UC Berkeley JStreetU students. (Photo: J Street)
On November 16, the Berkeley Jewish Student Union (JSU), voted against accepting JStreetU as an official member of the student union. JStreetU, an affiliate of J Street, had been active on-campus for approximately a year-and-a-half.
What was JStreetU's infraction?
JStreetU campus events included a lecture by Assaf Sharon from the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement (and Ami Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet and former Commander of the Israeli Navy). The student group began organizing in 2010, and has cosponsored events with Keshor Enoshi , Progressives for Activism in Israel (KE), which is a JSU group. KE works to grow a “community of students dedicated to engaging directly with social change organizations and activists in Israel,” by hosting events with Israeli social justice organizations such as Breaking the Silence, Jerusalem Open House, Women of the Wall and Bustan (a Bedouin rights/environmental organization), JstreetU focuses more on U.S. policy with Israel.
Alon Mazor, Israeli-American student organizer with JStreetU and KE, says that both groups provide necessary debate on the politics of Israel/Palestine. "KE offers a reality check of what is really happening in Israel, while JStreetU is a way to operate in the American political system and make change."
Mazor says the Jewish Student Union meeting that rejected JStreetU had the tone of a "hostile environment." JStreetU has criticized the 21-member Jewish Student Union as having close affiliations to the right-wing student organization Tikvah: Students for Israel. Tikvah denies that it is over-represented in the union. It has organized on-campus since 2007, and in a December 7 statement, Tikvah wrote that JStreetU is given to "thinly veiled Israel bashing."
Tikvah has a sordid history on campus, stemming from student misconduct and financial issues, which led the group to temporarily become unaffiliated with the Jewish Student Union in 2008 (the student group also briefly started a separatist Jewish Student Union). Again, in 2008 Tikvah was embroiled in controversy when two members were involved in a physical altercation with three Palestinian students (two female, one male). The police report of the incident compared Tikvah students to “skin-heads,” and recommended charging Tikvah students with assault and battery with the “enhancement of a hate crime.” However, the district attorney of the University of California did not press criminal charges (the police report described the Palestinians students as acting in "self-defense").
The union's decision on JstreetU’s admittance centered on the group’s alleged “anti-Israel” position. The student union cited a policy written by the Jewish Community Federation after Rachel Corrie’s murder in 2003, under which member groups of Berkeley Hillel cannot take an “anti-Israel” stance, according to Mazor.
The Bay Area has seen a wave of incidents closing the debate on Israel inside Jewish community organizations-- notably, a Febuary 2010 decision by the Jewish Community Federation not to fund any organization critical of Israel.
As Mazor told me, JStreetU has not yet decided if it will re-apply for admission to the JSU:
JStreetU at Berkeley is having an internal conversation about whether or not to reapply into the JSU. We do want to have a place at the Jewish communal table and thus think it is important for us still [to] be a part of the Jewish student community. Because of support which we have received from the Berkeley Hillel board of directors, alumni and students, we do not know if it is necessary for us to be a member group of the JSU in order to be part of the Jewish community at Cal.
Meanwhile, Berkeley Hillel is urging the student union to reconsider to decision, on the grounds that JStreetU is "pro-Israel":
"The JStreetU chapter adheres to our Israel policy and Hillel International’s Israel Guidelines and will receive the support of Berkeley Hillel as do the broad spectrum of other Israel-focused groups working with Berkeley Hillel."
JStreetU will continue to organize on-campus, as it has membership with the Associated Students of the University of California.
for the young zionists in the ucb jewish student union this israel-firstness probably pays off in terms of employment by zionist organizations &/or wealthy zionists. kind of a sliding door arrangement such as the one that shuttles retired military generals into defense industries as lobbyists. not to dispair, jstreetu members, jewish voices for peace has your back.
The ballistic reaction speaks well of JStreetU, and this Tikvah gang sound horrible. But let’s not forget for even a second that J Street proper supports an unconditional $3bn in military aid from the US to Israel. J Street says they are against settlements, but they are unwilling to push the US government to take any meaningful action that would discourage settlement-building; indeed they oppose the only US measures, like cutting off military aid, that might make Israel halt its ethnic cleansing on the West Bank and East Jerusalem. This makes J Street only a more mealy-mouthed wing of the Israel lobby rather than advocates for real justice, prudence or sanity. Honestly, if you truly oppose the settlements how can you support giving Israel more US foreign aid than all of sub-Saharan Africa?
Thanks Allison for your post. While I do agree with you Chespirito that “J Street [is] only a more mealy-mouthed wing of the Israel lobby rather than advocates for real justice, prudence or sanity”, this post by Allison gives additional evidence that the much awaited “split” in American Jewish/liberal opinion regarding Israel is really underway. Seeing how the Tikvah thugs treated JStreetU illustrates how the center is not going to hold as the split proceeds- there is going to be a natural polarization in opinion, something along the lines of “You’re either with Israel, or you’re against them.” We saw it in the 60′s as “America, love it or leave it.”
This is another example of a Zionist technique. Claim that a liberal Zionist organization is anti-Israel, and it makes it look good.
Seriously jaynot, you should know by now that there isn’t a single ardent Zionist worthy of his falafels who would EVER direct a barbed comment towards another of G-d’s chosen people! Such armor piercing reprimands are reserved solely for goys, pesky “Palestinians”, and (if you happen to be ardent, Jewish, Zionist and Israeli) American and Ethiopian Jews.
No, what probably happened was that one of the student Zionists from the union got a little too emotional while thinking about the fatherland, which then caused them to start referring to it as Auntie Israel, and then some unfortunate miscommunication occurred.
“Again, in 2008 Tikvah was embroiled in controversy when two members were involved in a physical altercation with three Palestinian students (two female, one male). The police report of the incident compared Tikvah students to “skin-heads,” and recommended charging Tikvah students with assault and battery with the “enhancement of a hate crime.” However, the district attorney of the University of California did not press criminal charges (the police report described the Palestinians students as acting in “self-defense”).
Wonder where these students learned that abusive strategy?