Bullies, anti-Israel forces on campus have a lot in common

[shira]

<snip>

...Jewish students on many college campuses struggle with intimidating mobs of anti-Israel students and their numerous faculty sympathizers. Outside the safety of a Hillel house, many students tuck in their Stars of David and express the same dread, fear and isolation my daughter felt.

...

In the past 10 years, campus problems have spread dramatically. Last month students at Princeton tried to boycott Sabra hummus, Columbia students set up mock IDF checkpoints and Rutgers students raised money for a new flotilla to Gaza. Worse yet, Jewish students at York University in Toronto were forced to barricade themselves inside the Hillel offices last year after an angry mob chased them, screaming: “Die, Jew, die, get the hell off campus!” Anti-Israel activists unfairly justify psychologically intimidating treatment against Jewish students as an appropriate way to show their criticism of the State of Israel.

“There are so many anti-Israel and even pro-Hamas activities and symbols on campus today that supporters of Israel are worn down, really afraid to present even the most basic humanitarian facts about our side of the story,” remarked Noam Bedein of the Sderot Media Center, after a recent U.S. speaking tour.

...

However, no program that I am aware of combines all three areas — fighting anti-Israel vitriol, being an advocate for Israel and dealing with bullying — into a specialized solution. We need to proactively work together to help Jewish college students overcome anti-Israel campus experiences with their self-esteem and passion for Israel intact.

more...
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/60203/bullies-anti-israel-forces-on-campus-have-a-lot-in-common/

[ilaughatrightwingers]

1. Zionists and bullies have a lot in common!

This is what happened to me the other day in class:

http://propagandalalaland.blogspot.com/2010/12/frustration-or-glory.html

[ilaughatrightwingers]

2. One more thing

The author of that article seems to have deeply totalitarian notions of associating the State (Israel) with "Jewish people". The state is an elite institution. We are not the state, and the state is not us.

[LeftishBrit]

4. I think that he is claiming that some anti-Israel students make this association themselves

'Jewish students at York University in Toronto were forced to barricade themselves inside the Hillel offices last year after an angry mob chased them, screaming: “Die, Jew, die, get the hell off campus!”'


This is quite clearly associating Jews with Israel, and intimidating Canadian Jews as punishment for Israeli actions (or quite possibly using Israeli actions as an excuse for pre-existing antisemitism).

'Columbia students set up mock IDF checkpoints and Rutgers students raised money for a new flotilla to Gaza'

These actions seem to me to be in another category. They are political activities: not an attempt in themselves to intimidate Jewish students. Of course, if Jewish students are put under moral pressure, or worse some form of threat, to participate in these activities, then it becomes bullying. But so can the same in any cause. I might think it a bad thing politically, for instance, if a group of students raise money for Conservative Party funds; but unless they threaten or intimidate non-Tory students, they are not bullying. Conversely, I am a strong supporter of the student protests against tuition fees, but the minority of protesters who became violent *were* bullying. (The vast majority were not.)

[ilaughatrightwingers]

5. Only the "die Jew die" counts as anti-semitism

I don't see how raising money for aid to Gaza is.

[LeftishBrit]

6. That's what I was saying!

[shaayecanaan]

8. The "die Jew die" claim is pure invention...

I posted a video of the incident below. Student activists tend to be a fairly histrionic bunch, and false claims of racism is one variant of that.

[oberliner]

9. That is not true

It has been reported widely.

And your video does not include any footage of the actual incident.

There is absolutely no false claim of racism.

[shaayecanaan]

14. It has been "reported widely" by other pro-Israel groups...

and I cannot show footage of the "actual incident" since the "actual incident" did not take place, but was in fact entirely fabricated.

All available video footage of the event suggests that the pro-Palestinian students were perfectly peaceable.

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Thanks for posting the video. I wish people would stop fabricating things like that...

I've lost count of the number of 'incidents' I've seen 'reported' where it turns out events transpired quite differently to how it's being told...

[ilaughatrightwingers]

12. For example:

Do you remember the GWU student who claimed "anti-semitic" students wrote racist things on the door to her dorm, only to discover later that she herself was behind it?

Stuff like that is long forgotten.

