Jewish Groups Call Upon UC Irvine “To Respond Promptly, and At The Highest Levels of the University…When Intolerant and/or Discriminatory Acts Occur”

Letter to UC Irvine Chancellor Gillman Regarding Implementation of the Regents Statement

May 25, 2016

Dear Chancellor Gillman,

We are 36 Jewish and civil rights organizations representing hundreds of thousands of supporters who are deeply concerned about the long-standing and pervasive problem of anti-Semitic anti-Zionism that has incited hatred of Jews and acts of aggression and violence against Jewish and pro-Israel students on your campus.

As you know, in March the UC Regents unanimously approved a Statement Against Intolerance, which acknowledges that anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism are no less discriminatory than racism, homophobia or sexism, and “have no place at the University of California.”

Recent events on your campus demonstrate the critical importance of promptly and comprehensively implementing the Regents statement at UC Irvine.

Last Wednesday evening, UCI Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) carried out a pre-meditated and violent disruption of an event hosted by Jewish and pro-Israel student groups.  According to eyewitness accounts and video footage, an angry mob of more than 40 members of SJP and other affiliated organizations attempted to forcibly enter the room where 10 students were watching a documentary film about the Israeli Defense Forces. Understandably terrified and fearing for their safety, Jewish and pro-Israel students who were at the film screening held the door shut to prevent aggressive protesters from entering the room, whereupon protesters pounded on the room’s door and windows and, for about an hour, screamed slogans that demonized and delegitimized Israel and called for and condoned terrorism against Jews, such as “Fuck Israel!”, “Intifada, Intifada, long live the Intifada!” and “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.”  Event attendees were effectively held hostage for more than 45 minutes after their event had ended, until they could be safely escorted from the room by police.

Are Hillel/ Jewish Federation and Family Services/ Rose Project Confused About Last Weeks Anti-Israel Event at UC Irvine?

(Note: Italicised portions are our emphasis)

Hillel and Jewish Federation and Family Services/ Rose Project Statement May 19, 2016:

Last night, the Students Supporting Israel (SSI) chapter at UC Irvine held a screening of “Beneath the Helmet” with the support of Hillel. The event was protested by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and other students, who made aggressive and threatening remarks to participants and physically intimidated and threatened one student attempting to enter the event.

Hillel and JFFS Rose Project professionals who were present worked immediately to ensure Jewish students were able to continue participating in the event safely. When that was no longer possible, they contacted university police and Student Life officials. While the protest was allowed to continue, the university took steps to ensure the SSI students’ safety.

Hillel and Rose Project continue to work with the university administration to investigate the incident. We encourage the administration to hold accountable the protestors who threatened our students. We continue our work to ensure that Jewish and pro-Israel students are able to engage in programming in a safe environment.

Our students are not intimidated. Today’s Artists for Israel event on the main thoroughfare is going forward as scheduled, with Hillel adding further protections to ensure student safety. We are also providing support for students who need to talk about Wednesday’s incident.

We appreciate your continued support, as Hillel and Rose Project work to ensure students are free to express their support for Israel on campus, and all students are protected against threats and intimidation.   https://jewishorangecounty.org/resources/news/jffshillel-statement-may-19-2016

 

Hillel and Jewish Federation and Family Services/ Rose Project Statement May 20, 2016:

Clarifying Misstatements About Anti-Israel Incident at UCI

There are several critical inaccuracies in the Campus Reform account of what happened at UC Irvine on the evening of Wednesday, May 18 when a group of protestors demonstrated outside an event sponsored by the student organization Students Supporting Israel (SSI).

The Students Supporting Israel event was not, as the Campus Reform article implies, shut down. According to eyewitnesses, including local Hillel professionals, the Jewish students were not in any way forced to retreat. When the police arrived, they ensured the SSI program could continue. One officer remained in the classroom with the students until the film was over and they concluded their program. 

The protestors were allowed to remain outside of the building.

When the SSI students were ready to leave, the officers moved the protestors to an area sufficiently distant from the exit, so that neither group was visible to one another. The police then escorted the SSI students to their cars and an Assistant Vice Chancellor stayed to assist the students.

Hillel is working with the university police and administration to ensure this incident is appropriately resolved.

https://jewishorangecounty.org/resources/news/jffs-hillel-anti-israel-incident-at-uci

 

 Jewish Federation and Family Services latest Statement :

The following is an update of developments surrounding the incident last week in which a pro-Israel event sponsored by the UC Irvine student organization, Students Supporting Israel (SSI), with support from Hillel, was targeted by anti-Israel protestors on the UCI campus.

First, we thank the community for the outpouring of support for our students — those who attended the screening of “Beneath the Helmet,” and others involved with the pro-Israel community, as well as the Hillel staff who were at the screening last Wednesday evening. Our students and pro-Israel campus organizations are strong and will not be intimidated. This was demonstrated by a wonderful celebration of Israel held by SSI, with Hillel, on the campus main thoroughfare less than 24 hours after the film screening incident. We are proud to thank our partners — Artists for Israel, StandWithUs, and Hasbara Fellowships — and the hundreds of students who turned out to make this a joyous and successful event.

The university has launched two parallel investigations, one by the UCI Police Department and the other by the Department of Student Affairs. These investigations are meant to uncover any criminal activity and violations of campus codes and policies, and to determine whether disciplinary or legal actions are appropriate.

UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman issued a strongly-worded statement the day after the incident, stating the university’s belief that the line of civility was crossed. The Chancellor affirmed that the university will protect free speech, and that threats, harassment, incitement and defamatory speech are not protected.

We thank the university administration and the UCI Police Department for the seriousness, speed and sensitivity with which they are treating this matter, and for seeing to the mental health and security needs of our students. It should be noted that UCI police officers and administrators from the Department of Student Affairs arrived on the scene quickly, and campus officials were in the room with students and staff continuously until the students concluded their event. These officials comforted frightened students and advised them of their right to continue with the event until its completion. Hillel and the Rose Project staff are working closely with the university administration and police to support their investigations and to ensure that Jewish and pro-Israel students are able to engage in programming in a safe environment. Staff is also in regular communication with the targeted students, and will continue to see to their needs.

Hillel Foundation of Orange County, which operates Hillel at UCI, along with the Rose Project of Jewish Federation & Family Services, condemn in the strongest terms the verbal and physical harassment and intimidation of Jewish students, and the assault on their First Amendment right to assemble by the UCI chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace and their supporters. We state clearly and unequivocally that we support the right of all students to exercise their First Amendment rights, but no student or student organization has the right to  infringe on the rights of others or to instill feelings of insecurity, anxiety or fear.  The attempt that night by an aggressive, screaming mob to force its way into a room of Jewish students, and the pursuit of a Jewish student that forced her to hide in the dark in terror, are unconscionable acts that have no place on a university campus or in American society. The perpetrators of this incident maintain the justness of their actions because they claim that the target of their protest was Israel and the Israel Defense Force (IDF). Make no mistake: with no Israeli officials or IDF officers in the room that night, their actions targeted Jewish and pro-Israel students for no other reason than their connection to Israel and their desire to learn more about the Jewish State.

Those who wish to express their support for the students who attended the event are welcome to post to this Facebook page.

We will continue to keep you apprised of further developments.

http://www.elabs10.com/functions/message_view.html?mid=4266734&mlid=116679&siteid=2010001851&uid=b853607687

 

UC Irvine Student: “I Was Terrified. There Is No Other Word to Describe How I Felt”

At UC Irvine, Jews believe wrong students were escorted out of anti-Israel mob

By Paul Miller/JNS.org

Posted on May 23, 2016 by JNS.org and filed under Israel, News, U.S..

The night of May 18 was supposed to be an evening of learning and conversation for Eliana Kopley. The University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) sophomore, who had just attended a lecture about the Holocaust and was walking a short distance to another campus building that was hosting a film screening about Israeli soldiers, found herself confronted by an angry mob.

“I was terrified. There is no other word to describe how I felt,” Kopley told the Haym Salomon Center.”

Kopley had intended to join 10 classmates and guests of the private event hosted by Students Supporting Israel. When she arrived, approximately 50 anti-Israel activists convened by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) were pounding on the doors and windows, and shouting violent chants targeting Israel, Jews, and the police.

As the mob tried to gain entrance to the event, one protestor yelled, “If we’re not allowed in, you’re not allowed in!”

With the angry mob physically barricading the entrance, the 20-year-old Kopley, who stands less than five feet tall, was forced to leave the scene amid taunts of “intifada, intifada—long live the intifada! F**k Israel and f**k the police.”

But Kopley was not alone. A group of female students accompanied her as she escaped to safety in a nearby building.

“When I turned back, at that moment, I looked at one of the girls and wanted to hide and cry,” Kopley said.

While the UC Irvine sophomore was hiding in darkness, the scene inside the movie screening was equally frightening.

Veteran Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Eran Izak moved to the United States three years ago. The recently married construction worker was on hand May 18 to answer questions from the audience about his life in the IDF and the film “Beneath the Helmet.” What he experienced was something he never thought he’d see in America.

“As the film was playing we began hearing a lot of shouting outside,” said Izak. “It was immediately clear what was happening. The woman in charge of the event was literally holding the door closed with her hands as the mob tried to break into the classroom. As the shouting grew louder, it became apparent that we would not be allowed to leave, so we called campus security and the police.”

Meanwhile, the film was still playing even though nobody was paying attention by that point, as a sense of fear gripped the room.

“They were banging on the glass and the door and we could hear screaming outside,” Izak said. “The students had a look of panic on their faces—they were terrified. Finally the police arrived, pushed the protesters back a little, and escorted us to our cars.”

UCI Israel Group President: “The Attendees Were Mostly Women and Some Felt Intimated (SIC) and Trapped Inside The Room.”

Hat Tip: Gary Fouse

Anti-Israel protesters disrupt Israeli movie screening at UC Irvine

By ROXANA KOPETMAN / STAFF WRITER

OC Register

May 19, 2016  Updated May 20, 2016 11:54 a.m.

Amid chants of “Long live the intifada,” anti-Israel student protesters disrupted the viewing of a film about Israeli soldiers at UC Irvine on Wednesday night, leading campus police to escort Jewish students away from the scene.

UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman responded Thursday with a campus-wide message saying the incident “crossed the line of civility.”

“While this university will protect freedom of speech, that right is not absolute … threats, harassment, incitement and defamatory speech are not protected. We must shelter everyone’s right to speak freely – without fear or intimidation – and allow events to proceed without disruption and potential danger,” Gillman wrote in the letter.

The administration is “investigating whether disciplinary or legal actions are appropriate,” Gillman wrote.

About a dozen students from UCI’s Students Supporting Israel met Wednesday night inside a classroom of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway to view the Israeli film, “Beneath the Helmet.”

Outside, some 50 protesters gathered and began profanity-laced chants against Israel and UCI police, according to observers and video from the scene.

“They were screaming. They tried to push open the door, but we were holding the door from the inside,” said Katrin Gendova, the Israel group president, who said the attendees were mostly women and some felt intimated and trapped inside the room.

Just when you you thought it was safe for your Jewish Student at UC Irvine

Muslim students shut down pro-Israel event at UCI

Peter FrickeInvestigative Reporter@FrickePete

Campus Reform

Today at 5:33 PM EDT

• The protesters reportedly consisted of members of the Muslim Student Union and Students for Justice in Palestine.

• UPDATE: UCI released a statement responding to the incident, saying it is investigating “whether disciplinary or legal action is appropriate.”

An event held by a Jewish student group at the University of California, Irvine was disrupted Wednesday night by a crowd of Muslim students chanting anti-Semitic and anti-police slogans.

Ariana Rowlands, president of the College Republicans club at UCI, told Campus Reform that her group had just wrapped up its weekly meeting Wednesday night, and were gathered outside the building preparing to hang posters advertising an upcoming appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos when they heard a commotion nearby.

[RELATED: Milo quotes spark ‘homophobia’ scare at UC Irvine]

Wandering over to investigate, the CR members encountered a large group of students—Rowlands estimated there were perhaps 50 in total—holding signs and screaming in unison to protest a movie screening being held by Students Supporting Israel (SSI).

Shawn Steel, a Republican National Committee member who was on campus to address the CR meeting, posted a video on Facebook depicting a portion of the demonstration.

“Intifada, Intifada/long live the Intifada,” the protesters shout at the start of the video, following that up with a call-and-response chant of “displacing people since ‘48/there’s nothing here to celebrate!”

For video click http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7605

Students Speak Out About Anti-Semitism on University of California Campuses

Does the UC System Have an Anti-Semitism Problem?

Anthony Berteaux

The Times of Israel Blogs,  September 25 2015

 

It was her first week back at the University of California, San Diego, and Sara Ahdoot had already become the target of an anti-Semitic attack.

A psychology senior at UCSD, Ahdoot had planned to celebrate the start of her last year of undergraduate studies with a bang: by going out to a club. However, what was supposed to be a fun night out soon became a nightmare that many Jewish college students hope to never encounter. Shortly after arriving, Ahdoot noticed a familiar face — a male member of the pro-Palestinian group at her school, Students for Justice in Palestine. He noticed her too.

“I have felt uncomfortable around this student for the past two years and he saw me at a night club,” she recounted. “And after he saw me, he confronted me with nothing but hate and would not leave me alone.”

Throughout the night, Ahdoot was harassed about her Persian origins, yelled at and flipped off.

“They followed me, and called me by my first and last name. They were yelling that I was a ‘racist Zionist cow.’ I have never felt so unsafe in my life.”

Fearing that the attack would turn violent, she fled the club on the verge of tears. For her whole college career, Ahdoot was proud of her Judaism and her love for Israel — the Jewish state. She wore her Star of David necklace everywhere she went, letting the world know that she wasn’t ashamed of her identity, or her homeland.

And yet, the night after Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, she experienced attacks from a fellow UCSD student that saw her identity and homeland as patently unacceptable. Ahdoot said, “I didn’t know anyone would actually come in my face or put me in danger until tonight. This problem is way more serious than I had imagined.”

The University of California’s Anti-Semitism Problem

Long-time examiners of anti-Semitism within the University of California system know that Ahdoot’s story is nothing new. Over the past academic year, Jewish students across the UC system have experienced an unsettling rise in anti-Semitic attacks on their identity. Just as the racism once manifested within Jim Crow laws has evolved and choked the basic equal protections enshrined in our criminal justice system, so too has anti-Semitism transformed and seeped its way through the bedrock of these universities. It has evolved to become as a new political anti-Semitism — the result of an overwhelming tide of anti-Israel activism on campuses that overstep reasonable criticism of Israel’s domestic policies into demonizing perceptions of Israel and those who call it home.

Yael Steinberg, an alumni of UC Davis is no stranger to this demonizing rhetoric when she encountered anti-Israel sentiment on campuses across the UC’s overstepping into anti-Semitism. “I have seen discussions of [boycotts against Israel] turn nasty — from describing Jews as ‘privileged’ and ‘rich,’ to calling Jews ‘baby killers’ and told to wipe the blood off their boots. It’s terrible. Jews on campus face this intolerance the most when in conjunction with discussions about Israel, which often crosses the line from debate into hate speech.”

Frontpage Magazine Editors: “the JFOC has much to answer for”

The Attack on Frontpage from the Jewish Federation of Orange County

May 15, 2015 by Frontpage Editors  42 Comments

Unable to withstand criticism from their shameful attacks on Jewish students and pro-Israel activists exposed by Frontpage, the Jewish Federation of Orange County (JFOC) has taken to the media to slander our publication. These calumnies must not go unanswered.

On May 4th, Frontpage made public serious reports of misbehavior on the part of the JFOC at a student-run pro-Israel event held at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). One of the most notable revelations of the piece was a report that JFOC representative Lisa Armony was witnessed attempting to move pro-Israel activists waving Israeli flags away from anti-Israel protesters who ambushed the event.

Writing on behalf of the JFOC in the Jerusalem Post, http://www.jpost.com/landedpages/printarticle.aspx?id=403008,  Armony’s primary complaint was that Frontpage’s coverage was based on “unsubstantiated” information from “unnamed sources.”

In fact, the information directly related to Lisa Armony and the JFOC in this incident was based on anamed eyewitness’ account of Armony’s activity. Gary Fouse, a lecturer at UCI and credible witness, confidently affirmed to Frontpage what he saw. We subsequently reported this eyewitness account, taking the utmost care with the accuracy of its presentation. As such, accusations that Frontpage’s coverage of this incident was flawed are simply false.

UC Irvine Pro-Israel Student Group Leader Alleges Opposition from JFOC Leader

Pro-Israel Student Group Meets Opposition from Jewish Leadership

May 4, 2015 by Arnold Ahlert FrontPage Magazine

On Thursday, April 23rd, courage, contempt and cowardice collided during a pro-Israel campus event called “iFest” that took place at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). In the middle of the festivities, the president of the student group Anteaters for Israel (AFI), which organized the three-day event, was berated and brought to tears by the president of the Jewish Federation of Orange County (JFOC), who was among the iFest attendees. According to AFI leadership, the incident affirmed that the organization’s decision to purposefully disassociate from the JFOC due to its years of questionable leadership and interference in AFI’s pro-Israel activism on campus was the right course of action.

UCI’s 8th annual iFest featured the theme “Explore Israel” and was held April 22nd-April 24th. One night of iFest programming consisted of a candlelight vigil and a tribute for members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli civilians killed by terrorists over the years. Students from the campus chapters of Hillel, Chabad and Jewish fraternal/sororal organizations spoke at the vigil. The next day AFI “organized a beautiful festival where students enjoyed falafel and BBQ, learned about Israel and won prizes, painted and created art for charity, raised money for Save A Child’s Heart, and collected 170 signatures for a ‘Solidarity Letter with Israel,’” said AFI president Sharon Shaoulian. Shaoulian also reports that the iFest Shabbat dinner held Friday was attended by more people than the previous two years and that it was the best attended Shabbat of the year, with over 85 students attending. A number of sponsors contributed to iFest, including the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), StandWithUs, CAMERA on Campus, the Israel on Campus Coalition, and Hasbara.

The 2015 Version of the Annual MSU/SJP Anti-Israel Diatribe at UC-Irvine

LA Times Op-Ed: The Israel boycott that backfired

The Israel boycott that backfired

By THOMAS DOHERTY –LA Times Op Ed

November 5, 2014

For about a year, the American Studies Assn. has been offering a very public object lesson in how to destroy a scholarly organization. Ostensibly devoted to the study of all things American, the 5,000-member academic cohort has ventured outside its natural borders and into the crossfire of Israeli-Palestinian politics by voting to bestow pariah status on Israel. The decision to morph from a scholarly association into a political action committee has proved disastrous for the group and the discipline it purports to represent, undermining its credibility, alienating many of its practitioners and betraying what should be a bedrock commitment to the American values that used to define the field.

Here’s the back story.

Hundreds Turn Out for Another Successful Solidarity Rally in Los Angeles For Israel.

 

 

 

Solidarity Rally in Support of Israel Will Be Held in Los Angeles Sunday, August 24, 2014 from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m

A solidarity rally in support of Israel will be held this coming Sunday, August 24, 2014 from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The rally will take place in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles, at the intersection of Wilshire and Veteran, right off the 405 freeway. Come and show your support for the people of the State of Israel as they endure continuing rocket fire from Hamas controlled Gaza.

Temple University Jewish Student Allegedly Punched In Face And Called “Kike” In Anti-Semitic Attack

Temple Univ. Jewish Student Punched In Face And Called ‘Kike’ In Anti-Semitic Attack

“Before this I just thought Students for Justice in Palestine was crazy but I didn’t know it would lead to violence.”

Truth Revolt  Daniel Mael  8/20/14

A Jewish student on the campus of Temple University was assaulted on Wednesday afternoon and called “kike” and “baby killer” by members of the anti-Semitic student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Daniel Vessal, a Camera on Campus fellow and a member of the Jewish fraternity AEPi, was punched in the face by a violent member of the anti-Israel organization SJP at “Templefest” which is organized for students on campus to gain new information about campus clubs a week before the start of classes. Vessal is a managing information systems major at the Fox School of Business at the university.

“I’m walking down Polett Walk, one of the main walkways through Temple University and I see the SJP table,” Vessal told TruthRevolt from a local area hospital. “I go up to them and I really just wanted to see what angle they were coming from. I went up to the table and started talking to them. I said, ‘listen, you shouldn’t be protesting Israel- if anything protest the terrorists.’”

