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Anti-Semitic Program at San Francisco State
Editor’s Note: The following is a letter from Laurie Zoloth, Director, Jewish Studies Program at San Francisco State University, dated Thursday, May 9.
Dear Colleagues,
TODAY, ALL DAY, I have been listening to the reactions of students, parents, and community members who were on campus yesterday. I have received e-mail from around the country, and phone calls, worried for both my personal safety on the campus, and for the entire intellectual project of having a Jewish Studies program, and recruiting students to a campus that in the last month has become a venue for hate speech and anti-Semitism. After nearly 7 years as director of Jewish Studies, and after nearly two decades of life here as a student, faculty member and wife of the Hillel rabbi, after years of patient work and difficult civic discourse, I am saddened to see SFSU return to its notoriety as a place that teaches anti-Semitism, hatred for America, and hatred, above all else, for the Jewish State of Israel, a state that I cherish. I cannot fully express what it feels like to have to walk across campus daily, past maps of the Middle East that do not include Israel, past posters of cans of soup with labels on them of drops of blood and dead babies, labeled "canned Palestinian children meat, slaughtered according to Jewish rites under American license," past poster after poster calling out "Zionism=racism, and Jews=Nazis." This is not civic discourse, this is not free speech, and this is the Weimar Republic with brown shirts it cannot control. This is the casual introduction of the medieval blood libel and virulent hatred smeared around our campus in a manner so ordinary that it hardly excites concern-except if you are a Jew, and you understand that hateful words have always led to hateful deeds.
Yesterday, the hatred coalesced in a hate mob. Yesterday's Peace In The Middle East Rally was completely organized by the Hillel students, mostly 18 and 19 years old. They spoke about their lives at SFSU and of their support for Israel, and they sang of peace. They wore new Hillel t-shirts that said "peace" in English, Hebrew and Arabic. A Russian immigrant, in his new English, spoke of loving his new country, a haven from anti-Semitism. A sophomore spoke about being here only one year, and about the support and community she found at the Hillel House. Both spoke of how hard it was to live as a Jew on this campus how isolating, how terrifying. A surfer guy, spoke of his love of Jesus, and his support for Israel, and a young freshman earnestly asked for a moment of silence, and all the Jews stood still, listening as the shouted hate of the counter demonstrators filled the air with abuse.
As soon as the community supporters left, the 50 students who remained praying in a minyan for the traditional afternoon prayers, or chatting, or cleaning up after the rally, talking -- were surrounded by a large, angry crowd of Palestinians and their supporters. But they were not calling for peace. They screamed at us to "go back to Russia" and they screamed that they would kill us all, and other terrible things. They surrounded the praying students, and the elderly women who are our elder college participants, who survived the Shoah, who helped shape the Bay Area peace movement, only to watch as a threatening crowd shoved the Hillel students against the wall of the plaza. I had invited members of my Orthodox community to join us, members of my Board of Visitors, and we stood there in despair. Let me remind you that in building the SFSU Jewish Studies program, we asked the same people for their support and that our Jewish community, who pay for the program once as taxpayers and again as Jews, generously supports our program. Let me remind you that ours is arguably one of the Jewish Studies programs in the country most devoted to peace, justice and diversity since our inception.
As the counter demonstrators poured into the plaza, screaming at the Jews to "Get out or we will kill you" and "Hitler did not finish the job," I turned to the police and to every administrator I could find and asked them to remove the counter demonstrators from the Plaza, to maintain the separation of 100 feet that we had been promised. The police told me that they had been told not to arrest anyone, and that if they did, "it would start a riot." I told them that it already was a riot. Finally, Fred Astren, the Northern California Hillel Director and I went up directly to speak with Dean Saffold, who was watching from her post a flight above us. She told us she would call in the SF police. But the police could do nothing more than surround the Jewish students and community members who were now trapped in a corner of the plaza, grouped under the flags of Israel, while an angry, out of control mob, literally chanting for our deaths, surrounded us. Dr. Astren and I went to stand with our students. This was neither free speech nor discourse, but raw, physical assault.
Was I afraid? No, really more sad that I could not protect my students. Not one administrator came to stand with us. I knew that if a crowd of Palestinian or Black student had been there, surrounded by a crowd of white racists screaming racist threats, shielded by police, the faculty and staff would have no trouble deciding which side to stand on. In fact, the scene recalled for me many moments in the Civil Rights movement, or the United Farm Workers movement, when, as a student, I stood with Black and Latino colleagues, surrounded by hateful mobs. Then, as now, I sang peace songs, and then, as now, the hateful crowd screamed at me, "Go back to Russia, Jew." How ironic that it all took place under the picture of Cesar Chavez, who led the very demonstrations that I took part in as a student.
There was no safe way out of the Plaza. We had to be marched back to the Hillel House under armed SF police guard, and we had to have a police guard remain outside Hillel. I was very proud of the students, who did not flinch and who did not, even one time, resort to violence or anger in retaliation. Several community members who were swept up in the situation simply could not believe what they saw. One young student told me, "I have read about anti-Semitism in books, but this is the first time I have seen real anti-Semites, people who just hate me without knowing me, just because I am a Jew." She lives in the dorms. Her mother calls and urges her to transfer to a safer campus.
Today is advising day. For me, the question is an open one: what do I advise the Jewish students to do?
Laurie Zoloth,
Director, Jewish Studies Program
TODAY, ALL DAY, I have been listening to the reactions of students, parents, and community members who were on campus yesterday. I have received e-mail from around the country, and phone calls, worried for both my personal safety on the campus, and for the entire intellectual project of having a Jewish Studies program, and recruiting students to a campus that in the last month has become a venue for hate speech and anti-Semitism. After nearly 7 years as director of Jewish Studies, and after nearly two decades of life here as a student, faculty member and wife of the Hillel rabbi, after years of patient work and difficult civic discourse, I am saddened to see SFSU return to its notoriety as a place that teaches anti-Semitism, hatred for America, and hatred, above all else, for the Jewish State of Israel, a state that I cherish. I cannot fully express what it feels like to have to walk across campus daily, past maps of the Middle East that do not include Israel, past posters of cans of soup with labels on them of drops of blood and dead babies, labeled "canned Palestinian children meat, slaughtered according to Jewish rites under American license," past poster after poster calling out "Zionism=racism, and Jews=Nazis." This is not civic discourse, this is not free speech, and this is the Weimar Republic with brown shirts it cannot control. This is the casual introduction of the medieval blood libel and virulent hatred smeared around our campus in a manner so ordinary that it hardly excites concern-except if you are a Jew, and you understand that hateful words have always led to hateful deeds.
Yesterday, the hatred coalesced in a hate mob. Yesterday's Peace In The Middle East Rally was completely organized by the Hillel students, mostly 18 and 19 years old. They spoke about their lives at SFSU and of their support for Israel, and they sang of peace. They wore new Hillel t-shirts that said "peace" in English, Hebrew and Arabic. A Russian immigrant, in his new English, spoke of loving his new country, a haven from anti-Semitism. A sophomore spoke about being here only one year, and about the support and community she found at the Hillel House. Both spoke of how hard it was to live as a Jew on this campus how isolating, how terrifying. A surfer guy, spoke of his love of Jesus, and his support for Israel, and a young freshman earnestly asked for a moment of silence, and all the Jews stood still, listening as the shouted hate of the counter demonstrators filled the air with abuse.
