RUSS REPORT-The latest firestorm surrounding alleged anti Semitic activity on California State University (CSU) campuses erupted last month at a November 7 event sponsored by the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative (AMED) in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU). The event was the 6th annual anniversary of the Palestinian Cultural Mural honoring the late Professor Edward Said.
Students were encouraged to create placards and signs using stencils bearing the image of Leila Khaled and other stencils that said, "MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS KILLED COLONIZERS." Colonizers are most often referred to Jewish people yet AMED denies that claim saying the statement is “inclusive of the plight of Indigenous people and their historical resistance everywhere.”
CSU has sponsored speakers on several campuses over a decade who have referred to Israel as a "colonial settler state,” – most notably, speakers Snehal Sengavi and Ilan Pappe who frequently speak on CSU campuses.
Khalid, they say, is a “popular icon used to symbolize Palestinian women’s roles in anti-colonial resistance and to counter Orientalist and racist portrayals of Arab (and Muslim) women as docile, oppressed and unable to speak for themselves.”
But Khaled captured public attention in the 1969 hijacking of TWA Flight 840 bound from Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Rome to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. She is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization noted by the USA, Canada, Israel and the European Union.
SFSU President Les Wong denounced this behavior. In his “Statement on Campus Discourse” Wong said, “I am dismayed by the glorification of violence that this message conveys. There is no place at SF State for celebrating violence or promoting intolerance, bigotry, anti-Semitism or any other form of hate-mongering. We are a university community committed to furthering civil dialogue.”
The Jewish Journal reported that “Rabab Ibraham Abdulhadi, a SFSU professor and a senior scholar at the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative (AMED)—which co-sponsored the Nov. 7 event with GUPS—disagreed with Wong’s condemnation of the stencil and said he believes such messages qualify as protected free speech, not hate speech. ‘It is not directed against Jewish people and thus does not qualify as anti-Semitism, a form of hate speech. Criticizing Israel for its continued occupation of Palestinian lands and denial of Palestinian rights is legitimate and should be defended as part of free speech.” (December 13, 2013).
Abdulhadi, nor anyone from AMED or GUPS, responded to requests for interviews.
Shortly after this event, a widely circulated post on Tumblr, a social website, showed a picture of General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) President Mohammad G. Hammad that he captioned with, “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.”
Now, in December, yet another post from Hammad names a “target” encouraging his followers to harass a female IDF (Israel Defense Force) soldier. He posted, “I’m sitting here looking through pictures of that f**king scum [Name removed to protect the named person]. Anyone who thinks there can be peace with animals like this is absolutely delusional, and the only “peace” I’m interested in is the head of this f**king scum on a plate, as well as the heads of all others like her, and all others who support the IDF. The Liberation of Palestine can only come through the destruction and decimation of this Israeli plague and it can’t possibly come soon enough."
In a second post, Hammad added, “I’m really hoping that some of you left this piece of scum some kind messages."
But this alleged behavior has not been investigated nor have the use of taxpayer funds to host such an event been questioned. GUPS members have been reproved on other occasions for physically and verbally harassing Jewish students.
The Simon Weisenthal Center (SWC), one of the largest international Jewish rights organizations warned SFSU of threats made by Hammad calling them “outrageous and unacceptable.”
“This is a direct threat that in our view definitely crosses the line,” said SWC officials. “We therefore demand the expulsion of the student and a full investigation into GUPS including a public release of all findings. It cannot be that it is ‘open season’ for attacking Israelis, Jews, and supporters of Israel.”
While the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects statements expressing hatred of an ethnic, racial or religious nature including the mention of individuals and the distress those statements can cause, it does not protect obscenities, defamation, breach of peace, incitement of crimes or sedition.
California Education Code Section 67380.5(c) specifically defines “hate violence" and the California Code of Regulations; Title 5, Article 2 outlines grounds upon which students can be disciplined. But if the law is not enforced, it does nothing to protect students from a dangerous climate on campus.
This instance is just one of several events targeting students across CSU campuses over the past decade. Several California State Universities support the demonization of Israel, encourage anti Semitic rhetoric and engage students who incite others to bully, intimidate and threaten certain students who attend these universities. CSU officials do little or nothing to protect students from potential harm because they are afraid of the backlash such protection might provoke.
A report released in July 2012 for the President’s Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture, and Inclusion by UC President Mark Yudof cited, “Jewish students are confronting significant and difficult climate issues as a result of activities on campus which focus specifically on Israel, its right to exist and its treatment of Palestinians.
“The anti-Zionism and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements and other manifestations of anti-Israel sentiment and activity create significant issues through themes and language which portray Israel and, many times, Jews in ways which project hostility, engender a feeling of isolation, and undermine Jewish students’ sense of belonging and engagement with outside communities.”
Several organizations, including seventeen Arab, Muslim and Palestinian rights activist organizations at the University of California claimed that the adoption of unlawful policies would limit free speech on campuses because of political pressure. The report was tabled until another sound and even-handed report could be conducted. To date no ‘sound and even handed’ report has been written.
In March 2011, Jessica Felber alleged in a lawsuit brought against Yudoff/University of Berkeley et al, that she was physically assaulted by Husam Zakharia, a leader of Students For Justice in Palestine (SJP), who rammed a shopping cart into her, causing physical injury for which she needed medical attention. Zakharia had been involved in other incidences to incite violence and intimidate students, particularly Jewish students. Judge Richard Seeborg, dismissed her case noting that he saw no deprivation of Felber’s “freedom to assemble” at all.
Ran Bar-Yoshafat and Ranya Fadel, two young Israelis on a speaking tour sponsored by the pro-Israel organization StandWithUs, faced severe heckling during a February 2012 appearance at U.C. Davis. The heckling spawned a near riot where police had to be called in. Yudof condemned this behavior and strongly reprimanded the hecklers. “I condemn the actions of those who would disrupt this event,” Yudof wrote. “Attempting to shout down speakers is not protected speech. It is an action meant to deny others their right to free speech.” But such disruptions are only condemned and rarely sanctioned.
We now live in a society where bullying, threats, harassment and intimidation have become the “norm.” Under the guise of “free speech,” students continue this bad behavior, often with the blessings of their professors.
Simply put, hate-driven physical and verbal attacks on any group or individual that is meant to silence or intimidate those who would express differing opinions are not acceptable on any campus.
At every cost, the freedom to speak and to sponsor events to promote these freedoms should be enshrined, but when those rights foster contempt that leads to the potential harm of others, such behaviors should be swiftly punished sending messages throughout the faculty and student communities that such behavior will not be tolerated.
(Katharine Russ is an investigative reporter. She is a regular contributor to CityWatch and works with the United States Justice Foundation in defense of Veterans. Katharine Russ can be reached at: [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 101
Pub: Dec 17, 2013