A student who disrupted the Israeli ambassador’s speech at the Irvine campus of the University of California is led out by a security officer (Photo: UprisingRadio.org)
A student who disrupted the Israeli ambassador’s speech at the Irvine campus of the University of California is led out by a security officer (Photo: UprisingRadio.org)A controversial report on Jewish campus life at the University of California is being slammed as biased and harmful to academic freedom by Jewish Voice for Peace. The progressive Jewish group adds to the chorus of voices that have condemned the report, which activists say conflates Palestine solidarity activism with anti-Semitism.
The report was released earlier in the month, and was sparked by high-profile incidents on campus that have occurred in recent years: the debate over divestment at Berkeley, and the disruption of Michael Oren’s speech by 11 students at the University of California, Irvine. Two separate reports, one on Muslim and Arab students and one on Jewish students, were published. The recommendations contained in the report on Jewish student life have proved to be the most controversial.
Writing in Al Jazeera English, Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi outlined some core problems with the report:
In the recommendations section of the report, which has the most potential to curtail the rights of students to speak out and organise, the authors suggest instituting a “hate speech-free” policy that extends beyond the “current harassment and non-discrimination provisions… and seek opportunities to prohibit hate speech”.
A number of students I spoke with believe this is a bold attempt to squash criticism and block action against Israel’s system of apartheid. The advisory council members seem well aware that they are overstepping their bounds when they write, “the Team recognises that changes to UC hate speech policies may result in legal challenge, but offer that UC accept the challenge”.
Jewish Voice for Peace has more on why the report is harmful in this press release:
Jewish Voice for Peace calls on University of California President Mark Yudof to table a recently released report on Jewish student campus climate and to disregard its controversial recommendations until a methodologically sound and even-handed report can be conducted.
The report, co-authored by Anti-Defamation League national education chairman Richard Barton and NAACP California president Alice Huffman, is coming under heavy criticism by a number of groups, including many Jewish students and faculty members, for poor methodology and bias.
Cecilie Surasky, Jewish Voice for Peace Deputy Director: “Rather than offering a genuine exploration of a range of Jewish student life issues—which we would support — the report reads like a blueprint for limiting pro-Palestinian activism and further marginalizing the growing numbers of students, many of them Jewish, who are critical of Israeli policies.”
The report does not reveal the names of individuals or groups who were interviewed or why many meetings were by invitation-only; offers no quantitative data to substantiate anecdotal evidence that the campuses are hostile places for Jewish students; and conflates pro-Palestinian activism with anti-Semitism. While it claims to explore all aspects of Jewish life, it devotes the bulk of column inches to pro-Palestinian student activism and makes recommendations that will have negative impacts on academic freedom for all students.
The report does accurately note that Jewish opinion on Israel and Palestine on campuses is extremely diverse, however it only offers anecdotes about the discomfort of students who support Israel policies, and omits numerous reports of harassment or intimidation experienced by Jewish students and staff who support Palestinian and Israeli rights, many of whom belong to progressive groups including Students for Justice in Palestine, J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Cecilie Surasky: “The UC system is a key battleground for groups that seek to limit criticism of Israeli policies. They are terrified of losing the unconditional support of the next generation and see UC as a testing ground for efforts to silence debate that include intimidating students and professors, making unsubstantiated claims of anti-Semitism against those critical of Israeli policies, encouraging legal action against schools and student protestors and so on.
There is no question that some Jewish students feel uncomfortable with public criticism of Israeli policies, whether articulated by other Jews or non-Jewish students, but that does not make that criticism anti-Semitic. The answer is more speech and enhanced communication, not limiting speech in order to avoid the discomfort of some students.”
So precious.
“Typically in the analysis of the malignant narcissist, “the patient attempts to triumph over the analyst by destroying the analysis and himself or herself”[11] — an extreme version of what Lacan described as “that resistance of the amour-propre…which is often expressed thus: ‘I can’t bear the thought of being freed by anyone other than myself'”.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malignant_narcissism
Whoa. Good for JVP
This has been coming for some time. Criticism of Israeli == antisemitism. Antisemitism == hate speech. Ipso facto: criticism of Israel == hate speech.
Those laws that have slowly moved through our justice system adding “hate” enhancements to obvious criminal acts are now coming together to make crimes out of political debate.
What is sad about this progression is that many of those “hate” enhancement laws were championed by progressives that once upon a time were the fiercest defenders of the first amendment.
The Zionists are going to destroy the antisemitism meme. It’s “the boy who cried wolf” syndrome. People are going to end up linking Judaism to end stage Zionism.
Which is something like Mad Israel disease.
Concerning “Jews who feel uncomfortable with criticism of Israel” the defining commentary comes from El Finko in his “crocodile tears” tour de force
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivz06LZSWjY
NF: “—the crocodile tears—allow me to finish! Allow me to finish! Allow me to finish! Sir! Sir! Allow me to finish! I don’t like to play, before an audience, the Holocaust card. But since now I feel compelled to, my late father was in Auschwitz. My late mother—please shut up!” (Huge applause.) “My late father was in Auschwitz. My late mother was in Majdanek concentration camp. Every single member of my family on my father’s side and my mother’s side—”
(Yellow Hoodie girl clutches her head and sobs. Some guy in the back of the line yells “The Jews can not take arms against—” but NF shouts him down.)
NF: “My late father was in Auschwitz concentration camp, my late mother was in Majdanek concentration camp! Every single member of my family on both sides was exterminated. Both of my parents were in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising! And it is precisely and exactly because of the lessons my parents taught me and my two siblings, that I will not be silenced when Israel commits its crimes against the Palestinians! And I consider nothing more despicable than to use their suffering and their martyrdom to try to justify the torture, the brutalization, the demolition of homes, that Israel daily commits against the Palestinians! So I refuse, any longer, to be intimidated or browbeaten by the tears! If you had any heart in you, you would be crying for the Palestinians! Not for what you [inaudible]!”
(Huge applause and cheering. Girl in yellow hoodie is still crying, clutching her head, etc. Someone approaches Finkelstein, hands him a water bottle, and sends him to sit down. Finkelstein speaks directly to the cameraperson, with a smile.)
NF: “I’ve never been in a crowd like this. They’re nuts.”