[Violet_Crumble]

13. I don't recall that incident, but that's among the sort of thing I'm talking about...

I don't much care for the hysteria and over-exaggeration I've seen, where something tiny and quiet is turned into a 'riot' for dramatic effect...

[ilaughatrightwingers]

16. Here it is

http://www.belch.com/blog/2007/11/06/swasticas-at-george-washington-university-were-hoax/

Yup.

[Violet_Crumble]

17. Looks like that one blew up in her face...

I really hope that sort of thing would lead to being expelled at the very least. That's really nasty and irresponsible for someone to do and is similar in a way to any woman who makes a false accusation of rape....

[LeftishBrit]

19. Yes, it happens occasionally

But so do false allegations of rape; students alleging racism when the real problem is that they've been given poor grades; etc. This doesn't negate the fact that rape, racism, etc. are serious problems in society and the same goes for antisemitism.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Unfortunately, some people can become bullies in any cause

I don't agree that being a student activist in a pro- or anti-Zionist cause; Conservative or Labour Party; Democratic or Republican cause; is intrinsically linked to bullying (obviously I would support some of these causes and oppose others). But anyone can turn to bullying and this needs to be opposed, whatever one's view on the causes.

[shira]

18. A simple google search for "campus antisemitism" shows this is a huge problem in liberal societies.

And there exists a certain amount of reluctance on the part of college administrators, campus police, and local/state legislators to do anything about it.

[LeftishBrit]

20. Yes. So are other forms of bullying and prejudice

E.g. I know several people who've been bullied in the workplace for anything from disability to disagreeing on some academic issue with a senior colleague. And in most cases, very little has been done about it. People are often scared to report bullying, or think it will reflect on them; and adminstrators tend to be a bit 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Thing No Evil' - or may even be scared of the bully themselves.

I have known of two cases of people who got away with serial sexual harrassment of women in junior positions for YEARS - and that is a category of bullying which is recognized and taken seriously more than some others.

Of course, antisemitism is also a serious problem - just saying all sorts of bullying are a huge problem.

'a huge problem in liberal societies'

Even more in illiberal ones - though in such societies it may be even less likely to get *reported*.

[ilaughatrightwingers]

Are you KIDDING ME???

Did you read the little infoslit on the side of my blog? When I was at Cal State Northridge (which has a huge Jewish student body) criticizing Israel was one of the worst of the worst things a student could do. It was the equivalent of calling a Black student a "n*****" or a Mexican/Latino student a "w******". I wore keffiyehs on campus during my time there all the time and not a day went by where Jewish students didn't give me dirty looks. A friend of mine wrote an editorial critical of Israel in the Daily Sundial, only to be chastised by the administration. I'm not kidding!

[ilaughatrightwingers]

23. Also, during my time at Cal State...

When Norman Finkelstein (who supports the two-state on the 1967 border) was going to speak at the school back in 2008 during my freshman year, there was a campaign by well-known zionist groups to prevent him from speaking. The then-head of Students for Israel admitted she orchestrated the whole thing to drive out Dr. Finkelstein in an article.

From my blog again (a very, very old post):

http://propagandalalaland.blogspot.com/2008/10/okay-guys-i-really-hate-to-touch-on.html

[shira]

24. No kidding....

I couldn't help but notice that you wrote...

"I wore keffiyehs on campus during my time there all the time and not a day went by where Jewish students didn't give me dirty looks."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you wore keffiyehs because you believe you're pro-Palestinian?

If so, can you show me where you've ever sharply criticized , for example, Hamas or the Lebanese government for their egregious anti-Palestinian human rights violations?

====================

I also noticed you're a fan of Chomsky. He said this recently...

But then comes a straight lie: it says that in December 2008, Hamas renewed rocket firing, and therefore Israel had to attack in self-defense. Now, the ambassador surely is aware—there must be somebody in the American embassy who reads the Israeli press, the mainstream Israeli press, in which case the embassy is surely aware that it’s exactly the opposite: Hamas was calling for a renewal of the ceasefire. Israel considered the offer and rejected it, preferring to bomb rather than to have security. Also omitted is that while Israel never observed the ceasefire, it maintained the siege in violation of the truce agreement. On November 4th, the U.S. election, 2008, the Israeli army entered Gaza, killed—invaded Gaza and killed half a dozen Hamas militants, which did lead to an exchange of fire, in which all the casualties, as usual, are Palestinian. Then in December, Hamas—when the truce officially ended, Hamas called for renewing it. Israel refused, and the U.S. and Israel chose to launch the war. What the embassy reported is a gross falsification and a very significant one, since it has to do with the justification for this murderous attack, which means either the embassy hasn’t a clue what’s going on or else they’re lying outright.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/30/noam_chomsky_wikileaks_cables_reveal_profound

You think that statement is credible or reliable?