BDS Movement Calls for Blockade of Israeli Container Vessel Offloading Today in the Port of Long Beach

This information that was received this morning August 13. The hypocritical Boycott Divestment and Sanction (BDS) Movement has been on our college and university campuses for years, calling for divestment from Israel.  Now this anti-Israel, anti-Jewish virus has spread through out the world.  Not a single word about the hundreds of thousands already killed in Syria or the brutal massacres of Christians by ISIS or the daily  rape and  killings through out the Middle East and Africa.  This community has been silent for far to long.  Where is the outrage? Make your voices heard!

 

 

 

 

Several Hundred Israel Supporters Counter-Protest Pro-Hamas Rally In Westwood

Several hundred Members of the Pro Israel Community turned out to counter protest a pro-Hamas rally on August 10th near the Federal Building on Wilshire Blvd.   The short notice counter protest was organized by concerned community members who wished to openly and publicly show their concern about the continued attacks against Israel and to support her right to self-defense.  The pro-Israel supporters outnumbered the pro-Hamas supporters who allegedly called for shutting down and occupying the street from the Federal Building to the Israeli Consulate.  

Anti-Israel Rally Sunday April 10 In Los Angeles Threatens to Close Down Wilshire Blvd

Courtesy of Fousesquawk

College President Demands Review of SJP Status on Campus

Vassar’s SJP sort of apologizes for anti-Israel, Nazi cartoon

College president demands review of pro-Palestinian group’s status on campus; organization says incident was a mistake

BY AMANDA BORSCHEL-DAN   May 16, 2014  The Times of Israel

Nazi propaganda poster used by

Vassar’s chapter of Students for

Justice in Palestine.

Vassar College was the battleground this week for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and pro-Israel advocates in a war waged through social media — and media stunts.

The small liberal arts college 75 miles (120 km) outside New York city has fewer than 2,500 students, but according to its website, hosts some 1,500 clubs and activities. Among them are a Hillel house recently gone rogue as an Open Hillel chapter demanding an open discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, the more militant Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Vassar Conservative-Libertarian Union (VCLU).

 Set in an idyllic oasis in Poughkeepsie, the college has long been a hotbed of radical liberal thinkers. For some former students, however, the radical has crossed the line into irrational in SJP’s recent use of Nazi propaganda to illustrate the alleged pervasiveness of Zionism in the halls of power.

SJP’s Tumblr account recently published a Nazi propaganda poster by Norwegian artist Harald Damsleth captioned “Liberators” in which a many limbed monster decorated with the US flag, holding a money bag grasped by a long-nosed banker, and wearing a Star of David as a loin cloth, stomps on houses of the innocent.

Vassar President Catherine Hill released an email Wednesday stating that SJP’s status as a campus organization is called into question.

The Stench of BDS: “Just Wait Until You Hear What UCLA Student Government Candidates Are Being Asked to Sign”

 Sharona Schwartz     May. 11, 2014 7:50am   The Blaze

 

Candidates running to serve as officers in the undergraduate student government at UCLA are being asked to sign a pledge that they will not go on certain free or sponsored trip to Israel, a prerequisite that one pro-Israel group is calling “bigoted” and “absurd.” According to the UCLA newspaper the Daily Bruin, the majority of candidates have signed the pledge.

The Joint Statement on Undergraduate Students Association Council Ethics to which the candidates have signed was drafted by the pro-Palestinian groups Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Armenian Students’ Association, the Bruin reported on Tuesday.

The Muslim Students Association has also expressed support for the initiative.

The Students’ Association Ethics statement would require council members to refrain from going on trips paid for or partially-sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Anti-Defamation League and Hasbara Fellowships, all groups with a pro-Israel stance, the Bruin reported.

Never Forget!

It’s Back: This Years Edition of the Annual Hypocritical Rant Against Israel at U C Irvine

From the MSU Facebook page:

MSU-UCI Presents: Anti-Zionist Week 2014

https://www.facebook.com/events/1490431447839078/?ref=22

The Muslim Student Union presents a week long series of events during Week 5 (April 28th-May 1st) that are aimed at raising awareness and creating discourse, around the issue of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, for the campus and community.

The events will highlight the history, significance, modern impacts, and much more information surrounding the injustices of the conflict through informative discussions, creative expressions, and interactive displays.

Topics include the following:

Monday: Borders and Racism
Tuesday: BDS
Wednesday: Sexual Violence
Thursday: Environmental Degradation

More details will be posted shortly. See you there! Do share and spread the word, and bring your friends.

Note:

In Syria, entire cities have been reduced to rubble, women and children have been  murdered with chemical weapons and millions displaced in refugee camps.  In Saudi Arabia,  Jews are forbidden and conversion to Christianity can carry a death sentence. In Egypt, Christians are persecuted and ancient churches have been reduced to rubble. Where is the outcry over the degradation of women and so called “honor killings” in many countries? Just look at the human rights records of most Middle Eastern countries. Many of these countries are ancestral homelands of the people involved in this obnoxious and hypocritical BDS farce.  

Student files $5 million claim against California university over racial hazing

(BRAVO!)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – An African-American teenager who authorities say was the target of racial hazing on a California university campus last fall filed a claim for $5 million in damages against the school on Monday, his attorney said.

Officials with San Jose State University failed to protect the teen from racist pranks and remarks by white students with whom he shared a dormitory suite, according to the claim filed internally through the university system by attorney Carl E. Douglas.

“When there can be this level of bullying at San Jose State University, a bastion of progressive thought, that should be a bellwether for everyone nationwide,” Douglas told Reuters.

“I want there to be a conversation started by the filing of this claim… there are issues of racial intolerance, of bullying and of harassment running rampant in universities and colleges across this nation,” he said.

Hitting the Nail On The Head

Where can I sign up for a BDS marketing course?

Gary Wexler

LA Jewish Journal       January 5, 2014

http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/where_can_i_sign_up_for_a_bds_marketing_course

I want to sit at the feet of the BDS movement. These people, whom I fear and hate, are my marketing mentors. They’re winning. We’re losing. Look what they’ve just accomplished with the Super Bowl, Scarlett Johansson and SodaStream. Absolutely brilliant.

They grab headlines. They gather supporters. They pull on heart strings. They capture the next generation on campuses and in the online universe. They know how to build a movement. They know how to organize. They know how to finance their efforts. They’re strategic, creative and plan extraordinary international events, such as the Freedom Flotilla. They know how to pull off a worldwide boycott. They shape world opinion. They stay with the plan and build.They know how to turn a protracted, complex and nuanced conflict into a simple, black-and-white choice for global consumption. They appear capable of doing everything that we cannot seem to do.

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They’ve done their homework. They know our lingo. Did you catch Omar Barghouti’s statement in The New York Times Opinion piece, “The Israel brand today is more toxic than ever”? They know everything we are up to, including the efforts of Brand Israel.

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As an adjunct professor at USC/Annenberg teaching nonprofit marketing, I want to get my PhD from these folks. As a marketer of the Jewish world, I want to understand how they accomplish what they do so well.

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BDS cannot be dismissed. As cause marketers, they need to be respected.

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Marketing is always a war. There are opponents, competition and territory to be taken. As a marketer of nearly 40 years, I can recognize when I am sitting across the table from a formidable marketing foe. I can tell when there is a central planning group and a sizable budget. If that were about marketing and not about my Zionist belief system and commitments, I’d defect and join the BDS team.

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As a liberal, I used to believe that only if Israel created a just peace with a two-state solution, all this would end. Even though I still support efforts to make this happen, I don’t believe it will stop the de-legitimization. We’re in this propaganda war for the long haul.

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What the hell is the matter with us? We are giving these folks carte blanche to win this battle? Why?
Allow me to list 10 reasons and the challenges. (I am certain there are many more.):

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1. Brand Israel has attempted to re-image Israel based upon its accomplishments. Technololgy. The Start-Up Nation. Wine. Women. Gays. Medical research. Its strategy has been to side-step the conflict. But the conflict appears on the front pages and in the news multiple times a week. It is what people care about. The conflict makes them fear for the safety of the world and their own lives. That left the door wide open for BDS to seize upon the conflict and spin it their own way.

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2. BDS is organized. They’re collaborating and working together. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be able to do what they do.

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3. We don’t work together. Every Jewish leader and organization believes it knows better than the next leader and organization. We’re on a battlefield with everyone working in cross purposes and directions. On top of it, we dismiss each others’ efforts as the wrong ones.

Elie Wiesel: People are no longer ashamed to be anti-Semites

Nobel Peace Prize laureate tells Ynet about never-ending struggle against anti-Semitism and recognition that it will likely never be defeated

Dr. Yoel Rappel   Ynet

Published:

01.28.14,

BOSTON – Prof. Elie Wiesel was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the inauguration ceremony of the new display at the Jewish pavilion in Auschwitz, the place where he was enslaved and lost his loved ones.

For personal reasons he was unable to attend the important event, but in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate told Ynet about the never-ending struggle against anti-Semitism and the recognition that it would likely never be defeated.

 The world is still silent

Prof. Wiesel, who coined the eternal expression “Not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims,” examines every significant occurrence with an overall view of world peace. To the same extent, he meticulously examines whether the memory of the Holocaust has been engraved in people’s minds, and whether there is a danger that the events of 1939-1945 will repeat themselves, and the world – as it was during those years – will be indifferent and silent.

New York State Senate Steps Up With Anti-Boycott Bill

New York Senate Passes Anti Boycott Bill by 56-4

By: Yori Yanover  Published: January 29th, 2014
The Jewish Press

Bill S6438-2013, prohibiting “the use of state aid by colleges and universities to fund or provide membership in academic institutions that are boycotting a country or higher education institutions of a country,” was passed on Monday by the NY State Senate.

The NY Assembly is currently considering its own version, and should it pass, the unified version would be delivered to Governor Andrew Cuomo to sign, ignore or veto.

Senators Montgomery (District 25, which includes Fort Green and Bed Sty), Perkins (District 30, Harlem), Rivera (District 33, West Bronx) and Sanders (District 10, South Ozone Park) voted Nay.

“This legislation sends a very simple message, which is that we should never ask taxpayers to support religious, ethnic, or racial discrimination. We need to marginalize the politics of intolerance whenever it rears its ugly head,” Senator Jeffrey D Klein, who represents District 34 (Riverdale and Westchester), said in a statement. ”I will not allow the enemies of Israel or the Jewish people to gain an inch in New York. The First Amendment protects every organization’s right to speak, but it never requires taxpayers to foot the bill.”

Students For “Justice” In Palestine at UC Irvine At It Again Featuring Renouned Israel Basher

Deaf and Blind to the human rights violations and tragedies occurring daily in the rest of the world, so long as they can isolate and accuse Israel. How would you define Anti-Semitism?

