorrow that reveals a large surge in campus anti-Semitism during the 1st six months of 2016.  It includes strong evidence linking student government divestment resolutions and anti-Jewish activity, a huge uptick in expression opposing Israel’s right to exist, and an alarming spike in shutdowns and suppression of speech compared with 2015. Specifically:

Incidents involving suppression of Jewish students’ rights, including the right to free speech and free assembly  have doubled;
·
Expression denying Israel’s right to exist tripled and is highly correlated with conduct targeting Jewish students for harm;
·
Divestment resolutions are fueling an increase in campus anti-Semitism; and
·
Schools with the largest increase in anti-Semitic activity from 2015 to 2016 are Columbia, Vassar, U of Chicago, NYU, U of MN, UMass, U of WI, U of FL and U of WA.


These trends are  frightening for Jewish students but also very illuminating to those  battling this threat.  Those who promote anti-Zionism on campus are becoming a great deal more brazen in their tactics and are exposing their true colors. Understanding this shift provides us valuable information on how to fight it.

For a copy of the full report click here

Divestment Hearings: Loyola and University of Michigan

If you ever needed any proof that BDS is a violently divisive, intimidating and disrespectful thing to thrust on a campus, you need look no further than on twitter and in the live feed of the divestment hearings at Loyola and at the University of Michigan.

There were insults: (Zizi is short for zio-nazi)

 There was classic antisemitism

 There was race-baiting and general misogyny

And there was no attempt to achieve consensus or mutual understanding

In the week prior to the hearing at U Michigan, pro-Israel students on campus were taunted with racial epithets, threatened and harassed.  Fearing for their safety, the student council chose to vote by secret ballot, and overwhelmingly defeated the resolution by a margin of 25-9.

The Loyola United Student Government Association voted March 18 to call on the university to divest from eight companies The vote on a measure proposed by the Loyola chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine passed 26-0 with two abstentions. SJP had 8 representatives on the council, and pro-Israel students were not given the opportunity to formulate a response.

From JNS:

Brett Cohen, a Loyola University alumnus and National Campus Program Director with StandWithUs, told JNS.org that the divestment resolution was introduced suddenly “using undemocratic tactics and no debate or opposition.”

“Students for Justice in Palestine introduced the bill without warning at the meeting, precisely to prevent debate. The BDS movement often relies on these unseemly political maneuvers to force through their agenda, which shows that they are afraid to debate this issue on its merits,” he said.

Cohen added, “The student government was hoodwinked by a movement which is openly against coexistence and a two state solution, and seeks the destruction of Israel.”

The resolution was reintroduced, and  last night, after hours of debate, narrowly passed by a vote of 12-10 with nine abstentions 
 
Today, Pedro Guerrero, the president of the United Student Government Association (USGA) at Chicago’s Loyola University, vetoed the  resolution, writing,

 " ...the undemocratic way in which the resolution was introduced, the harm the resolution caused to the Loyola University community, and the fact that divestment and socially responsible investment are two separate issues which the resolution conflated.

 “This legislation was framed in a manner that infers socially responsible divestment in a vacuum,”  “If we want to enact change, we must understand that our university will respond to a broad coalition of student concern, not an isolated one.”

Its been a good week for the forces of truth, justice and democracy.

Confronting campus Anti-Semitism in California

The Assembly Select Committee on Campus Climate was created in January to explore and evaluate "system-wide and campus-wide policies and practices for responding to student harassment and hate crimes and determine what needs to be done to improve campus climate for California students."

The committee, chaired by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber met today in San Jose State's Morris Daily Auditorium.

The Amcha Initiative  was there to urge the Committee to take the proper steps to ensure Jewish students feel safe and welcome at California’s colleges and universities.

Written by Lori Lowenthal Marcus, originally published in the Jewish Press

“Unfortunately, antisemitism at U.S. colleges, and, especially, in California, is growing at an alarming rate,” stated Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a UC professor and AMCHA Initiative cofounder.
“It is a concern we hear about daily from members of California’s Jewish community, including university alumni, rabbis, professors, religious school principals and, of course, students, parents and grandparents.”  

“Students have reported to us that they feel uncomfortable speaking freely about their support for Israel and have felt unsafe at times in their classrooms and on campus because they are Jewish,” explained Leila Beckwith, a UC professor and AMCHA Initiative cofounder.

“In addition, we believe that a number of professors and departments are inappropriately using taxpayer dollars to promote their personal anti-Israel and antisemitic agendas, contributing to, and sometimes, inciting a hostile and potentially dangerous environment for Jewish students.”

The Amcha Initiative has documented these incidences involving the targeting of Jewish and Israeli students at California schools. Many incidents remain unreported.

• UC Davis, February 2012:  Students interrupted and heckled speakers at a pro-Israel event, causing it to be shutdown.

• UC Davis, November 2012: Forty protesters blocked Jewish students from entering a university administrative building and bullied and harassed Jewish students who slipped through the blockade.

• San Francisco State University, November 2013: General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS), hosted an event where participants could use stencils that said, “My Heroes Have Always Killed Colonizers,” Also available were stencils of convicted hijacker Leila Khaled holding a gun. Leila Khaled is a member of the State-Department designated terrorist group, the PFLP, which is responsible for 159 violent terrorist acts.

• San Francisco State University, 2013-2014: The President of GUPS repeatedly threatened SFSU Jewish students, Israelis, and anyone who supports Israel. He also glorified the PFLP. For example, this student was shown wielding a knife on social media with the caption, “I love this blade…it makes me want to stab an Israeli soldier” and “the only peace I’m interested in is the head of this [expletive] scum on a plate, as well as the heads of all others like her, and all others who support the IDF.” He also stated that he hopes members of the SFSU student group Hillel “trip down the stairs and break their necks.”

• UC Davis, UCLA and UC Riverside, January 2014: Three University of California campuses hosted known anti-Semitic speaker Omar Barghouti. At the events, Barghouti spewed classic anti-Semitic rhetoric and lies.

• San Francisco State University, March 2014: Professors hosted an official department event to inform students about a recent Middle East trip where they met with multiple individuals affiliated with US State Department-designated terrorist organizations responsible for the murder of numerous Jews worldwide.