As soon as the community supporters left, the 50 students who remained praying in a minyan for the traditional afternoon prayers, or chatting, or cleaning up after the rally, talking -- were surrounded by a large, angry crowd of Palestinians and their supporters. But they were not calling for peace. They screamed at us to "go back to Russia" and they screamed that they would kill us all, and other terrible things. They surrounded the praying students, and the elderly women who are our elder college participants, who survived the Shoah, who helped shape the Bay Area peace movement, only to watch as a threatening crowd shoved the Hillel students against the wall of the plaza. I had invited members of my Orthodox community to join us, members of my Board of Visitors, and we stood there in despair. Let me remind you that in building the SFSU Jewish Studies program, we asked the same people for their support and that our Jewish community, who pay for the program once as taxpayers and again as Jews, generously supports our program. Let me remind you that ours is arguably one of the Jewish Studies programs in the country most devoted to peace, justice and diversity since our inception.
As the counter demonstrators poured into the plaza, screaming at the Jews to "Get out or we will kill you" and "Hitler did not finish the job," I turned to the police and to every administrator I could find and asked them to remove the counter demonstrators from the Plaza, to maintain the separation of 100 feet that we had been promised. The police told me that they had been told not to arrest anyone, and that if they did, "it would start a riot." I told them that it already was a riot. Finally, Fred Astren, the Northern California Hillel Director and I went up directly to speak with Dean Saffold, who was watching from her post a flight above us. She told us she would call in the SF police. But the police could do nothing more than surround the Jewish students and community members who were now trapped in a corner of the plaza, grouped under the flags of Israel, while an angry, out of control mob, literally chanting for our deaths, surrounded us. Dr. Astren and I went to stand with our students. This was neither free speech nor discourse, but raw, physical assault.
Was I afraid? No, really more sad that I could not protect my students. Not one administrator came to stand with us. I knew that if a crowd of Palestinian or Black student had been there, surrounded by a crowd of white racists screaming racist threats, shielded by police, the faculty and staff would have no trouble deciding which side to stand on. In fact, the scene recalled for me many moments in the Civil Rights movement, or the United Farm Workers movement, when, as a student, I stood with Black and Latino colleagues, surrounded by hateful mobs. Then, as now, I sang peace songs, and then, as now, the hateful crowd screamed at me, "Go back to Russia, Jew." How ironic that it all took place under the picture of Cesar Chavez, who led the very demonstrations that I took part in as a student.
There was no safe way out of the Plaza. We had to be marched back to the Hillel House under armed SF police guard, and we had to have a police guard remain outside Hillel. I was very proud of the students, who did not flinch and who did not, even one time, resort to violence or anger in retaliation. Several community members who were swept up in the situation simply could not believe what they saw. One young student told me, "I have read about anti-Semitism in books, but this is the first time I have seen real anti-Semites, people who just hate me without knowing me, just because I am a Jew." She lives in the dorms. Her mother calls and urges her to transfer to a safer campus.
Today is advising day. For me, the question is an open one: what do I advise the Jewish students to do?
Laurie Zoloth,
Director, Jewish Studies Program
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It saddens me to read that even in an area that I associate with tolerance, hatred boils over. Anger makes distinctions become fuzzy and hatred for a system one believes is injust becomes hatred for the people associated with it. All over the world, people are equating Jews with Zionists with Israelis. The real issue is more complicated. I do not agree with Israeli policies, but I reject that they are Jewish ones, that somehow each member of that religion is responsible for Sharon's misdeeds.
The author of this article seems to agree with me in part--people should not be targeted because of their religion or hated because of the way in which they worship. But as I read her text, I cannot help but feel that she applies this principle unequally. She is certainly justified in criticizing the actions of pro-Palestinian protestors who express hatred for Jews, or who use violence or intimidation. But the creative imagery of her argument, I think, serves much the same function. The Palestinians are a fascist mob of brown shirts, readying to destroy this crowd of peaceful, golden-hearted pro-Israeli protestors. The contrast between each side of this conflict is considerably less stark.
Recently, on the UC Berkeley campus, I saw another protest. Organized by a pro-Palestian group, many participants were holding Palestinian flags. Other pro-Israeli demonstrators waved their own flags. What I remember most clearly was how one man used his Israeli flag to repeatedly block the crowd's view of the Palestian flag. He was not voicing his opinion, simply silencing another's. At one point, he used his flagpole to forcibly lower the pro-Palestian demonstrator's. It was an interesting microcosm of a conflict.
The wrong-doer in this conflict is neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis. Who sentences the world to conflict are those blind to the individual faces that give texture to a community. They see the other as the enemy rather than the wrong deeds peppered throughout both their society and that of their foe.
As the author says, hateful words leads to hateful deeds. But although epithets feed hatred, they do not give birth to it. It begins with the never-ending game of them-and-me that even the most educated of us are frequently drawn into.
The author of this article seems to agree with me in part--people should not be targeted because of their religion or hated because of the way in which they worship. But as I read her text, I cannot help but feel that she applies this principle unequally. She is certainly justified in criticizing the actions of pro-Palestinian protestors who express hatred for Jews, or who use violence or intimidation. But the creative imagery of her argument, I think, serves much the same function. The Palestinians are a fascist mob of brown shirts, readying to destroy this crowd of peaceful, golden-hearted pro-Israeli protestors. The contrast between each side of this conflict is considerably less stark.
Recently, on the UC Berkeley campus, I saw another protest. Organized by a pro-Palestian group, many participants were holding Palestinian flags. Other pro-Israeli demonstrators waved their own flags. What I remember most clearly was how one man used his Israeli flag to repeatedly block the crowd's view of the Palestian flag. He was not voicing his opinion, simply silencing another's. At one point, he used his flagpole to forcibly lower the pro-Palestian demonstrator's. It was an interesting microcosm of a conflict.
The wrong-doer in this conflict is neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis. Who sentences the world to conflict are those blind to the individual faces that give texture to a community. They see the other as the enemy rather than the wrong deeds peppered throughout both their society and that of their foe.
As the author says, hateful words leads to hateful deeds. But although epithets feed hatred, they do not give birth to it. It begins with the never-ending game of them-and-me that even the most educated of us are frequently drawn into.
there was no violence, only words.
when Israeli supporters ask for peace, all that means is they are willing to go back to Arabs being treated as 2nd class citizens, locking them away in refuge camps, and stealing more and more of their land by creating Jewish settlements.
of course people are going to be angry and even hate you if you are supporting a government that is killing their families. this is exactly what Israel is doing.
Sure, there are plenty of idiotic and racist statements made by the Palestinians, and while it is not ok, it is understandable. If your family was being killed and the refuge camp they are forced to live in is being attacked of course you're going to be angry with anyone who supports this.
Calling for peace is nice and fine, when what you mea is "we're gonna treat the Arabs like trash, and we expect no retaliation. We can talk things over while we are putting your peoples in prison or worse."
when Israeli supporters ask for peace, all that means is they are willing to go back to Arabs being treated as 2nd class citizens, locking them away in refuge camps, and stealing more and more of their land by creating Jewish settlements.
of course people are going to be angry and even hate you if you are supporting a government that is killing their families. this is exactly what Israel is doing.
Sure, there are plenty of idiotic and racist statements made by the Palestinians, and while it is not ok, it is understandable. If your family was being killed and the refuge camp they are forced to live in is being attacked of course you're going to be angry with anyone who supports this.
Calling for peace is nice and fine, when what you mea is "we're gonna treat the Arabs like trash, and we expect no retaliation. We can talk things over while we are putting your peoples in prison or worse."
Laurie Zolth Director, Jewish Studies Program says:
"Today is advising day. For me, the question is an open one: what do I advise the Jewish students to do? "
Laurie, tell them there is NO place for the disloyal coniving Zionist Jew anywhere in the world. Tell them to either become loyal citizens of the host country they infest, or to be afraid... very afraid. The US has finally awakened to the Jew menace.