CBS News Investigation Alleges UC Irvine Employee Posted Anti-Semitic and Racist Pictures on Social Media

CBS2 Investigation: College Security Guard Leaves Trail Of Racism

David Goldstein Reporting

WARNING: Some of the images in this video may be offensive to some readers.] Click HERE to see video

IRVINE (CBSLA.com ) — A 31-year-old man who patrols two Orange County college campuses posted pro-Nazi and anti-black sentiments on the Internet, according to CBS2 investigative reporter David Goldstein.

Courageous University of California Student Speaks About Continuing Campus Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism at Cal

By Elijah Z. Granet Special to the Daily Cal

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

When a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, dismissed claims that the university had failed to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism on campus, many thought that it could create a watershed moment for Berkeley.  Leading the fray was The Daily Californian, which made the almost Panglossian prediction that the report “could mark a new era for the campus community.”

Though I wish that the Daily Cal’s conclusion was correct, the fact is that the OCR’s conclusions are limited only to the legal matter of the university’s liability with regards to the civil rights of minority students. Although the OCR acknowledged the occurrence of hostile acts directed against Jews, they concluded that because there is no law compelling the university to prevent students from being personally offended or hurt, the university made no legal infractions. Indeed, for the OCR to have taken action, they would need evidence that the university had failed to stop direct coordinated actions against Jews.  Given that the issues faced by Jewish students come from a widespread general bias across the entire student body and not from a single organization, the OCR would never find Berkeley to be legally liable, no matter the degree of hostility faced by Jewish students.

However, as any Cal student or alum could likely confirm, Berkeley has chosen to commit itself to principles beyond the law. The university’s well-known dedication to protecting student rights and concern with matters of justice is at the very core of our identity.  These values, even if not made explicit in federal law, explicitly bar the actions that led to the legal complaint filed with the OCR. The report may legally exonerate Cal, but it does not excuse the university, faculty and students from the grave moral failing of our community in dealing with the baseless hatred in our midst.

It is an incontrovertible fact that over the past several years, Jewish students at Berkeley have had to deal with numerous hate incidents, including verbal, written and physical assaults.  Jewish students have been called horrendous, unprintable things. They have been shoved and pushed. In campus housing, the past several years have seen repeated occurrences of swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti.

SPME: University Of California Appoints BDS Proponent to Board of Regents

SPME on the Nomination of Sadia Saifuddin to Serve on the  University of California Board of Regents  

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SPME is deeply concerned by the nomination of Sadia Saifuddin, as a candidate of California student regent for 2014-15 for the University of California system..  Ms. Saifuddin has been part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that co-sponsored an Israeli divestment resolution this past spring calling for the divestment of $14 million in University and Associated Students funds from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Cement Roadstone Holdings, contending that they profit from Israel’s from what she defines as the occupation of the West Bank. The resolution passed the student senate by a vote of 11-9.Following the vote, Saifuddin was quoted in the campus newspaper saying, “I don’t want one cent of my money to go toward fueling the occupation of my brothers and sisters.”Appointing Sadia Saifuddin to the Board of Regents would be an offense to the “Principles of Community” for UC Berkeley, which are supposed to be core values in the UC system, and which call on UC students to “respect the differences as well as the commonalities that bring us together and call for civility and respect in our personal interactions.”

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A Message To The Campus Anti-Israel Hate Groups And Your Supporters

The next time you drag that broken down “apartheid”  wall from campus to campus, replete with its exaggerations and outright lies and  calling for a boycott of  Israel, consider this:

• In Syria, it is estimated that the anywhere from 90,000 to 100,000  people have lost their lives in the bloody civil war.
• Entire towns have been destroyed.
• Over 1 million people have been made homeless.
• Schools have been used as shelters for combatants on both sides, while children are traumatized,  injured  and killed
• It is alleged that the government has used biological weapons on civilians.

And consider this:

Teenager, 15, Executed By Islamist Rebels in Syria

By Alexander Marquardt | ABC News – Mon, Jun 10, 2013

Teenager, 14, Executed By Islamist Rebels in Syria

A teenager selling coffee in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo was arrested by Islamist rebel fighters for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, beaten and then executed in front of his family, a watchdog group claims.

The boy, Mohammed Qatta, 14, reportedly refused to give a customer coffee, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday.

“Even if [Prophet] Mohammed comes back to life, I won’t,” the boy said, who was known by his nickname “Salmo.”

Extremist rebels driving past in a black car overheard the comment, the opposition Aleppo Media Center said. Qatta was taken away by the fighters and later brought back, his head wrapped with his shirt and his body covered with marks from whipping.

The rebels then read out the boy’s sentence – not in a Syrian accent, but in classical Arabic. They accused the boy of blasphemy and told the crowd – which included the boy’s parents – that anyone who insulted the Prophet would suffer a similar fate.

Qatta was then shot in the mouth and neck. A graphic photo was released late Sunday of the dead boy clearly showing wounds that matched the reports.

The boy’s parents confirmed the accounts in an interview posted online on Monday by the Aleppo Media Center. In it, his father stoically recounted the execution while his mother wailed.

“Why did they kill my son,” she cried. “We are not for or against anybody in this conflict, may God take revenge on them.”

The Islamists and their group have yet to be identified. Large swathes of rebel-held Aleppo are under the control of al Qaeda-linked rebel groups who have set up Sharia courts and welcomed large numbers of foreign fighters into their ranks. The United States and its allies have struggled with the question of whether to arm an extremely fragmented opposition force whose strongest elements have pledged allegiance to al Qaeda.

Aleppo is expected to become of the focal point of Syria’s two-year civil war in the coming days as Syrian forces look to take back full control of Syria’s most populous city in a new offensive reportedly dubbed “Northern Storm.”

ABC News’ Nasser Atta contributed to this report

“Tsunami of Anti-Semitism”

Candidly Speaking: Tsunami of anti-Semitism

By ISI LEIBLER

05/27/2013 23:25

In the post-Holocaust era, many had predicted, mistakenly, that the world’s oldest hatred would recede, even anticipating that anti-Semites would soon become an extinct species.

Participants at the fourth conference of the Global Forum for Combating anti-Semitism, held under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry this week in Jerusalem, will be provided with data highlighting the accelerated global erosion of the status of Jews and Israel.

In the post-Holocaust era, many had predicted, mistakenly, that the world’s oldest hatred would recede, even anticipating that anti-Semites would soon become an extinct species. Instead, defaming Jews has emerged as the greatest global political growth industry – a virtual tsunami. In fact we are witnessing a resurrection of the medieval paranoia which effectively blamed Jews for all the disasters of mankind.

The most concentrated venom is relentlessly directed against “the state of the Jews” (anti- Israelism) which is now the principal vehicle employed to demonize Jews. It dominates debates at the UN and other international organizations where rogue states and barbaric regimes seek to delegitimize the state of the Jews.

The bias and double standards against Israel became so intense that the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) decided to explicitly define such behavior as anti-Semitic.

The escalation of Jew-hatred in recent years has been greatly accelerated by the economic meltdown and surge in unemployment throughout Europe. Such an environment breeds xenophobia which, since time immemorial, was always directed against Jews, exploiting them as scapegoats.

The era of the Internet and electronic global communications has been a boon to Jew-baiters, enabling them to globally disseminate their hatred instantly and effectively. New varieties of Judeophobia have emerged and integrated with the traditional anti- Semitism which had been temporarily muted due to revulsion at the horrors of the Holocaust.

The new blend fuses traditional right-wing religious, racial and economically inspired hatred of Jews with leftist varieties which now dominates indigenous Western anti-Semites. Ironically, the Left bases its demonization of the Jewish state on bogus Israeli human rights violations while avoiding condemnations of Arab anti-Semitism and abdicating its traditional long-standing role of purporting to champion rights of the oppressed and condemning human rights violations – an area in which the Arab world excels.

The greatest outpouring of anti-Jewish hatred emanates from the newly empowered Muslim countries, with their combined population of 1.6 billion. In conjunction with their diasporas in Western countries, they frenziedly promote a devilish brew of unique Islamic anti-Semitism combined with the traditional Western varieties. They depict Jews as vampires; descendants of apes and pigs; evil creatures disseminating AIDS; the masterminds behind 9/11; etc. Their incitement is at least as potent as the worst Jew-hatred promoted during the Nazi era. In addition, the jihadist component has been the principal element stoking the escalation of global violence, terror and murder against Jews.

The Struggle To Hold Up The Hatred

The 2013 Edition Of the MSU “Apartheid Wall” On The UCI Campus.

The Wall of Hate Suffers A “Rain Out” This Morning

The so-called “apartheid wall”,  erected year after year on the UC Irvine Campus by the Muslim Student Union, never looked better or more truthful.

Hypocrisy 2013

Well its that time of the year again. Spring is here, flowers are in full bloom and the Muslim Student Union is at it again.

One wonders if anyone even pays attention to them anymore. After all, it is estimated that over 70,000 people are dead in Syria and the use of deadly biological weapons have all but been confirmed.  Somalia, we are told is the deadliest place in the world for children.  Being a woman in Saudi Arabia requires a male escort when leaving  home and domestic assaults on women are all to commonplace.   Christians in Egypt continue to suffer at the hands of extremists while the government turns a blind eye. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, disputes continue to be settled by suicide bombers.  In Boston, three people killed and at least 264 injured including an 8 year old child.  And for what?  Where are the tears?  Where is the moral outrage? Where are Muslim Student Union and Muslim Student Associations campus demonstrations about this?

But the hate and hypocrisy continues:

The Muslim Student Union and their speakers and supporters brand Israel as a “racist apartheid state” and continue to call for Boycott Divestment and Sanction. They remain fixated on Israel, yet cannot find the time to clean up their own back yard.

The University of Manitoba Student Union (UMSU) bans anti-Israel “Israel Apartheid Week” and strips anti-Israel group of official status.

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Canadian university student union strips anti-Israel group of official status

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Posted on April 15, 2013  by JNS.org.

(JNS.org) The University of Manitoba Student Union (UMSU) in Canada has become the first student group in North America to ban the anti-Israel “Israel Apartheid Week” and strip the anti-Israel “Students Against Israel Apartheid (SAIA)” group of official status.

The motion, which passed 19-15, bars SAIA from receiving student funding or using student activity space on campus, the Winnipeg Jewish Review reported.

Pro-Israel students argued that the anti-Israel student efforts violate university policy which protects the “dignity and self-esteem” of its students and prevents them from “discrimination or harassment.”