[ilaughatrightwingers]

25. What does Chomsky have to do...

... with nasty Jewish/zionist students at my ex-university?

Man you guys love bringing up the red herrings.

[shira]

27. Tells me what I'm up against WRT facts and reality. n/t

[ilaughatrightwingers]

26. Just letting you know

I'm also a huge fan of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin - I guess that implies I want to actually kill Jews, right?

And by the way, I have much more of an effect on Israeli policy than on PA or Lebanese policy, considering how Israel receives the highest amount of US military aid and is practically the 51st state in the US. I think it's much more responsible (and moral) for people living under the government of the US to be criticizing US-Israeli crimes than the crimes of Arabs which we have little effect in comparison.

[shira]

28. So you have not harshly criticized...

...Hamas or the Lebanese gov't for their treatment of Palestinians, but you consider yourself pro-Palestinian?

:)

Also, are you saying that because Israel receives lots of US aid that other atrocities around the world 100x worse don't bother you because the USA isn't funding it? Or Israel's actions wouldn't bother you if the USA wasn't funding Israel?

[ilaughatrightwingers]

29. So.....

Let me understand your way of thinking: because the Arabs do bad things, Israel doesn't do bad things?

A does B
C does B
A hates C
Therefore, A is justified in doing B

Totally fallacious.

I never said I support the Arab regimes, so claiming I'm a hypocrite does nothing.

Either way, it's much more responsible for people to criticize the things they can effect. It's like me trying to get my town to clean up the polluted river that runs through it, and someone telling us that we shouldn't bother and that we "don't really care about the river" solely on the fact that the neighboring town pollutes the river much worse than we do. Your argument makes so sense and does nothing to vindicate Israeli crimes.

[shira]

30. No to your question.

"Either way, it's much more responsible for people to criticize the things they can effect."

What makes you think criticism of Hamas, for example, would be ineffective? And because you believe it would be ineffective, it's responsible not to criticize them?

Are you starting to understand why some people would question your motives and tune you out?

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shaayecanaan]

7. video of the incident...

"Worse yet, Jewish students at York University in Toronto were forced to barricade themselves inside the Hillel offices last year after an angry mob chased them, screaming: “Die, Jew, die, get the hell off campus!” Anti-Israel activists unfairly justify psychologically intimidating treatment against Jewish students as an appropriate way to show their criticism of the State of Israel."

A video of this incident can be found below. I'll leave it to others to judge whether the above description of the pro-Palestine "mob" is consistent with reality:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkmRhgZqTwQ

BTW, in an age where 90+% of students carry devices capable of recording video, but inexplicably there are no videos of rampaging students attempting to ram the walls of a compound, then the simplest explanation is that the incident didn't happen. I wouldnt trust a student politician to give me a weather report, let alone report honestly on an encounter in which they themselves were participants.

[oberliner]

10. This is not a video of the incident

This is a news report about the events related to the incident, but it does not capture (or purport to capture) the incident itself.

Just because something wasn't captured on video does not mean it did not happen.

Bizarre that such an obvious fact would even need to be stated.

[shaayecanaan]

15. Its impossible to produce footage of an incident that did not happen

moreover, some of the claims by the pro-Israel students are clearly nonsensical. They claim that pro-Palestinian students rammed the door to the room so hard that the "lights outside dimmed". How would ramming on a door make the lights dim? And further, how would you know if they did if you were barricaded inside a room?

And besides, why would the mainstream student newspaper report on the mundane aspects of this gathering while ignoring this apparently explosive confrontation replete with blood-curdling death threats, 911 calls and students being barricaded in a room?

[Swede]

21. Kind of like what happened at Concordia in Montreal.

Here is a youtube clip of a documentary about the incident.

Confrontation at Concordia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYUVsDfapb8