While support for Israel remains strong among most Americans and their representatives in Congress, American college campuses have become a hotbed of anti-Zionist propaganda that can sometime blur the line between inflammatory political arguments and outright Jew-hatred. The latest example of just how close to that line Israel’s foes go comes from Florida Atlantic University, where Students for Justice in Palestine posted mock eviction notices on the doors of more than 200 dorm rooms at the school.
The leaflet seeks to inculcate the idea that Israel is a brutal oppressor that deliberately murdered an American supporter of the Palestinians. These charges are a malicious distortion of the facts and are part of a hateful campaign whose purpose is to delegitimize Israel. Israel’s critics have a right to express their opinions, but by pasting these fake evictions on the doors of a dorm with what one supposes is a considerable Jewish population, the action raises questions about whether the intent was to intimidate Jews as well as demonizing the Jewish state.
Compounding the problem is the fact that the notices were actually approved by the school’s housing department, one of whose employees accompanied the anti-Israel activists as they put up their work. Subsequently, FAU disavowed this move but as with past incidents at other universities, it looks as if the school has not considered whether they have facilitated a hate crime against Jews.
The problem here is not just that the leaflet was false and defamatory. In public forums, such ideas can be put forward, debated and debunked. It is that the tactics employed by the Israel-haters are intended to silence and intimidate opponents. The student group that put up the leaflets may claim they are seeking to help others to understand the Palestinians, but in practice what they are doing is serving notice on Jewish students that they are the ones who could be thrown out. While Israel’s government is no more entitled to impunity from criticism than any other, the idea that efforts whose aim is opposition to the existence of the Jewish state by demonizing its inhabitants ought to set off alarms at institutions that are covered by Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights law that ban discriminatory behavior and actions. But as COMMENTARY noted in an article about anti-Semitic incidents at the University of California at Irvine, both educational institutions and the federal government have been reluctant to take a stand against this sort of behavior.
In its efforts to monitor the growth of international anti-Semitism, the U.S. State Department has prominently reported on the connection between anti-Israel incitement and hatred of Jews. As the Zionist Organization of America, a group that has been at the forefront of the fight to defend Jewish students against this sort of intimidation, noted in a release protesting the FAU incident, the State Department report said efforts to demonize Israel and Israelis “as barbaric, unprincipled, selfish, inhumane, etc. is anti-Semitic and has the effect of causing audiences to associate those bad attributes with Jews in general.” So while free debate about the Middle East is not to be interfered with, universities should be as careful about actions that target Jews as they would about those that sought to single out African-Americans or Hispanics through the use of double standards and innuendo. In the case of FAU, for the school to literally put its stamp of approval on the leaflets and allow them to be pasted onto the doors of students is an act of brazen intimidation. The university cannot undo its mistake with mere retroactive statements. FAU and other campuses where the bullying of Jewish and Zionist students has become commonplace need to understand that acquiescing to the creation of a hostile environment for Jews is not only immoral; it is a potential violation of federal law.
No wonder Obama spoke at FAU today for his (campaign) event. I'm sure he brought this up.
It's hard for me to think of an apt response apart from reporting them all to the DHS for terrorism. I'm pretty sure I'd start legal action to have any non citizens deported. And if they're American citizens, detained by the FBI at the least for fomenting terrorist acts and hate speech. In my state, making an open threat to a group of people is legally 'making a terroristic threat'. Then I'd point them out to whatever local KKK and Nazi types as their brothers in arms and give all their names and addresses to those two groups. Then I'd take out an ad in the student newspaper advertising the fact that this group is now on the mailing list of the KKK and the Nazi party. For starters.
Neither the Tobin piece nor the story he links to says that Jewish students were singled out for these fake notices. It looks to be a bit of political theater designed to call attention to the dispossession of Arabs in Israel and the occupied territories. Tobin no doubt dislikes the message, but this incident seems to be a case of anti-Zionist agitprop, not anti-Jewish intimidation. It's easier to weep and wail about some imaginary mini-pogrom than to confront the fact that Israel is founded on the dispossession of Arabs, which continues to this day. n nReliably, the Empress turns Tobin's lachrymose exaggeration into a call for government oppression and private thuggery. QED.
If you want a rhetorical war fought on entirely 'legal grounds' then you need to be prepared to be attacked in kind. I always get an enormous laugh watching anarcho fascists like you who insist on literally being able to do whatever you like to whomever whenever w/o restriction only to watch you pout and scream "Oppression! Zionist war crime!" if anyone responds in exactly the same way back at you. Here's a tip. Go boil into the streets like an Islamic mob and torch something in the name of peace and tolerance.
Huh?
What do U have to say about the 900,000 Jews expelled from the Arab states (1948) and who had ALL their possessions stolen by these same Arabs!
I noticed that blacks and Hispanics were silent on this issue. Goes to show that both groups, despite help in their issues from American Jews, are not very appreciative and stand silently by. One would think that American Jews would reconsider their support for so-called Civil Rights issues.
Dont assume that all black Americans are against Israel. I went to a CUFI (Christians United For Israel) meeting at a black evangelical church in Compton (Los Angeles) a few weeks ago. It was extraordinary! Warm, welcoming, lovely people. The pastor spoke very specifically about an oblication that history had laid upon black Americans — Jews had agitated for blacks during the '60s, and black evangelicals are now returning the favor, fighting the anti-Zionist mobs. CUFI has 1 million members and is growing fast. There are 50 million evangelicals in America. I'm pretty convinced that these are the Americans who will make a difference as Israel can count less and less on American Jews to fight for it.
Remember three things. First, Christians – particularly "old-line" Protestant Christians — have a real problem with our religious leaders right now — they have left us and gone off into never-never land of the squishy left — a lot of us don't even go to church anymore because we don't want to hear their garbage anymore and that is where a lot of the membership in the evangelical churches is coming from. n nSecond, 3/4 of the Christian Bible is the Torah. Essentially verbatim, essentially in order, just translated into English. The King James Bible was translated from the Hebrew in 1611 into the English language of that era, with other versions translated later — but the principle is that it is *supposed to be* accurate to what the Hebrew says. It is our religious tradition too, Israel is OUR holy land too — I would like to go see it myself someday and not have it be a big piece of radioactive glass. Israel is more important to a lot of Christians than I think it is to a lot of Jews — and when you realize that while the Catholics focus on Rome as the center of their religion, Protestant Christians focus on Israel. Israel is the center of my religion in a way that I don't see in a lot of left-leaning Jews who I sometimes think consider Washington, DC to be the center of their faith. n"O little town of Bethlehem", Nazareth, Judea, King David, King Solomon — this is our religious tradition too — we don't want to see it destroyed either.. n nThird, and most important, not only do they want to kill us too, not only are there people who will kill Christians just as quickly as they will kill Jews, IT IS HAPPENING right now! CAMERA is the only group reporting this, the Coptic Christians of Egypt are being massacred and have been ever since the "Arab Spring" of a year ago. I don't understand why the majority of American Jews hear people saying "we want to kill you" and aren't taking it seriously — they also add that they want to kill all the Christians too, and we *are* taking it seriously…. n nWe aren't Jews, we don't wish to be Jews, but we have a whole lot of respect for Judaism and very little tolerance for attacks on it because it is an attack on everything we value as well. That is a point that a lot of people often miss. It is our holy land too…..
Remember one other thing, particularly in a city (or neighborhood?) like Compton – the thugs will harm the individual Black Christians(and their children) just as quickly as they will harm the individual Jew (and their children) — sometimes people have to keep their mouths shut for their own safety or (more often) for the safety of their families and their children. n nThat does not mean that they aren't with you — nor that they won't vote with you — only that they don't want their fifth grader beaten up on the school bus (or worse) and that is a reality that needs to be remembered…. n n