“According to the UMSU policy, I didn’t have to prove that IAW has actually incited hatred, but that it is likely to undermine the dignity or self- esteem of students on campus who are Zionists,” pro-Israel UM student activist Josh Morry told the Winnipeg Jewish Review.

The move at the University of Manitoba comes amid recent battles on North American college campuses between pro-Israel and anti-Israel students.

Last week, the student government at the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara rejected a resolution to divest from Israel, joining several other California schools—UC Riverside, UC Berkeley and Stanford University—who have rejected Israel divestment resolutions. But the student union at Toronto’s York University, Canada’s largest, recently endorsed an Israel divestment resolution.

http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2013/4/15/canadian-university-student-union-anti-israel-group-of-official-status

Are you still being told that things have gotten better for Jewish university Students? Have you been fooled!

New intifada on campuses abroad

They meet in small groups on campus; funded by foreign money. They understand that this method of operation gives them more influence than any act of physical violence would. They are young people who convince others; they are builders of public opinion. Step by step they take control of the leaderships of student unions and organizations; pro-Palestinian activists join extreme left-wingers in activism against Israeli elements.

This is the new intifada. You won’t hear about in the next news update; it is not an uprising within Israel’s borders, and it stopped being just about the settlements, occupation and peace treaties a long time ago. It is far away from us; it is influential, exhilarating; it speaks in a new, young language and has one goal: The annihilation of Israel as a Jewish state.

Campus Hatred

The battle for America / Tzipi Shmilovitz

Special: Israeli, Jewish students fighting back as hostility grows on leading campuses in America
Full Story

Anti-Israeli elements have reached the conclusion that burning an Israeli flag does not make for good photos. It is too extreme, too controversial, and too barbaric; it doesn’t do the job anymore; the world has changed. They found that burning the Zionist idea rather than the flag is much more effective.

Over the past few months this campaign has been taken to the next level. At the University of California public university system, at the University of California, San Diego, at Brooklyn College in New York, at Oxford University in Britain and on other campuses there are calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, and activists also disrupt lectures of Israeli representatives – it is all part of a broad campaign to delegitimize Israel.

It is not coincidental that a significant part of the delegitimization campaign against Israel is talking place on campuses. The arena was carefully selected. Campuses have always been fertile ground for exchanging ideas, for activity aimed at fomenting social change and for calls for universal ideals because it is easier to plant the seeds of unruliness in the minds of 18 year olds, who are more open to innovative and revolutionary ideas. Within a decade millions of young, influential people within government, the economy, the arts, culture, the judicial system and research – those who have been inculcated with the anti-Israel idea – may adopt the notion that Israel does not have the right to exist as a Jewish state. ‘Why do the Jews need a state of their own?’ They will wonder.

University of California Campus Student Governments Endorse BDS Cancer on Three Campuses.

March 20, 2013 Three UC student governments endorse BDS By Jonah Lowenfeld http://www.jewishjournal.com/ los_angeles/article/three_uc_student_governments_endorse_bds/

In the first two weeks of March, student governments at two University of California campuses — UC Riverside and UC San Diego (UCSD) — voted to approve resolutions urging their campus administrations and the University of California as a whole to divest from companies doing business in the West Bank.The resolutions, both of which passed by significant margins, came just a few months after the student government at UC Irvine voted unanimously to approve a similar measure. And, according to pro-Israel activists, divestment measures are in the works at two other public universities in Southern California. The approved resolutions urge the University of California, and the administrations of each of the individual campuses, to divest from companies with business interests that either assist in or profit from Israel’s presence in the West Bank. The measures are unlikely to force the individual campuses or the UC to take any action because of a UC policy limiting such action, but their passage has nonetheless proved disconcerting for pro-Israel students on those campuses. “As a result of this bill, Jews, Israelis and their friends have been alienated from the rest of the student population,” Jacqueline Zelener, co-president of Highlanders for Israel, the pro-Israel student group at UC Riverside, wrote in an e-mail. The BDS movement — the initials stand for advocacy of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel — has become well known in recent years, and resolutions urging divestment from companies doing business with Israel have come before student governments at California universities before. In 2010, UC Berkeley’s student government approved a resolution urging divestment from two companies that supply Israel with war materials, however the UC Berkeley student body president later vetoed the resolution. Earlier this month, Stanford University’s undergraduate student government voted against a divestment bill that targeted companies doing business with Israel. Unlike at Stanford, where debate over the divestment bill lasted for multiple weeks before a vote was taken, pro-Israel students at UC Riverside only learned about the proposed resolution on their campus the night before the Associated Students of UC Riverside (ASUCR) voted on it. They [the resolution’s backers] kept it very secret from anyone who might have even been the slightest bit neutral or in the opposition,” said Danny Leserman, a business economics major at UC Riverside, who serves as president of Hillel and co-president of Highlanders for Israel.

Tonight: Students for “Justice” in Palestine (SJP) at UC Irvine hosting Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) Farce

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Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction = Double Standard, Demonization and Delegitimization*

Remember the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating education for young girls? video here.  In November 2012 a 14-year-old Afghan girl was beheaded by two men  for refusing one of the mens marriage-proposal.  According to Amnesty international, This was the 15th deadly attack on a female victim in 2012.

Jewish Students Allegedly Harassed at U C Davis. Must See Video

Courtesy AMCHA Initiative  

Dear Chancellor Katehi,

As you know, we are faculty members at the University of California, who have been investigating and documenting anti-Jewish bigotry on California public university campuses for the last several years.

We are writing to you now to express our serious concern regarding an incident that occurred during a student protest on November 19, 2012, during which UCD students “occupied” an administration building on campus. We believe that numerous violations of state and federal law and university policy may have occurred at the event. To our knowledge, your administration has neither acknowledged nor addressed these violations.

BDS Advocate Appointed To Chair Committee Combating Anti-Semitism At California State University System?

Gary Fouse forwarded this article to OCITF:

Israel-Bashing CSU Prof to Fight Anti-Semitism?

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/lee-kaplan/israel-bashing-csu-prof-to-fight-anti-semitism/

by Lee Kaplan
FrontPage Magazine
December 11, 2012

Does appointing an advocate of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel to chair a committee aimed at combating anti-Semitism in the California State University system make sense? That’s exactly what happened in the case of Manzar Foroohar, a well-known anti-Israel activist who teaches modern Middle Eastern and Latin American history at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. The Iranian immigrant was placed in charge of an Academic Senate 2012/2013 CSU committee charged with implementing the “Governor’s Task Force on Tolerance and Anti-Semitism Training,” an effort that originated in 2010 under former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Foroohar does indeed have extensive experience in training students and faculty members—in how to delegitimize and demonize the state of Israel, an activity that hardly promotes an environment of “tolerance” for pro-Israel CSU students.

When asked about Foroohar’s appointment, Diana Guerin, chairwoman of the Academic Senate CSU (ASCSU) who oversees committee selections and appointments, offered the standard bureaucratic response, making sure to include politically correct praise for the professor’s “divergent” point of view:

The Executive Committee of the Academic Senate makes appointments each year based on senator interest in serving on the various committees. With over forty senators eligible to serve and approximately fifty committees to staff, this is a very involved process. We note that sometimes committees do their best work when there are divergent points of view that lead to careful consideration and thorough discussion of issues. Senator Foroohar has been elected by her peers at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo multiple terms and has served the Academic Senate of the CSU with distinction.

After further questioning, the chairwoman explained that at a 2010 meeting with the Governor’s task force at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, “Concern arose about the potential blurring of the lines between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, which are two separate issues [emphasis added]” and that, “It was important for faculty to have a voice on this type of training for our students.” This sheds light on the ASCSU’s true agenda: using the committee to promote the idea that campus anti-Zionism has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Foroohar’s appointment to “train” faculty effectively ends any meaningful attempt by the Governor’s task force to battle campus anti-Semitism.

Among Foroohar’s anti-Israel activities:

Is the U C Irvine Student Government Boycott Resolution Against Israel Anti-Semitic At It’s Core?

With nearly 40,000 killed in nearly 2 years of wholesale slaughter in Syria, the U C Irvine Student Council chose to condemn Israel by its despicable and hypocritical boycott resolution.

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  A general view of a building damaged by an air strike at a besieged area in Homs November 28, 2012. Picture taken November 28, 2012. REUTERS/Yazan Homsy (SYRIA – Tags: CONFLICT)

U.N. chief “horrified” by Syrian violence

By Michelle Nichols | Reuters

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The 20-month conflict in Syria has reached “new and appalling heights of brutality and violence” as the government steps up its shelling and air strikes and rebels boost their attacks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.

Ban and international Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi addressed the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on the revolt against Syrian President Bashir al-Assad, which began as peaceful rallies calling for democracy but grew to an armed struggle after the military cracked down on protesters.

The fighting has killed about 40,000 people, making it the bloodiest of Arab uprisings that have ousted entrenched leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen since early last year.

“The government has intensified its campaigns to root out opposition strongholds and has increased shelling and air strikes,” Ban said. “Opposition elements also have stepped up their attacks. I am horrified and saddened and condemn the seemingly daily massacres of civilians.”

Jewish Woman Brutally Murdered In Iran

Jewish Woman Brutally Murdered, Cut in Half In Iran Over Mosque Demand

Algemeiner November 28, 2012

A Jewish woman in Isfahan, Iran, was murdered and cut in half by neighbors who wanted to take over her home.

The family of the 57-year-old woman says that the Muslim neighbors had killed her after having harassed her for years. The neighbors tried to expel the woman and her family from their home and confiscate the property for the adjoining mosque.

“The religious radicals even expropriated part of the house and attached it to the mosque’s courtyard. The Jewish family appealed to the courts with the help of a local attorney…despite the threats to their lives,” said Menashe Amir, an expert on Iranian Jewry, according to Israel National News.

“The World Is Not Elementary School”

From The LA Jewish Journal

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151194251504713&set=a.10150302350159713.342678.321390109712&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf  From The LA Jewish Journal.

Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism Commends Los Angeles Jewish Community

Members of the The Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism attended a rally this afternoon in Los Angeles organized by the Israel Leadership Council.  We commend the ILC  and  hundreds of  members of the Los Angeles and surrounding communities  for turning up  to peacefully support the people of the State of Israel, who have for many months come under relentless rocket bombardment from Hamas ruled Gaza.