"Today is advising day. For me, the question is an open one: what do I advise the Jewish students to do? "
Laurie, tell them there is NO place for the disloyal coniving Zionist Jew anywhere in the world. Tell them to either become loyal citizens of the host country they infest, or to be afraid... very afraid. The US has finally awakened to the Jew menace.
We have started an anti-jew program in our town. The posted signs by the highway read- Bring us your filthy zionist jews, and we'll show you how to make a beautiful Columbian Neck Tie.
Don't worry about the bodies.We bulldoze the filth into a large pit. We like to be historically accurate in regards to jewish disposal.
Don't worry about the bodies.We bulldoze the filth into a large pit. We like to be historically accurate in regards to jewish disposal.
what' is with all the 'Freeper' Free Republic knuckleheads coming over here and smelling up Indymedia with their racism and dim-witted thinking?
No leni, we won't go away.And were not racists. Our town is a mixed ethnically diverse community, who has learned that mutual welfare breeds mutual prosperity.We propogate education of the worlds' cultures and religions.We are understanding what people say, about themselves ,and about others. The jewish zionist religion is a corrupted ideology. There probably is not a single jew today that does not follow the true Abrahamic religion. Isn't that why Jesus came?
But you did not listen to his advice and warnings. So you plotted and murdered Him with the help of the unknowing Romans. Today , you still plot ,with the unknowing Amerikkkan Gov't.
We are not anti-semites. Islam is not our enemy. We are not racists. Human-beings comprise one race. But jews are anti-semetic because they hate their Arab cousins. Jews are racist because they think they are more deserving than anyone else. Jews are hypocrites and liars.
But you did not listen to his advice and warnings. So you plotted and murdered Him with the help of the unknowing Romans. Today , you still plot ,with the unknowing Amerikkkan Gov't.
We are not anti-semites. Islam is not our enemy. We are not racists. Human-beings comprise one race. But jews are anti-semetic because they hate their Arab cousins. Jews are racist because they think they are more deserving than anyone else. Jews are hypocrites and liars.
Why do you blame freepers for posting anti-Semitic rants here? If you had not noticed, the far left is just as racist as they are.
Zionists remain incapable of comprehending common sense.
1. There are many thousands of Jews in S.F. alone who oppose Sharon and his patently RACIST(read: ANTI-SEMITIC) attacks on Palestinians.
2. The vast majority of Israelis are Euro-Caucasians that are immigrants or descendents of immigrants from Europe and the U.S.. They are NOT of Middle Eastern descent(read: they are NOT SEMITIC ETHNICITY).
There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between (simply) being Jewish and being zionist.
Jews are not racists, zionists ARE!
1. There are many thousands of Jews in S.F. alone who oppose Sharon and his patently RACIST(read: ANTI-SEMITIC) attacks on Palestinians.
2. The vast majority of Israelis are Euro-Caucasians that are immigrants or descendents of immigrants from Europe and the U.S.. They are NOT of Middle Eastern descent(read: they are NOT SEMITIC ETHNICITY).
There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between (simply) being Jewish and being zionist.
Jews are not racists, zionists ARE!
Here we have another clueless idiot who tries to explain away the term anti-Semite so it does not include Jews of European descent. Hey, any one who has a brain knows what anti-Semite means. Do you think any Jews that opposes the policies Sharon will buy your bullshit explanation that the targets of anti-Semitism does not include them because their grandparents immigrated from Russia, Latvia, or Germany? Please, your stupidity speaks for itself. Anti-semitism is just as prevalent on the far left as it is on the far right.
What bullshit!!! Within every jew, there is a zionist flame that burns . Individually they keep their views private. But collectively, they're agenda of destabilization by corruption,devaluation of morality and economic totalitarian control over the mass ,is why ,every single jew ,must be considered , treated and convicted of being the real terrorists.
In my 14 years as president of this university, I have never been as deeply distressed and angered by something that happened on this campus as I am by the events of last week. On Tuesday, a pro-Israel peace rally, thoughtfully organized and carefully carried out by SFSU Hillel members, drawing some 400 participants from both campus and community, evoked strong opinions and strong speech -- some from the free speech platform, much from the nearby pro-Palestinian counter-demonstration. But strong, even provocative, speech is not the problem, nor are strongly held opinions on highly-charged topics. Rather, it was the lack of civility and decency on the part of a very few demonstrators at points during the rally, and much more markedly after it, when rhetoric and behavior escalated beyond what this campus will tolerate.
For the most part, the most objectionable behavior occurred after the rally's organizers brought it to a formal close and a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who, in keeping with our student event policy, had been held back by barricades and campus police, moved onto the event site, where a few dozen organizers remained. There, some of the demonstrators behaved in a manner that completely violated the values of this institution and of most of you who are reading this message.
Thankfully, I am not speaking about physical violence. The monitoring by University staff throughout the event and the significant police presence we had arranged to have on hand ensured the safety of all involved. Unfortunately, we were not equally able to ensure civil discourse and maintain the sense of security to which every member of this campus is entitled. A small but terribly destructive number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, many of whom were not SFSU students, abandoned themselves to intimidating behavior and statements too hate-filled to repeat. This group became so threatening in gesture and hostile in language that we interposed a police line between the groups and eventually escorted the Hillel students, and the faculty with them, from the plaza. No one was physically assaulted, but that encounter puts at risk all that we value and represent as a university community.
The demonstrators' behavior is not passing unchallenged. The University's code of student discipline and event policy allow for individual and group sanctions ranging from warning to suspension to expulsion for certain violations, and some of what took place on Tuesday may well fall within that area. Our videotaped record of the event is being reviewed now by SFSU Public Safety to note violations and identify violators so that the University's disciplinary procedures can begin. In one instance, that of a protestor who seized and stamped on an Israeli flag, the case has already gone forward. I fully expect to see other cases presented. If we identify violations of public law, we will refer cases to the District Attorney, with our strong recommendation for full prosecution. We have requested that the District Attorney assign a member of the hate crime unit to work with us, and our Department of Public Safety is contacting individuals who have reported behavior at the rally which would warrant legal action on our part.
I hope you will agree that no love of homeland, no fear or grief for loved ones in the actual area of Middle East conflict, excuses the behavior that has been reported. This is not a war zone. It is a campus, a place where all must feel physically protected even as we engage in the disputation that is part of a teaching and learning environment. But when disputation degenerates into bigotry and hate, we must -- and do -- act. We did so in the case of the "blood libel" flyer (as I reported several weeks ago), and we are doing so now. The anguish and fear that the May 7th events have caused for members of our community can only intensify our active commitment to making this campus a hate-free zone.
We have reviewed, and will continue to review, the policies and procedures that guided our responses during the May 7 event. We may well adjust them. Certainly, we will take steps to ensure that encounters like those I have described will not recur. Nothing justifies such acts of overt hostility, or even the implied threat of physical assault. Such behavior is not an expression of free speech.
The vast majority of this campus community would condemn the hateful speech and threatening behavior we saw last Tuesday. It is a very few individuals who are fomenting this discord. Yet, as we see, their impact can be profound -- if we allow it to be. Despite the claims of some, this is not an anti-Semitic campus. But as history shows us, silence and passivity can at times of crisis be very little different from complicity. All of us -- and I would say especially members of the faculty, who have the greatest opportunity to educate and influence our students -- have a responsibility to help maintain this as a safe and sustaining environment for the expression and exploration of opposing views.
Many of our best faculty are doing exactly that, consciously and powerfully, every day. We need now to find ways to bring good colleagues together to shape a collective effort. The CUSP II strategic planning process offers us one opportunity; I am looking for others and welcome your thoughts. We need to make what has happened on our campus an occasion for learning, for reflection, for growth.
As you know, since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, I have sent frequent messages to the entire University community calling for peace and tolerance and many of you have responded marvelously, both in words and action; I take great pride in the hundreds of very positive e-mail and letters I have received. But now, as the actions of a small band of bigots threaten to tarnish the reputation of the University as a whole and to discredit all our students, I ask you to join me in speaking out for this University's true values. Show in actions well as words that you believe not only that "Love is Stronger Than Hate" but that hateful actions, threats of violence, outrageous slurs and bigoted statements are rejected and contemned by our entire campus community.
-- Robert A. Corrigan, President
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
A postscript: On May 10, the Jewish Bulletin ran a news story on the
rally. Following are the online link and the text of the article itself.
http://www.jewishsf.com/bk020510/sf10.html
Jews of SFSU make voices heard with pro-Israel rally
LYDIA LEE
Bulletin Correspondent
San Francisco State University's Malcolm X Plaza was thronged with
blue-and-white flags on Tuesday afternoon. The crowd heard a Holocaust
survivor, former Jewish refugees and others speak out in favor of Israel
and against perceived anti-Semitism on campus.
A small but vociferous group of Palestinian sympathizers cordoned-off to
one side loudly interjected their views, but campus police kept the two
groups separate.
Around 400 to 500 students and members of the Jewish community turned out
for the rally -- a triumph for some on campus. "This is the proudest day in
my six years on campus," said Fred Astren, a professor in the Jewish
Studies program at SFSU. "The voice of Jews was heard."
"The pro-Palestininians have been more vocal on campus," said Dustin
Jacobsen, a Jewish student who said he was anxious to hear the other side
of the story. He was one of about 100 bystanders who stood listening
outside the plaza. "They've had more protests and been more visible."
According to S.F. Hillel Executive Director Seth Brysk, there have been a
number of events on campus which have caused tension, including a flier
that alludes to "blood libel," or the ancient myth that Jewish people
sacrifice people of other religions for food. A large pro-Palestininian
demonstration during a Yom HaShoah commemoration, where some Jewish
students were threatened, said Brysk, was the last major confrontation on
campus.
Against the backdrop of a large sign reading "Israel Wants Peace: We Have
No Partner," a Holocaust survivor named Gloria, who went by first name
only, started the rally by defending Israeli military action as a fight
against terrorism.
"I ask you," she said, "what Israelis have ever been suicide bombers -- or
have blown up buses...[or] have attacked the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon on Sept. 11? There is a difference in the way Israel's enemies
attack and the way Israel defends itself."
"Everybody has the basic human right to be able to get on a bus, to be able
to go to a café...to be able to live their lives without the fear of people
using bombs as a political tactic," said Mark Schickman, president of the
Holocaust Center of Northern California.
Representing an organization called JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle
East and North Africa), Gina Waldman and Joseph Wahed spoke of the many
Jewish people who had been displaced from Arab countries.
"In 1967, like many hundred thousand Jews...my family was expelled from
Libya," said Waldman. "All of our assets were confiscated. I was 19 years
old at the time.
"I am not here to seek revenge for the 900,000 Jewish refugees -- I am here
to seek recognition," she added.
"We just assimilated wherever we went," said Wahed after the rally. "We
Jews from the Arab world deserve some respect."
Yitzhak Santis, director of Middle East affairs at the Jewish Community
Relations Council, referred to "racism and apartheid" in the Arab world.
"In countries like Iraq -- there are non-Arab minorities, the Kurds, the
Assyrians -- ask them about their civil rights...about their demand for
self-determination," he said. "Bring real peace to the Middle East. Bring
democracy for all Middle Eastern people."
John Rothmann, host of a local radio show on KGO, gave his retrospective on
Israel's history. "This is not the first time I have stood here in this
plaza. I stood here in 1967...and there was the same voices you hear today
chanting for Israel's destruction."
In between the speakers, students led the crowd in chants like
"Two-four-six-eight/Teach your children not to hate."
Sophomore Gabriana Marks encouraged students to come to Hillel and repeated
the words: "Don't be afraid to be a Jew."
The counter-rally was organized by the General Union of Palestinian
Students. About 100 people held flags and signs, including one sign that
read: "Master-subject relationship: creates anti-social behavior."
Throughout the speeches, they chanted "No peace -- no justice," "End the
occupation now," "Free, free Palestine," and "Israel is a racist state."
Occasionally there were yells of, "Go back to Europe."
One young man carried a Palestinian flag and wore a "Hello My Name Is"
sticker which read "F--- Sharon."
The Palestinian supporters expressed demonstrable hostility. After the
rally ended, several of the people in that group tried to take over the
stage. Thwarted by campus police, the pro-Palestinian contingent clamored
for the removal of a banner which said "We stand with Israel with hope for
peace" and also wanted two Israeli flags taken down.
"Why do I have to look at this s---?" said Joseph Jada, a member of the
pro-Palestinian group, complaining about the flag. Of the rally, Jada said,
"It's terrible -- we were behind barricades."
"They have the right to protest," said Hillel's Brysk.
He expressed regret that campus police had to step in and escort the
remaining group of Israel supporters to the edge of campus after the rally,
but was generally positive about the event. "This is the first time in a
very long time where Jewish students were able to express themselves and
stood up in the face of intimidation."
For the most part, the most objectionable behavior occurred after the rally's organizers brought it to a formal close and a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who, in keeping with our student event policy, had been held back by barricades and campus police, moved onto the event site, where a few dozen organizers remained. There, some of the demonstrators behaved in a manner that completely violated the values of this institution and of most of you who are reading this message.
Thankfully, I am not speaking about physical violence. The monitoring by University staff throughout the event and the significant police presence we had arranged to have on hand ensured the safety of all involved. Unfortunately, we were not equally able to ensure civil discourse and maintain the sense of security to which every member of this campus is entitled. A small but terribly destructive number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, many of whom were not SFSU students, abandoned themselves to intimidating behavior and statements too hate-filled to repeat. This group became so threatening in gesture and hostile in language that we interposed a police line between the groups and eventually escorted the Hillel students, and the faculty with them, from the plaza. No one was physically assaulted, but that encounter puts at risk all that we value and represent as a university community.
The demonstrators' behavior is not passing unchallenged. The University's code of student discipline and event policy allow for individual and group sanctions ranging from warning to suspension to expulsion for certain violations, and some of what took place on Tuesday may well fall within that area. Our videotaped record of the event is being reviewed now by SFSU Public Safety to note violations and identify violators so that the University's disciplinary procedures can begin. In one instance, that of a protestor who seized and stamped on an Israeli flag, the case has already gone forward. I fully expect to see other cases presented. If we identify violations of public law, we will refer cases to the District Attorney, with our strong recommendation for full prosecution. We have requested that the District Attorney assign a member of the hate crime unit to work with us, and our Department of Public Safety is contacting individuals who have reported behavior at the rally which would warrant legal action on our part.
I hope you will agree that no love of homeland, no fear or grief for loved ones in the actual area of Middle East conflict, excuses the behavior that has been reported. This is not a war zone. It is a campus, a place where all must feel physically protected even as we engage in the disputation that is part of a teaching and learning environment. But when disputation degenerates into bigotry and hate, we must -- and do -- act. We did so in the case of the "blood libel" flyer (as I reported several weeks ago), and we are doing so now. The anguish and fear that the May 7th events have caused for members of our community can only intensify our active commitment to making this campus a hate-free zone.
We have reviewed, and will continue to review, the policies and procedures that guided our responses during the May 7 event. We may well adjust them. Certainly, we will take steps to ensure that encounters like those I have described will not recur. Nothing justifies such acts of overt hostility, or even the implied threat of physical assault. Such behavior is not an expression of free speech.
The vast majority of this campus community would condemn the hateful speech and threatening behavior we saw last Tuesday. It is a very few individuals who are fomenting this discord. Yet, as we see, their impact can be profound -- if we allow it to be. Despite the claims of some, this is not an anti-Semitic campus. But as history shows us, silence and passivity can at times of crisis be very little different from complicity. All of us -- and I would say especially members of the faculty, who have the greatest opportunity to educate and influence our students -- have a responsibility to help maintain this as a safe and sustaining environment for the expression and exploration of opposing views.
Many of our best faculty are doing exactly that, consciously and powerfully, every day. We need now to find ways to bring good colleagues together to shape a collective effort. The CUSP II strategic planning process offers us one opportunity; I am looking for others and welcome your thoughts. We need to make what has happened on our campus an occasion for learning, for reflection, for growth.
As you know, since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, I have sent frequent messages to the entire University community calling for peace and tolerance and many of you have responded marvelously, both in words and action; I take great pride in the hundreds of very positive e-mail and letters I have received. But now, as the actions of a small band of bigots threaten to tarnish the reputation of the University as a whole and to discredit all our students, I ask you to join me in speaking out for this University's true values. Show in actions well as words that you believe not only that "Love is Stronger Than Hate" but that hateful actions, threats of violence, outrageous slurs and bigoted statements are rejected and contemned by our entire campus community.
-- Robert A. Corrigan, President
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
A postscript: On May 10, the Jewish Bulletin ran a news story on the
rally. Following are the online link and the text of the article itself.
http://www.jewishsf.com/bk020510/sf10.html
Jews of SFSU make voices heard with pro-Israel rally
LYDIA LEE
Bulletin Correspondent
San Francisco State University's Malcolm X Plaza was thronged with
blue-and-white flags on Tuesday afternoon. The crowd heard a Holocaust
survivor, former Jewish refugees and others speak out in favor of Israel
and against perceived anti-Semitism on campus.
A small but vociferous group of Palestinian sympathizers cordoned-off to
one side loudly interjected their views, but campus police kept the two
groups separate.
Around 400 to 500 students and members of the Jewish community turned out
for the rally -- a triumph for some on campus. "This is the proudest day in
my six years on campus," said Fred Astren, a professor in the Jewish
Studies program at SFSU. "The voice of Jews was heard."
"The pro-Palestininians have been more vocal on campus," said Dustin
Jacobsen, a Jewish student who said he was anxious to hear the other side
of the story. He was one of about 100 bystanders who stood listening
outside the plaza. "They've had more protests and been more visible."
According to S.F. Hillel Executive Director Seth Brysk, there have been a
number of events on campus which have caused tension, including a flier
that alludes to "blood libel," or the ancient myth that Jewish people
sacrifice people of other religions for food. A large pro-Palestininian
demonstration during a Yom HaShoah commemoration, where some Jewish
students were threatened, said Brysk, was the last major confrontation on
campus.
Against the backdrop of a large sign reading "Israel Wants Peace: We Have
No Partner," a Holocaust survivor named Gloria, who went by first name
only, started the rally by defending Israeli military action as a fight
against terrorism.
"I ask you," she said, "what Israelis have ever been suicide bombers -- or
have blown up buses...[or] have attacked the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon on Sept. 11? There is a difference in the way Israel's enemies
attack and the way Israel defends itself."
"Everybody has the basic human right to be able to get on a bus, to be able
to go to a café...to be able to live their lives without the fear of people
using bombs as a political tactic," said Mark Schickman, president of the
Holocaust Center of Northern California.
Representing an organization called JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle
East and North Africa), Gina Waldman and Joseph Wahed spoke of the many
Jewish people who had been displaced from Arab countries.
"In 1967, like many hundred thousand Jews...my family was expelled from
Libya," said Waldman. "All of our assets were confiscated. I was 19 years
old at the time.
"I am not here to seek revenge for the 900,000 Jewish refugees -- I am here
to seek recognition," she added.
"We just assimilated wherever we went," said Wahed after the rally. "We
Jews from the Arab world deserve some respect."
Yitzhak Santis, director of Middle East affairs at the Jewish Community
Relations Council, referred to "racism and apartheid" in the Arab world.
"In countries like Iraq -- there are non-Arab minorities, the Kurds, the
Assyrians -- ask them about their civil rights...about their demand for
self-determination," he said. "Bring real peace to the Middle East. Bring
democracy for all Middle Eastern people."
John Rothmann, host of a local radio show on KGO, gave his retrospective on
Israel's history. "This is not the first time I have stood here in this
plaza. I stood here in 1967...and there was the same voices you hear today
chanting for Israel's destruction."
In between the speakers, students led the crowd in chants like
"Two-four-six-eight/Teach your children not to hate."
Sophomore Gabriana Marks encouraged students to come to Hillel and repeated
the words: "Don't be afraid to be a Jew."
The counter-rally was organized by the General Union of Palestinian
Students. About 100 people held flags and signs, including one sign that
read: "Master-subject relationship: creates anti-social behavior."
Throughout the speeches, they chanted "No peace -- no justice," "End the
occupation now," "Free, free Palestine," and "Israel is a racist state."
Occasionally there were yells of, "Go back to Europe."
One young man carried a Palestinian flag and wore a "Hello My Name Is"
sticker which read "F--- Sharon."
The Palestinian supporters expressed demonstrable hostility. After the
rally ended, several of the people in that group tried to take over the
stage. Thwarted by campus police, the pro-Palestinian contingent clamored
for the removal of a banner which said "We stand with Israel with hope for
peace" and also wanted two Israeli flags taken down.
"Why do I have to look at this s---?" said Joseph Jada, a member of the
pro-Palestinian group, complaining about the flag. Of the rally, Jada said,
"It's terrible -- we were behind barricades."
"They have the right to protest," said Hillel's Brysk.
He expressed regret that campus police had to step in and escort the
remaining group of Israel supporters to the edge of campus after the rally,
but was generally positive about the event. "This is the first time in a
very long time where Jewish students were able to express themselves and
stood up in the face of intimidation."
I don't believe that people like 'another american' above are for real. There is all the indication that those are just Free Republic types who want to discredit Indymedia. There are no other newswire topics where actual left wingers post using that type of language or attitude and I can count on one hand the number of real antijewish people who I encounter in non-internet life. They are around, but that is not the traditional indymedia crowd.
Honest question. I am not a Jew. I think that I understand what a Zionist is, based on the standard definition. Why do some believe Zionist are racist, rather than just paranoid. Given their history, they should be. Clearly, many Arabs wish to see and end to Isreal. They made peace with Egypt and returned the Siani which was occupied after the 1967 war.
good info on zionism, the truth unfolds....
-------------------------------
Historical Background
A. Zionism and Colonialism
Zionism was born through the writings of Theodore Herzl, in Germany in the late 1880’s. As outlined by Herzl, Zionism was a secular political project that defined “the Jews” as a people, a nation and a race, rather than a religious group. In the context of the
fervent European anti-Jewish discrimination of the time, Herzl argued for the need to create an independent Jewish state for “the Jewish people” who, he argued, could never possibly assimilate in the countries they inhabited (Beit-Hallahmi 1993; Garaudy 1983; Segev 1986). Although multiple locations were suggested, the Zionist movement
proposed Palestine as the site for a Jewish state, in a strategic move that would allow them to use the religious history of Palestine to justify their purely political goal of colonization (Garaudy 1983). The racist nature of the Zionist movement originates in its
idea of an exclusive Jewish state for Jewish people only, exclusive of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. Moreover, at every point of its genesis, the Zionist movement was informed and reinforced by nineteenth century European colonialism and its white
supremacist ideology.
In the context of rampant British colonization throughout the “third world” at the time, Britain recognized the potential of the Zionist project in Palestine to further its own economic and political goals. Britain assisted the Zionists in exporting 610,000 Jews from various parts of the world to Palestine to make way for the eventual establishment
of Israel on indigenous Palestinian land. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration of Britain legitimized the establishment of “a national homeland for Jews in Palestine” (Laquer and Rubin 1984). The genocide of World War II created a new impetus for immigration; in
1947, further mass immigration projects ensued. After they were refused entry to countries such as Britain and the United States, Jews from all over the world were sent to settle a land where they had no prior territorial affiliation--Palestine. When the Zionists
ultimately occupied Palestine by force, in 1948, they took over nearly three fourths of Palestine and uprooted over 750,000 native Palestinians from their homes. In 1967, Israel took over the remainder of Palestine, uprooting even more native Palestinians.
While Palestine fits the standards of colonization, it is also a special case because its colonizer, Israel, is a Jewish-only nation-state imposed on Arab Palestinian land.2 Israel was not constructed to colonize the natives per se, but to remove them entirely from their land and to construct Israeli Jews as the authentic people of the land.
Since its inception over a century ago, Zionist ideology and practice has sought to ethnically cleanse and “purify” Palestine and the surrounding Arab states of its indigenous inhabitants. Several historical state documents illustrate the centrality of ethnic cleansing to the Zionist project. In Herzl’s diaries, for example, he writes, “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country…
expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly” (Swirski 1993: 285). Though the contemporary Zionist consensus argues that Israel is not a colonial state, Herzl, in fact, argued to the contrary: “To go further
than any colonialist has gone in Africa…where involuntary expropriation of land will temporarily alienate civilized opinion. By the time the reshaping of world opinion in our favor has been completed, we shall be firmly established in our country, no longer fearing the influx of foreigners, and receiving our visitors with aristocratic benevolence (Hertzberg 1997).”
The Zionist project was a by-product of nineteenth century European colonization, and Britain, specifically, furthered its own early twentieth century political goals in the Middle East through colonial Zionism and the establishment of Israel. By the second half of the twentieth century, however, primary financial and military support for the Zionist project was transferred from the hands of Britain to the hands of the U.S. government. Since the 1967 completion of the Zionist takeover of Palestine, no country has received more U.S. foreign aid than Israel.
There is more to the Zionist project than consolidating Israel as a Jewish-only state; it was not the cause of fighting anti-Jewish oppression that inspired the forces of Western imperialism to ally with the Zionist project of Israel (Segev 1993). The U.S., like Britain, has supported Israel as a means to maintain Israel’s position as a Western ally within the Arab region (O’Brien 1986: 154). By exploiting the economic and
political resources of the Arab world, Israel has become a conduit of globalization, militarization and imperialism.3
Britain and the U.S. have provided Israel with the military machinery, strategy and funding necessary to illegally move over four million Jews to Palestine, uprooting Palestinians from their native homeland (Swirski 1993). Since the inception of the Zionist state, thousands of Palestinians have been killed and five million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes (Abu-Sitta 1998; Morris 1987); towards the end of furthering their own political goals of dominance in the region, Britain and the U.S. have collaborated in dispossessing Palestinians.4
Central to the Zionist vision is territorial expansion into neighboring states, such as Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. This vision of expansion has already been illustrated by the thirty-year Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon. Though this occupation has
formally ended, its long-term impact continues in ongoing military and economic aggression. U.S. foreign policy is most powerfully used against those countries that refuse to recognize Israel, such as Iraq, Syria, Iran and Sudan. Each of these countries suffer from the collective punishment of U.S.-imposed sanctions while, based on their anti-Zionist position, they are also marked as state sponsors of terrorism. It is the convergence of U.S. national interests with Israel’s position in the center of the Arab region that accounts for the success of the Zionist movement in the U.S.
B. Zionism in the U.S.
Though Israel consistently defies international law and hundreds of United Nations human rights resolutions in its occupation of Palestine, the U.S. government continues to funnel six billion tax dollars per year to the state of Israel. In nearly every sector of U.S. politics, this contradiction remains unchallenged. Contributing to this profound silence are the strategies of the Zionist movement. In the U.S., Zionism is highly influential in the shaping of public opinion (Findley 1985; O’Brien 1986). Many self-identified Zionists, including Jews and non Jews, belong to the organized body referred to as the World Zionist Organization. Other Zionist organizations in the United States include American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Jewish Community Relations Council, Hillel, and the Jewish Student Committee. Whether it is in labor, education, media or politics, the Zionist movement’s strategy is to maintain a unified pro-Israel position, silencing criticism of Israeli policy and demonizing its critics. Since it would be ludicrous to market Israel’s history of displacing indigenous people from their land, the most prevalent myth that Zionists propagate is that criticisms of Israel and/or Zionism are anti-Semitic (O’Brien 1986: 97).
We focus specifically on the ADL as an example of institutionalized Zionism because it is one of the most powerful pressure groups in the United States. As Noam Chomsky puts it, “The ADL’s primary commitment [is] to use any technique however
dishonest and disgraceful in order to defame and silence and destroy anybody who dares to criticize the holy state (Israel)” (Marshall 1993).
Prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, particularly during the height of their political uprising in the late eighties and early nineties, Palestinians were increasingly successful in articulating to the U.S. public a persuasive case with respect to their struggle for human rights. To combat the increasing sympathetic portrayal of the Palestinian liberation struggle, major pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian organizations established espionage rings and published books and kits to help their members discredit Palestinian justice struggles and revive the deteriorating public image of Israel (Rashmawi 1992). The San Francisco spy scandal that broke out in the early 1990’s (Marshall 1993; Isaacs 2000), just as the Oslo agreements were being orchestrated, revealed that the ADL was engaged in spying on the Arab-American community, as well as numerous peace and anti-apartheid activists and organizations. The ADL operation used paid informers, police officers, student recruits, and a full-time staff to meet its goal of discrediting Palestinian and other liberation struggles. Revelation of the spy ring ultimately exposed the ADL as one of many examples where devoutly anti-Palestinian sentiment and covert Israeli intelligence activity are hidden behind a seemingly benign civil rights organization (Rashmawi 1992).5
According to the ADL, any criticism of Israel is racism towards Jews. The ADL further contends that the interests of the United States are so identical to those of Israel that any disagreement with the Israeli government and its policies are a betrayal of the
United States. The ADL hits the American public hard and repeatedly with such suppositions, combined with the idea that Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular are vulgar terrorists who are really a menace to society (Rashmawi 1992). The organization lumps together everyone from the Nazis to peace organizations as enemies of both the U.S. and Israel, deserving to be spied upon and mercilessly investigated. The ADL and its affiliate organizations, such as Hillel and AIPAC, have utilized highly unsavory means, including intimidation, scare tactics, the infiltration of organizations, the violation of civil rights and sabotage to achieve their goals (Marshall 1993; Rashmawi 1992).
This systematic attempt to silence and exclude Arabs and Arab Americans from the political process is one example of what Helen Samhan refers to as political racism. According to Samhan, anti-Arab attitudes and behaviors have their roots “not in the traditional motives of structurally excluding a group perceived as inferior, but in politics” (Samhan 1987:11). While Zionism is a politically organized racial project that directly and systematically targets Arabs and Arab Americans,6 the terrain of Zionism is much broader than the practices of particular organizations. In the U.S. context, Zionism has become “common sense”–“a way of comprehending, explaining, and acting in the
world”7 that goes completely unquestioned and unchallenged.