Now, For The Orange County Jewish Federations “Explanation”

NOTE: According to the ASUCI  CALENDER,  Tuesday, November 13, 2012,  was a scheduled business meeting.  As the VIDEO clearly shows, it was a packed room.  The vote was unanimous.  Why wasn’t Jewish Student groups in attendence?  Given the constant state of anti -Israel hostility emanating from various groups on campus, it seems rather foolish or naive to complain that there was “no forewarning” about the intent to introduce this RESOLUTION.  Did the Jewish Federation expect a phone call from the  SJP or the MSU?  Similar resolutions have been defeated on other University of California Campuses due to the vigilance and action by student groups coupled with community support. The question still stands. What happened here?  The unanimous passage of this ugly resolution emboldens the haters of Israel and can only make life more uncomfortable for those few Jewish students who wish to speak out openly on behalf of Israels right to exist. OCITF

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Orange County Community Says Student Government Anti-Israel Resolution Won’t Derail Progress at UC Irvine

Contact: Lisa Armony, Director, Rose Project 949-435-3848

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 14, 2012 – In a move that contradicts UC policy, UC Irvine’s student government last night passed a recommendation calling on the campus to divest itself from companies that do business with Israel. The nonbinding resolution was drafted and introduced with no forewarning by a small group of students with a personal, political agenda and deliberated in the absence of students with opposing views.

U C Irvine Official Statement On Student Government Anti-Israel Divestment Resolution

UCI to continue collaborations with global entities, including those in Israel

— Irvine, Calif., November 14, 2012 —

UC Irvine’s student government, Associated Students of UCI, has passed a recommendation that the campus divest itself of investments with several companies that do business with Israel.

Such divestment is not the policy of the campus, nor is it the policy of the University of California. The UC Board of Regents’ policy requires this action only when the U.S. government deems it necessary. No such declaration has been made regarding Israel.

In the spirit and practice of active engagement with all peoples of that region, UCI has been extremely pleased with recent global collaboration between leaders and researchers here and those at top universities around the world, including Israel. The campus looks forward to continued constructive exchanges that benefit our students, faculty and community.

http://today.uci.edu/news/2012/11/nr_divestment_121114.php

 

Long Beach Temple Painted with Swastikas, ‘Nazi’

Long Beach police are investigating as a hate crime the vandalizing of Temple Israel, said to be the oldest Reform synagogue between Los Angeles and San Diego.

By Nancy Wride  November 14, 2012 Long Beach Patch

Long Beach Police Department was investigating Wednesday the vandalism of the Temple Israel building, which was painted with two-foot high swastikas and red spray-painted “Nazi” words.

Officers were called to a report of vandalism at the building, located in the 3500 block of E. 3rd Street, at about 10:30 p.m. Monday, Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Pratt said Wednesday afternoon.

“Officers arrived and discovered that a wall had been defaced with an offensive symbol and word that had been spray painted on the building,” Pratt wrote in an e-mail. “It was discovered when someone walking by saw it and called police.” The vandalism is under probe as a potential hate crime.

“Members of Jewish student groups on campus could not be reached Wednesday afternoon.”

How did this disgraceful resolution pass right under the collective noses of  Campus Jewish Student Groups and so-called organized Jewish Community Leadership Organizations such as the Jewish Federation, without so much as a challenge or even simple debate?  OCITF

Here is the Daily Pilots coverage of the story:

UCI students take stance against Israel

Student council members urge the university to divest in companies that do business in former Palestinian territories.

By Lauren Williams 3:30 PM PST, November 14, 2012

UC Irvine’s student council has asked the university to withdraw investments from American companies that do business in Israel.

The Associated Students voted 16 to 0 to urge UCI to stop investing in Caterpillar, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Raytheon and other firms that “contribute to illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories,” according to a statement.

The students pledged in the statement to scrutinize other UCI investments for companies that profit from what they deemed human-rights abuses.

Tens of Thousands Murdered And Made Homeless In Syria The Answer? Blame Israel.

Tens of  thousands of innocent people have already been murdered in Syria and thousands of refugees are streaming daily across the borders into Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.   So, what did the U C Irvine student Government decide to do at Tuesday nights meeting?  They passed a divestment resolution against Israel.  What are these students being taught at this institution; That night is day and day is night?

Anatomy of a Kangaroo Court

The Minutes from the  ASUCI Meeting dated  Tuesday, November 13, 2012 can be found Here

A copy of the Resolution can be found by clicking Here

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Alert: UC Irvine Student Senate Passes Anti-Israel Divestment Resolution

UC Irvine Student Senate Resolves to Divest From Israel

November 14, 2012 8:28 am The Algemeiner

The University of California, Irvine student senate passed a non-binding resolution Tuesday night asking the school to divest from eight companies doing business with Israel, accusing the Jewish state of “apartheid.”

The resolution has not yet earned the approval of the UC Irvine student government’s executive board, a body that would pass on the resolution to the school’s administration. If UC Irvine adopts legislation recommending divestment from companies doing business with Israel, it would be the first California campus to do so.

Associated Students-UC Irvine (ASUCI) voted 16-0 to request divestment from Caterpillar, Cement Roadstones Holding, Cemex, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Raytheon, Sodastream, and L-3 Communications, according to the resolution. ASUCI—using language resembling that of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement—said those companies “have promoted and been complicit” in “ongoing human rights violations systematically committed by the Israeli government.” http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/11/14/uc-irvine-student-senate-resolves-to-divest-from-israel/

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The Minutes from the ASUCI Meeting dated  Tuesday, November 13, 2012 can be found Here

A copy of the Resolution can be found by clicking Here

Jewish Lecturer Sues British Academic Union Over Anti-Semitism

Lecturer sues union over antisemitism

By Marcus Dysch, November 1, 2012

“This is my way of saying never again”

A Jewish academic repeatedly broke down in tears as he told an employment tribunal that he had suffered a decade of harassment while opposing a boycott of Israel.

Maths lecturer Ronnie Fraser, whose parents escaped Nazi Germany, said he felt a special responsibility to challenge the University and College Union after it rejected a widely-accepted definition of antisemitism.

The grandfather-of-nine wept as he took the oath at London’s Central Employment Tribunal on Wednesday. He said he had felt threatened by the union’s anti-Israel policies and a catalogue of events that had left him “hurt, upset and insulted”.

“This case is not about Israel-Palestine. It’s not about me. It’s about fellow Jews. We have been forced out. We have been humiliated. It has been horrendous and relentless against us,” he said.

Later the tribunal was briefly halted when Mr Fraser again wept while explaining how he believed his grandparents had been killed at Auschwitz.

Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You. Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic Cancer Now Appears On Most University of California Campuses

Jewish at U.C. — the real report, by the students themselves

Thursday, October 18, 2012 | by dan pine– Jewish Weekly

They called Tammuz Dubnov a liar. Right to his face.

The 17-year-old sophomore was standing in U.C. Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza alongside other students defending Israel.

Therefore, reasoned the pro-Palestinian protestors, Dubnov, who was born in Israel, must be a liar. “I stayed calm,” he recalled of the incident last spring. “They don’t actually know what they’re talking about.”

U.C. Berkeley, like any university, is a bastion of free speech, a testament to the power of the First Amendment and fundamental American values. At the same time, U.C. campuses have long been the sites of verbal attacks against Israel and, occasionally, Jews.

Divestment resolutions, heckling of Israeli speakers, “Israel Apartheid Week,” calls for academic boycotts of Israel and ethnic slurs — as well as an occasional swastika scrawled here or carved there — have become part of university life.

Are UC President Yudoff / UC Board of Regents Clueless?

This cartoon was origionally posted on September 16, 2008. Nothing has changed.

 

From the Jewish Journal

Where have you been the past 10 years?

On February 12, 2008, the Orange County Independent Task Force completed a year-long investigation at the University of California, Irvine ( UCI). Over 80 hours of interviews, as well as, documents, written complaints and numerous visits to the campus were used in the compilation of the subsequent Findings and Recommendations. Among the reports findings were that ” acts of anti-Semitism are real and well documented. Jewish students have been harassed. Hate speech has been unrelenting

Though the report was widely distributed and copies sent to the highest echelons of the University of California, it was roundly ignored. In our view,  University Of California officials, including UC President Mark Yudof, have failed to adequately address anti-semitic hate speech and harassment on it’s campuses. Now, 4 1/2 years after the release of the Findings and Recommendations  and at least 10 years since the beginning of the problems, we read the following editorial.  What took so long?–  OCITF
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Protests must not stray into anti-Semitism

Richard D. Barton* Published 6:35 p.m., * Thursday, August 23, 2012 *San Fransisco Chronicle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Protests-must-not-stray-into-anti-Semitism-3811364.php#ixzz24zg8svCc

F or the past decade, a movement of protest against Israel, its policies and Zionism has occupied a central place on University of California and other college and university campuses. The nature of the messages embodied in that movement has drawn tremendous attention and study.

Israel “Apartheid” weeks, mock checkpoints in which students carry fake automatic weapons and portray Israeli soldiers indiscriminately targeting Palestinians, cartoons and other depictions of Israelis as Nazis, and speakers which routinely accuse Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes are the hallmarks of the protests.

In many instances, traditional anti-Semitic themes of Jewish control of the media and U.S. government are advanced as explanations for U.S. support of Israel and the plight of the Palestinians.

California Assembly resolution urges California colleges and universities to fight anti-Semitism

Calif lawmakers denounce anti-Semitism in colleges – San Jose Mercury News

 

By HANNAH DREIER Associated Press

Posted: 08/28/2012 03:03:50 PM PDT August 29, 2012 12:55 AM GMT Updated: 08/28/2012 05:55:45 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—An Assembly resolution urging California colleges and universities to squelch nascent anti-Semitism also encouraged educators to crack down on demonstrations against Israel, angering advocates for Muslim students.

With no debate, lawmakers on Tuesday approved a resolution that encourages university leaders to combat a wide array of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel actions.

“California schools need to recognize that anti-Semitism is still a very real issue on college campuses around the state—it did not disappear with the end of World War II,” said Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, R-Fresno, the resolution’s author.

Most of the incidents of anti-Semitism the resolution cited are related to the Israel-Palestine debate. These include instances of protesters comparing Israeli police to Nazis and urging support for Hamas.

The resolution, which is purely symbolic and does not carry policy implications, also condemns the suggestion that Israel is a “racist” state and that Jews “wield excessive power over American foreign policy.” The resolution characterizes the student campaign to pressure the University of California system to divest from Israel as anti-Semitic, and applauds university leaders’ refusal to consider it.

Jewish Michigan college student had his jaw broken and mouth stapled shut in a vicious beating

‘I’ve never heard of anything so horrific,’ says father of MSU student who was brutally attacked

By Tammy Stables Battaglia Detroit Free Press

A 19-year-old Michigan State University student is recovering at home in Oakland County today after surgery overnight for a broken jaw his family says stems from a brutal hate crime. Police, however, said it did not appear to be a hate crime.

Two men at a party early Sunday attacked Zachary Tennen, a journalism sophomore at MSU, after asking whether he was Jewish,his mother and father, Tina and Bruce Tennen, said today.

They raised their arms in a Nazi salute, chanting “Heil Hitler” and then knocked Tennen unconscious, she said.

“Politically Correct Anti-Semitism”. Harassment continues at the University Of California

Note: On February 12, 2008, the Orange County Independent Task Force completed a year-long investigation at the University of California, Irvine ( UCI). Over 80 hours of interviews, as well as, documents, written complaints and numerous visits to the campus were used in the compilation of the subsequent Report and Recommendations.  Among the reports findings were that  ” acts of anti-Semitism are real and well documented. Jewish students have been harassed. Hate speech has been unrelenting. For the most part, Jewish organizations in Orange County have been ineffective in dealing with anti-Semitism at UCI.  Therefore, Students with a strong Jewish identity should consider enrolling elsewhere unless and until tangible changes are made.”

 The University administration  rightfully argued that it cannot and will not stifle free speech on campus. However, University leaders have a First Amendment right and a responsibility to identify and denounce hate speakers and hate speech and as it occurs.  In our view University Of California officials, including UC President Mark Yudof, have failed to adequately address anti-semitic hate speech and harassment on it’s campuses. The complete 34 page report can be found at:
https://octaskforce.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/orange-county-task-force-report-on-anti-semitism-at-uci.pdf

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The Following is an article from the San Fransisco Chronicle:

UC report on anti-Semitism draws ire

Nanette Asimov   Updated 10:56 a.m., Thursday, August 9, 2012

Katherine Orr had just started her freshman year at UC Berkeley last August when she was stunned to see five students in military fatigues carrying what looked like rifles and stopping students at Sather Gate.

“They were asking people, ‘Are you Jewish?’ They were trying to be like soldiers interrogating Palestinians along the border,” Orr said. “They were re-enacting what was happening on the West Bank.”

To students who regard Israel as an essential Jewish homeland, this event and others like it that are staged each year on University of California campuses seem hostile, like poorly concealed anti-Semitism – especially when the Israeli flag with its Star of David is paired with a Nazi swastika, says a new report by a UC fact-finding team seeking to understand Jewish students’ experiences.

But to students who oppose Israeli policies and support such sensational protest methods, some recommendations by the team – that UC adopt a definition of anti-Semitism, prohibit hate speech and consider banning campus sponsorship of offensive activities – have become a new subject for protest.

“It’s like saying that I want my heart removed from my body.”

The Jewish Federation vs. Zionism

(Hat Tip to Ha-Emet)

July 31, 2012 – 11:22 pm

When the Los Angeles Jewish Federation stopped me from speaking last month, I said that Zionism was not welcome at the Jewish Federation. I didn’t know just how right I was. Last week Lori Lowenthal Marcus, the U.S. correspondent for the Jewish Press, reported that “in what has been described as ‘a closeted and cowardly move,’ the Jewish Federations of North America last week rejected the inclusion of the term ‘Zionism’ in a major system-wide planning document.”

According to Marcus, “Richard Wexler, former chair of the Chicago Federation and national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal in the late ‘90s, revealed yesterday, July 26, that JFNA’s leaders have rejected the inclusion of the term ‘Zionism’ in their Global Planning Table Work Group Report because the term ‘is too controversial.’

 

“I am beyond disappointed and upset,” Wexler said. Marcus explained, “The rejection of Zionism by JFNA leaders was described by Wexler in his blogpost and in comments to The Jewish Press, as a continuing trend by Federations to distance themselves from Israel.”

This is the most mind-numbing and sickening news. Despite their carefully crafted half-denial, this is an attempt to distance themselves from Israel. And that is suicidal. The Jewish people are Israel. It’s like saying that I want to distance myself from myself. Or I want my heart removed from my body. I don’t want it anymore.

But in response to Marcus’s article, Jerry Silverman, the president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Federations of North America, issued a statement: “On July 27, 2012,” Silverman said, “Lori Lowenthal Marcus wrote accusing the Jewish Federations of North America of moving away from its support of Israel and Zionism. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ongoing support of Israel is fundamental to Federations and to JFNA. Our system sends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to Israel to support the vulnerable, to assist in education programs, to help new immigrants, to assist in job and skills development, and to provide concrete expressions of solidarity during Israel’s darkest hours. We connect American Jews to Israel and Israelis by supporting birthright and other youth and young adult programs, community and national missions to Israel, and innovative partnerships between our communities and Israeli communities. We are proud to be holding our 2013 General Assembly in Israel, where we will have an opportunity to highlight the important work we do with our partners in Israel.”

This is not Zionism. The Federation’s statement is clearly a deflection. Helping Jews throughout the world including in Israel is altogether different from Zionism.

I asked Marcus about this, and she pointed out that Silverman’s statement doesn’t say anything about the central claim of her article: that the Federation rejected use of the term “Zionism” in its Global Planning Table Work Group Report. She told me: “I stand by the story exactly as written — as written, some have not read it carefully and misreadings on both sides have blurred facts. It’s regrettable the JFNA folks chose not to respond to my queries and only issued a non-responsive statement after the article was already published.”

This is in line with what Steven M. Goldberg, national vice chairman of the Zionist Organization of America and chair of the ZOA Los Angeles chapter, told me about the Federation’s cancelation of my speech: “What happened to you in Los Angeles was not a momentary aberration. It was part of a pattern that defines the Federation.” The burying of the term “Zionism” for being too “controversial” is a manifestation of the same moral cowardice. So is what journalist Caroline Glick termed in April 2011 the “Jewish Federation’s financial and organizational support for University of California at Irvine’s Olive Tree Initiative,” a tour of Israel for Jewish students in the U.S.

The Olive Tree Initiative, Glick explains, “claims to be interested in fostering good relations between Jewish and Arab students,” but “it actually just propagandizes against Israel. The speakers who addressed students participating in the two-week trip were overwhelmingly anti-Israel. Almost all the Palestinian speakers expressed hatred for Israel. Many of the Israeli speakers represented groups that call for economic warfare against Israel and defame Israel as a racist state. Half of the supposedly neutral representatives of international organizations who spoke to the group are notorious for their opposition to Israel.”

And here again, when challenged on their support for the Olive Tree Initiative, according to Glick “the Federation and Hillel have dug in their heels.” The Federation also has included “Palestinian” jihad propaganda movies in its film festivals.

We live in times when those controlling the establishment media organizations increasingly fear confronting the true evils of the day, cowed by the forces of Islamic supremacism. It saddens me to number the Los Angeles Jewish Federation among these compromised elites, but it cannot be denied any longer. L.A.’s failed Jewish leadership follows in the rich tradition of its forebears who worshipped the golden calf. Imagine: Zionism is not welcome at the L.A. Jewish Federation.

Jewish leadership is on the trains and thinks we will go quietly. This is tragic. Is it any wonder that the American Jewish left has become a problem for Israel? Who are these people? What is their role? What is the point of these fat, bloated, morally bankrupt organizations? What is their mission? What’s the point of Jewish lay leadership if they submit before their executioners? Shame on our cowardly leadership for throwing one of our own under the bus. We expect that from kapos, not from proud Jews.

The kapos had a gun to their head. What is the Federation’s excuse?

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Thumbnail and illustration courtesy shutterstock / mhatzapa.

Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of Atlas Shrugs.com. She is the author of The Post-American Presidency.

Five people face charges for allegedly terrorizing a Jewish summer camp in Pennsylvania

Jewish Summer Camp in Pennsylvania ‘Terrorized’; Five Charged

   By ALON HARISH | ABC News – Thu, Jul 26, 2012

In three separate episodes earlier this month, three adults and two juveniles caused property damage as they sped dangerously through Camp Bonim in Wayne County in a pickup truck, shouting anti-Semitic epithets and firing paintball guns at campers and staff, District Attorney Janine Edwards said in a press release. The three adults were arrested Wednesday morning and face felony and misdemeanor charges, including ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats and assault.

“These children were terrorized and in fear for their lives by the actions of this group,” Edwards said in the release. “The vicious, cruel and obscene nature of the language hurled at the campers is unspeakable. Luckily none of the children suffered any serious physical injury, however, the emotional damage is immeasurable.”

NYC police increase security in Jewish neighborhoods in response to attack in Bulgaria

NYC police increase security in Jewish neighborhoods in response to attack in Bulgaria

There are no specific threats against New York Jewish venues.

JTA | Jul.20, 2012 | 4:13 PM

 

Up to 100 New York City “critical response vehicles” have been deployed to New York City Jewish neighborhoods and around synagogues in response to the deadly terrorist bombing in Bulgaria against tourists.

There are no specific threats against New York Jewish venues, according to New York 1.

Wednesday’s explosion outside Sarafovo Airport in Burgas killed five Israeli tourists, a Bulgarian bus driver and the suspected suicide bomber. More than 30 Israelis were injured. The Israelis had just arrived on a charter flight from Israel.

“It is a tragedy and I met with the Israeli ambassador this morning to get a briefing. The [police department] is all over it, both in Europe and in Israel and here, but you won’t see anything different,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday according to New York 1.

Police in the city made similar moves in March following the murder of three children and a rabbi by a gunman in Toulouse, France.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/nyc-police-increase-security-in-jewish-neighborhoods-in-response-to-attack-in-bulgaria-1.452521

Think They Hate only “Zionist Jews”? Think again. They Hate You Whether You Support Israel Or Not.

New York police link Iran, proxies to nine 2012 plots against Jewish targets

Report cites three foiled plots in January, three in February and another three since late June.

By Reuters | Jul.20, 2012 | 7:42 PM

  

New York police believe Iranian Revolutionary Guards or their proxies have been involved so far this year in nine plots against Israeli or Jewish targets around the world, according to restricted police documents obtained by Reuters.

Reports prepared this week by intelligence analysts for the New York Police Department (NYPD) say three plots were foiled in January, three in February and another three since late June. Iran has repeatedly denied supporting militant attacks abroad.