-------------------------------
Historical Background
A. Zionism and Colonialism
Zionism was born through the writings of Theodore Herzl, in Germany in the late 1880’s. As outlined by Herzl, Zionism was a secular political project that defined “the Jews” as a people, a nation and a race, rather than a religious group. In the context of the
fervent European anti-Jewish discrimination of the time, Herzl argued for the need to create an independent Jewish state for “the Jewish people” who, he argued, could never possibly assimilate in the countries they inhabited (Beit-Hallahmi 1993; Garaudy 1983; Segev 1986). Although multiple locations were suggested, the Zionist movement
proposed Palestine as the site for a Jewish state, in a strategic move that would allow them to use the religious history of Palestine to justify their purely political goal of colonization (Garaudy 1983). The racist nature of the Zionist movement originates in its
idea of an exclusive Jewish state for Jewish people only, exclusive of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. Moreover, at every point of its genesis, the Zionist movement was informed and reinforced by nineteenth century European colonialism and its white
supremacist ideology.
In the context of rampant British colonization throughout the “third world” at the time, Britain recognized the potential of the Zionist project in Palestine to further its own economic and political goals. Britain assisted the Zionists in exporting 610,000 Jews from various parts of the world to Palestine to make way for the eventual establishment
of Israel on indigenous Palestinian land. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration of Britain legitimized the establishment of “a national homeland for Jews in Palestine” (Laquer and Rubin 1984). The genocide of World War II created a new impetus for immigration; in
1947, further mass immigration projects ensued. After they were refused entry to countries such as Britain and the United States, Jews from all over the world were sent to settle a land where they had no prior territorial affiliation--Palestine. When the Zionists
ultimately occupied Palestine by force, in 1948, they took over nearly three fourths of Palestine and uprooted over 750,000 native Palestinians from their homes. In 1967, Israel took over the remainder of Palestine, uprooting even more native Palestinians.
While Palestine fits the standards of colonization, it is also a special case because its colonizer, Israel, is a Jewish-only nation-state imposed on Arab Palestinian land.2 Israel was not constructed to colonize the natives per se, but to remove them entirely from their land and to construct Israeli Jews as the authentic people of the land.
Since its inception over a century ago, Zionist ideology and practice has sought to ethnically cleanse and “purify” Palestine and the surrounding Arab states of its indigenous inhabitants. Several historical state documents illustrate the centrality of ethnic cleansing to the Zionist project. In Herzl’s diaries, for example, he writes, “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country…
expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly” (Swirski 1993: 285). Though the contemporary Zionist consensus argues that Israel is not a colonial state, Herzl, in fact, argued to the contrary: “To go further
than any colonialist has gone in Africa…where involuntary expropriation of land will temporarily alienate civilized opinion. By the time the reshaping of world opinion in our favor has been completed, we shall be firmly established in our country, no longer fearing the influx of foreigners, and receiving our visitors with aristocratic benevolence (Hertzberg 1997).”
The Zionist project was a by-product of nineteenth century European colonization, and Britain, specifically, furthered its own early twentieth century political goals in the Middle East through colonial Zionism and the establishment of Israel. By the second half of the twentieth century, however, primary financial and military support for the Zionist project was transferred from the hands of Britain to the hands of the U.S. government. Since the 1967 completion of the Zionist takeover of Palestine, no country has received more U.S. foreign aid than Israel.
There is more to the Zionist project than consolidating Israel as a Jewish-only state; it was not the cause of fighting anti-Jewish oppression that inspired the forces of Western imperialism to ally with the Zionist project of Israel (Segev 1993). The U.S., like Britain, has supported Israel as a means to maintain Israel’s position as a Western ally within the Arab region (O’Brien 1986: 154). By exploiting the economic and
political resources of the Arab world, Israel has become a conduit of globalization, militarization and imperialism.3
Britain and the U.S. have provided Israel with the military machinery, strategy and funding necessary to illegally move over four million Jews to Palestine, uprooting Palestinians from their native homeland (Swirski 1993). Since the inception of the Zionist state, thousands of Palestinians have been killed and five million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes (Abu-Sitta 1998; Morris 1987); towards the end of furthering their own political goals of dominance in the region, Britain and the U.S. have collaborated in dispossessing Palestinians.4
Central to the Zionist vision is territorial expansion into neighboring states, such as Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. This vision of expansion has already been illustrated by the thirty-year Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon. Though this occupation has
formally ended, its long-term impact continues in ongoing military and economic aggression. U.S. foreign policy is most powerfully used against those countries that refuse to recognize Israel, such as Iraq, Syria, Iran and Sudan. Each of these countries suffer from the collective punishment of U.S.-imposed sanctions while, based on their anti-Zionist position, they are also marked as state sponsors of terrorism. It is the convergence of U.S. national interests with Israel’s position in the center of the Arab region that accounts for the success of the Zionist movement in the U.S.
B. Zionism in the U.S.
Though Israel consistently defies international law and hundreds of United Nations human rights resolutions in its occupation of Palestine, the U.S. government continues to funnel six billion tax dollars per year to the state of Israel. In nearly every sector of U.S. politics, this contradiction remains unchallenged. Contributing to this profound silence are the strategies of the Zionist movement. In the U.S., Zionism is highly influential in the shaping of public opinion (Findley 1985; O’Brien 1986). Many self-identified Zionists, including Jews and non Jews, belong to the organized body referred to as the World Zionist Organization. Other Zionist organizations in the United States include American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Jewish Community Relations Council, Hillel, and the Jewish Student Committee. Whether it is in labor, education, media or politics, the Zionist movement’s strategy is to maintain a unified pro-Israel position, silencing criticism of Israeli policy and demonizing its critics. Since it would be ludicrous to market Israel’s history of displacing indigenous people from their land, the most prevalent myth that Zionists propagate is that criticisms of Israel and/or Zionism are anti-Semitic (O’Brien 1986: 97).
We focus specifically on the ADL as an example of institutionalized Zionism because it is one of the most powerful pressure groups in the United States. As Noam Chomsky puts it, “The ADL’s primary commitment [is] to use any technique however
dishonest and disgraceful in order to defame and silence and destroy anybody who dares to criticize the holy state (Israel)” (Marshall 1993).
Prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, particularly during the height of their political uprising in the late eighties and early nineties, Palestinians were increasingly successful in articulating to the U.S. public a persuasive case with respect to their struggle for human rights. To combat the increasing sympathetic portrayal of the Palestinian liberation struggle, major pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian organizations established espionage rings and published books and kits to help their members discredit Palestinian justice struggles and revive the deteriorating public image of Israel (Rashmawi 1992). The San Francisco spy scandal that broke out in the early 1990’s (Marshall 1993; Isaacs 2000), just as the Oslo agreements were being orchestrated, revealed that the ADL was engaged in spying on the Arab-American community, as well as numerous peace and anti-apartheid activists and organizations. The ADL operation used paid informers, police officers, student recruits, and a full-time staff to meet its goal of discrediting Palestinian and other liberation struggles. Revelation of the spy ring ultimately exposed the ADL as one of many examples where devoutly anti-Palestinian sentiment and covert Israeli intelligence activity are hidden behind a seemingly benign civil rights organization (Rashmawi 1992).5
According to the ADL, any criticism of Israel is racism towards Jews. The ADL further contends that the interests of the United States are so identical to those of Israel that any disagreement with the Israeli government and its policies are a betrayal of the
United States. The ADL hits the American public hard and repeatedly with such suppositions, combined with the idea that Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular are vulgar terrorists who are really a menace to society (Rashmawi 1992). The organization lumps together everyone from the Nazis to peace organizations as enemies of both the U.S. and Israel, deserving to be spied upon and mercilessly investigated. The ADL and its affiliate organizations, such as Hillel and AIPAC, have utilized highly unsavory means, including intimidation, scare tactics, the infiltration of organizations, the violation of civil rights and sabotage to achieve their goals (Marshall 1993; Rashmawi 1992).
This systematic attempt to silence and exclude Arabs and Arab Americans from the political process is one example of what Helen Samhan refers to as political racism. According to Samhan, anti-Arab attitudes and behaviors have their roots “not in the traditional motives of structurally excluding a group perceived as inferior, but in politics” (Samhan 1987:11). While Zionism is a politically organized racial project that directly and systematically targets Arabs and Arab Americans,6 the terrain of Zionism is much broader than the practices of particular organizations. In the U.S. context, Zionism has become “common sense”–“a way of comprehending, explaining, and acting in the
world”7 that goes completely unquestioned and unchallenged.
Thoughtful, intellectual Jews (and realist who despise Jews) don't even bother trying to use the absurd meaningless term "anti-Semitic."
If you have a problem with posters castigating both Israelis and American Jews for their support of Israeli genocide, please call them what they really are:
Jew Haters.
Let's stop quibbling with useless circumlocution using “Zionist”, “Israeli” or “anti-Semite” when we mean quite simply “Jew Hater”, and all that the term “Jew Hater” stands for.
Some who oppose Israeli policy and the more repugnant aspects of Jewish “culture” will may well recoil at being called a "Jew Hater." And while the charge of being an “anti-Semite” may seem utterly laughable to them, some may well adjust their anti Jew rhetoric to accommodate those Jews who genuinely support peace in the Middle East, and actually have respect for non Jews in the US and throughout the world.
And the majority of the "Jew Haters" I am quite positive, will be quite happy (and even proud) to accept the label of “Jew Hater." The only people known to be unhappy with abandoning the useless term "anti-Semite" is the ADL who are still trying to take the "Jew", out of "jewfish", "kike" and other very apt nouns and adjectives. Knowing that there are so very many “Jew Haters” out there in the world is much more frightening to the Jew than thinking there is this awful irrational madness which constantly reasserts itself throughout history which is called “anti-Semitism.”
If you have a problem with posters castigating both Israelis and American Jews for their support of Israeli genocide, please call them what they really are:
Jew Haters.
Let's stop quibbling with useless circumlocution using “Zionist”, “Israeli” or “anti-Semite” when we mean quite simply “Jew Hater”, and all that the term “Jew Hater” stands for.
Some who oppose Israeli policy and the more repugnant aspects of Jewish “culture” will may well recoil at being called a "Jew Hater." And while the charge of being an “anti-Semite” may seem utterly laughable to them, some may well adjust their anti Jew rhetoric to accommodate those Jews who genuinely support peace in the Middle East, and actually have respect for non Jews in the US and throughout the world.
And the majority of the "Jew Haters" I am quite positive, will be quite happy (and even proud) to accept the label of “Jew Hater." The only people known to be unhappy with abandoning the useless term "anti-Semite" is the ADL who are still trying to take the "Jew", out of "jewfish", "kike" and other very apt nouns and adjectives. Knowing that there are so very many “Jew Haters” out there in the world is much more frightening to the Jew than thinking there is this awful irrational madness which constantly reasserts itself throughout history which is called “anti-Semitism.”
if you hate the right Jews. We only hate evil Jews. We like good Jews. Some of us ARE good Jews. You, apparently, are not. We recommend that you reconsider. Remember, good is better. Choose good. It's a mitzvah.
Let's see- nessie, debate coach, history buff, and now even Emma Goldman? Amazing how many monikers this fellow has. Funny, though how they all write exactly the same way.
Nessie, debate coach, history buff, Emma Goldman and now even individual are all the literary creations of a single demented one time English major with too much time on her hands. Her kids grew up ant left home and her husband worked a 70 hour week. She was bored to tears, rattling around inside her seven room house in a suburb of Wichita like a marble in a tiebacks. There's only so much time that housework, and even gardening, can take. Then she discovered the internet. One thing led to another. Pretty soon the International Communist Jewish Bankers Cabal, the REAL force behind SF-IMC, hired her, and a VERY handsome rate, to fill up space on the site with her creations.
She no makes so much money that her husband was able to retire. Now he's the one that's bored to tears because she has virtually no time to spend with him , and let's face it, who wants to hear the same stories year after year when there's a place like this to go to instead. he's a nice enough man and all, and he certainly was a good provider, but if she has to hear about the time he threw the winning pass at the high school homecoming game one more time, she'll scream.
So now she has locked herself in the sewing room with a coffee maker and a Compaq. While he putters aimlessly around in the yard, she types her fingers to the bone to amuse you. You really ought to show more gratitude.
She no makes so much money that her husband was able to retire. Now he's the one that's bored to tears because she has virtually no time to spend with him , and let's face it, who wants to hear the same stories year after year when there's a place like this to go to instead. he's a nice enough man and all, and he certainly was a good provider, but if she has to hear about the time he threw the winning pass at the high school homecoming game one more time, she'll scream.
So now she has locked herself in the sewing room with a coffee maker and a Compaq. While he putters aimlessly around in the yard, she types her fingers to the bone to amuse you. You really ought to show more gratitude.
There are really only 3 people who have enough time on their hands , who do almost all of the commenting on the sf.indymedia newswire. But that is good. There are too many productive people out there. americans tend to work too much at jobs. most jobs consume natural resources in some way.
how come he has a Puerto Rican name?
to I.Dunno:
crawl out of your Alamo, TX suburb without your SUV, you yankee/gringo. Jesús isn't a Puerto Rican name.
love for my boricuas,
JC
crawl out of your Alamo, TX suburb without your SUV, you yankee/gringo. Jesús isn't a Puerto Rican name.
love for my boricuas,
JC
A Cuban, maybe?
To the Jew-hater, it does not matter whether you are a Zionist, an anti-Zionist, a Sharon supporter, a Sharon opponent, observant or non-religious, orthodox or conservative, reform or Hasid, liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist, atheist or religious, rich or poor, black or white, male or female, assimilated or separate, pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel. If you are Jew, to them you are forever the anti-Christ, the enemy.
So it does not matter - as a Jew - what you think, what you say, what you oppose or what you advocate. They will hate you no matter what, as the scum who have posted here amply illustrate.
So, I say to you, fellow Jews, say and do what you think or feel is best, whatever that may be. Be left, be right, be pro-this, be anti-that. They will not rest until you are dead. Say and do what you think is best... the anti-Jewish scum don't care what you think or whose side you're on. Zionist/shmionist. There is no appeasing them.
They will hate you no matter what because they have been pan-trained to do so since birth and steeped in ignorance.
So it does not matter - as a Jew - what you think, what you say, what you oppose or what you advocate. They will hate you no matter what, as the scum who have posted here amply illustrate.
So, I say to you, fellow Jews, say and do what you think or feel is best, whatever that may be. Be left, be right, be pro-this, be anti-that. They will not rest until you are dead. Say and do what you think is best... the anti-Jewish scum don't care what you think or whose side you're on. Zionist/shmionist. There is no appeasing them.
They will hate you no matter what because they have been pan-trained to do so since birth and steeped in ignorance.
if my synagague were to be attacked i would do the same to a church. REtribution.
if my synagague were to be attacked i would do the same to a church. REtribution.
if my synagague were to be attacked i would do the same to a church. REtribution.
what should you advise your students to do?
...become conservatives. The conservative 'right' as liberals like to call us, are Israel's best friends.
...become conservatives. The conservative 'right' as liberals like to call us, are Israel's best friends.
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