The documents, labeled “Law Enforcement Sensitive,” said that this week’s suicide bomb attack in Bulgaria was the second plot to be unmasked there this year.

The reports detail two plots in Bangkok and one each in New Delhi, Tbilisi, Baku, Mombasa and Cyprus. Each plot was attributed to Iran or its Lebanese Hezbollah militant allies, said the reports, which were produced following the bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria of a bus carrying Israeli tourists.

Has the Olive Tree Initiative done anything to reduce the anti-Israel rhetoric at UC Irvine?

This photo was taken from the so-called “apartheid wall” which travels throughout the State of California college campuses and recently concluded its stay at UC Irvine.  Please notice what the drawing describes as “occupied territory”.  It should speak for itself.  The question is:  Has the Olive Tree Initiative had any discernible positive impact in terms of the hateful rhetoric during “hate week” at UC Irvine and other California Campuses?  Why not ask the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union, Malik Ali, Ben White, Hatem Bazian or the so-called “Irvine 11”?

Biased Cal Poly Pomona Student Newspaper Article: Students “Experience” MSA “Apartheid Wall”.

 

Tessa Bisha / The Poly Post

(Note: This wall, now appearing on the UC Irvine campus, has been for many years  the center piece for what many describe as “hate week.”–OCITF)

Students experience traveling Apartheid Wall

Brittany Ritzi, Staff Writer | Posted: Monday, May 7, 2012 11:59 pm

Students were able to learn about Palestinian conflict and the Israeli Apartheid Wall last week when Cal Poly Pomona’s Muslim Student Association hosted its annual Palestine Awareness Week.

The week’s events started off with the Apartheid Wall which was to be on display in the University Park Monday through Friday, but the wall was only kept up through Wednesday as it was needed at another school.

The wall, which travels between several Southern California universities, displayed a variety of  facts explaining current issues dealing with Palestine occupation.

Malik Ali: “Zionist” this, “Israeli apartheid” that. Night is day and day is night.

UC Irvine Muslim Student Union Kicks Off Hate Week. Speaker Ben White Underwhelms.

British “journalist” Ben White (below) drones on about Israeli “apartheid” and the merits of “BDS” (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction).   Evidently, White and his sponsors had little interest in spending any significant time discussing  the atrocities occurring  in next door Syria or massive human rights violations throughout the Middle East.  

UCI Muslim Student Union At It Again: Hate Week 2012

As the bodies continue to pile up in Syria and human rights remain a punch-line in many countires around the middle east and many parts of the world, the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union trots out this years version of the same old Israel bashing act.  Headlining are none other than  Ben White and Malik Ali.

“Hateful and offensive” display at UC Irvine Student Center?

Note: The following anonymous opinion was posted on the myUCIrvine web page.  In recent years, Jewish students who have spoken out about their experiences at UCI, have complained about being ridiculed and ostracised.  For this reason a number of students have left the campus or graduated early.  To view the photographs click the link below.

Scandal at UCI: Faculty fuels conflict as students look for peace 

“Pictures of blood stained flags and a memorial to hate speech has recently been put up in the Student Center… by a professor.”

Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:12pm By AnonymousOpinion  myUCIrvine

 http://www.myucirvine.com/news/opinion/scandle-at-uci-faculty-fuels-conflict-as-students-look-for-peace-20120427

If there is anything UC Irvine utterly despises, it must be freedom, equality, and democracy. I say this in full confidence because the only country that the administration at UCI allows to be slandered, libeled, and publicly desecrated is anything pertaining to Israel or the Jewish people.

UC Irvine prides itself on being a campus where all views and opinions can be heard, shared, as well as respected. I am sorry to say that this just isn’t the case. Take the Cross Culture Center (CCC), what should be the hub of diversity on campus, as an example. The CCC  “is dedicated to creating and maintaining a socially just campus, fostering the cultural identities within our community, and providing opportunities for intellectual exchange, leadership development, and community engagement” but clearly, they do not accomplish that. A demonstration of everything wrong with the CCC is the mural in the center proudly depicting the infamous El- Hajj Malik El- Shabazz. For those of you who are not familiar with Shabazz, he was a preacher of anti-Semitism, black supremacy and encouraged violence amongst his supporters.  Before his days as a member of the Nation of Islam, Shabazz told the US Draft Board that he, as well as his black supremacist supporters, wanted to “steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers.” This is a wonderful example of what the Cross Culture Center stands for because the university not only allows, but rewards this type of behavior.

The most hateful, disgusting, and narrow minded display of intolerance on campus every year is the Muslim Student Union and Students for Justice in Palestine’s week aimed at showing their baseless and unjustified hatred of the Jewish people. Every year for one week, UCI students are bothered with a public display of abhorrence towards one national ethnicity, the Jews. This is not surprising since the MSU has connections to the terrorist group Hamas, the group responsible for launching over 8000 rockets into Israel and kidnapping Israeli soldiers as well as the Muslim Brotherhood. This disgusting act has not only never been condemned, it occurs every year, much to the students in SJP’s pleasure. To make things even worse, in the Student Center, a place where students go to study throughout the day, there is a wall of pictures honoring these detestable acts and the bigoted speakers SJP brings to campus.

Long Beach State Muslim Student Association Displays “Apartheid Wall” During Holocaust Rememberance

Note: This rotting wall of  deception and hypocrisy has been dragged around from campus to campus over the past several years by Muslim Student Associations and their sponsors. Noticeably absent is any criticism or protest of the mass killings in Syria and the numerous human rights violations occurring in countries where some of the student MSA members and many of their parents have emigrated. The UC Irvine Muslim Student Union erects this disgraceful display each year, as the center-piece to what many have dubbed “hate week”.

Muslim Students at CA University Protest Israel on Yom HaShoa

Algemeiner

April 18, 2012

Muslim students at California State University, Long Beach have chosen the week of Yom HaShoa to hold their annual protest against Israel, dubbed “Palestinian Awareness Week.”

The events, taking place from April 16-19, are sponsored by the Muslim Students Association (MSA), and coincides today with Yom HaShoa; the somber day in which the six million Jews that perished in the Holocaust are remembered.

Video of University of California Jewish Students: “I have never felt this threatened…”

The following video was forwarded to us by a group calling itself  “Hillel Watch”

“I wrote this last Passover, but, unfortunately, nothing’s changed.” –Stella Paul

Note: We wish to thank Stella Paul for sending the following article to us:

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This Passover, Free Us From A Failed Jewish Leadership

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By Stella Paul

April 23, 2011

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This week is Passover, the season of deliverance, and I’m praying for deliverance from America’s failed Jewish leadership.  As Jews confront the most dangerous era since World War II, whom are we stuck with for leaders?  A clueless bunch of mini-Pharaohs, strutting around proclaiming their moral superiority, blissfully unaware the Jewish people’s mortal enemies are pulling down their pants and laughing at them.

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Cataloguing their collective acts of evasion, cowardice, appeasement, and surrender is not for the faint of heart, but, luckily, I’m fortified by matzo balls and ready to rock.  At the Passover Seder, Jews recite Dayenu, a prayer listing the many blessings bestowed by the Almighty, each of which would have sufficed (Dayenu) in its own right.  Here, alas, is a woeful Dayenu of the failures of the American Jewish establishment.  Can anyone tell me why these preening big shots haven’t been forced to resign in shame?  Why, in God’s name, are our purported “leaders” still collecting cushy paychecks when their credibility is bankrupt?.

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If they only had allowed a storm of anti-Semitism to rise in the West, and hate crimes against American Jews to skyrocket to unprecedented heights, while they declined to muster even a listless response — Dayenu — they would have failed.

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If they only had stood aside, shrugging, while America’s college campuses became battlegrounds in the war against Israel, where anti-Semitic lies were force-fed to America’s next generation of leaders, and Jewish students were intimidated and taught self-hatred and alienation from their own identities — Dayenu — they would have faileed.

More bad news about the Olive Tree Initiative?

Note: On December 28, 2010 The Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism,  formally asked  the Orange County Jewish Federation, Hillel and the Rose Project. to adopt the Jewish Community of San Francisco’s guidelines for funding. Among other things, the guidelines prohibit funding for any activities that “advocate for, or endorse, undermining the legitimacy of Israel as a secure independent, democratic Jewish state, including through participation in the [BDS] movement, in whole or in part.” On March 21, 2010, we published the Pledge in memory of the Fogal Family.  To date those entities, The OC Jewish Federation, Hillel and the Rose Project have not bothered to respond.

Bringing the War on Jerusalem to American Universities

By Frank Crimi On April 2, 2012 @ 12:01 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage

The Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), the self-described “non-partisan college educational program” operating out of numerous universities, has, since its founding in 2007, received the support of a bevy of rabidly anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish individuals and groups, many with connections to terrorist organizations and their apologists, including Hamas.

One such notable OTI supporter is Palestinian political leader Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), a Palestinian political party founded in 2002 as a purported “democratic third force” between the “corruption” of the Palestinian political umbrella group Fatah and the “extremism” of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Barghouti has not only served as a lecturer for the OTI for many years, but in 2009 his organization, the PNI, was thanked for being an “Institiutional Supporter” of the program. An overview of Barghouti’s background validates why critics of the OTI believe the organization’s purpose is to manufacture anti-Israel advocates, all the while masquerading as a group dedicated to promoting “understanding” between Israelis and Palestinians.

Barghouti’s antipathy for Israelis may run in his family, given that his cousin, Marwan Barghouti, led the First and Second Intifadas and is currently serving five life sentences for murder in Israel. While Barghouti has publicly portrayed himself as a promoter of non-violence and an advocate of a two-state solution, he has also shown a disdain for the political process, having once proclaimed that “there’s no use in meetings with Israelis and there is no peace partner in Israel.”

Nevertheless, the reality is that Barghouti has played a leading role in the Fatah-Hamas coalition, a role which includes sidling up to the genocidal terrorists of Hamas and portraying Israel as bastion of apartheid and a perpetrator of crimes against humanity.

For example, Barghouti, who is a leader in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, the economic warfare campaign against Israel, often uses “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” rhetoric in describing Israel.

Barghouti’s most recent effort to delegitimize Israel was as a prime organizer of the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ) on March 30, an event also supported by Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the theocratic totalitarians of Iran.

According to event organizers, the GMJ was a protest march in which Arab and foreign activists were to descend upon Jerusalem in an attempt to “confirm that the policies and practices of the racist Zionist state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity.”