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bds-san-diego-state-university-poster-david-horowitzSan Diego State University (SDSU) has been the scene of some controversy in recent days, triggered by fliers on campus – sent by conservative activist David Horowitz (not the Times of Israel one) – which identified certain students as supporters of terrorism.

“There is an epidemic of Jew hatred on American campuses and at San Diego State University. This Jew hatred is incited by Students for Justice in Palestine, the Muslim Students Association and assorted leftist groups, all of whom support the terrorist organizations Hamas and Fatah.”

The fliers then explain that both SJP and MSA are products of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that they “disseminate genocidal lies about Israel whose purpose is to weaken and destroy the world’s only Jewish state.”

Here is what Horowitz had to say about the purpose behind the fliers.

Horowitz’s Freedom Center and his website Stop the Jew Hatred on Campus are focused on exposing monetary connections between the terrorist organization Hamas and the Students for Justice in Palestine group which has chapters on public and private college campuses throughout the United States. He said that his goal with the posters was to “expose the fact that you have organizations that are supported by universities.

“I want the university to withdraw all of the funding privileges for a hate group, which is what SJP is. And identify them as a hate group,” Horowitz said.

When asked about the specific decision to name the student activists in his posters, Horowitz said “Why shouldn’t you name these people? They don’t want to be responsible for what they do. They claim themselves victims. Why would anyone defend them? They call for the destruction of the Jewish state.”

Is he correct?

He sure is. Protests organized by SJP chapters regularly include hate-speech and chants such as “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free” – calling for the destruction of the Jewish State. And it was shown recently that there is a link between SJP and terror organizations.

In response to the fliers, SDSU President Elliot Hirshman and Vice President of Student Affairs Eric Rivera sent out an mail in which they stated that while the university supports free speech, it questioned whether naming students who are against a certain viewpoint could discourage them from taking part in political discussions.

“We raise these issues to strengthen our tradition of vibrant discourse about ideas and issues and encourage all members of our community to participate in these discussions,” the statement read in part.

Leftists and other supporters of the named students would have none of this, and they protested, surrounding President Hirshman and preventing him from leaving campus for about two hours.

San Diego State student Osama Alkhawaja, gesturing, whose name was on a flier saying he was a terrorist, and SDSU president Dr. Elliot Hirshman, left, have a conversation while surrounded by students, who are protesting over how San Diego State University administrators have handled recent fliers being distributed that say Muslim students are terrorists, and media at SDSU in San Diego on Wednesday. Hayne Palmour IV
San Diego State student Osama Alkhawaja, gesturing, whose name was on a flier saying he was a terrorist, and SDSU president Dr. Elliot Hirshman, left, have a conversation while surrounded by students, who are protesting over how San Diego State University administrators have handled recent fliers being distributed that say Muslim students are terrorists, and media at SDSU in San Diego on Wednesday. Hayne Palmour IV

One of the named students Rachel Beck was in tears as she described how Muslim students felt.

https://youtu.be/i32iz2Zsi3Q

Sounds like she really cares about the Muslim students on campus.

Jewish students? Not so much.

Rachel Beck is a student at San Diego State University (SDSU), pursuing a major in International Security and Conflict Resolution.

Beck is an active member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) SDSU.

On July 18, 2014,on Facebook, Beck equated Israel with Hamas and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing.

In the same Facebook post, Beck justified SJP’s demonization of Israel and dismissed FBI hate crime data that showed that in 2014 American Jews were more than twice as likely as blacks and three times more likely than Muslims to be victimized by hate crime. Beck implied that the FBI figures were unfairly slanted toward Jews and against other groups, opining that: “in a post-Holocaust post-9/11 America, there may be some religious bias affecting these statistics.”

Or others for that matter.

On Facebook, immediately after the coordinated Islamist-attacks in France during November 2015, many indicated their solidarity with the French terror victims by adopting a French flag filter on Facebook. Beck derided this display of empathy, posting:  “French flag on your Facebook? Congratulations on your corporate white supremacy.”

And let’s not forget that SJP has a history of making Jewish students feel way more uncomfortable than these Muslim students would feel.

The organization describes itself on its website as against racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, classism, bigotry, and anti-Semitism. The group’s focus however is almost entirely on it’s anti-Israel campaigns, including Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolutions, Israel-Apartheid initiatives, drives comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, mock check-points, “die-ins” as well as rallies and protests.

SJP members frequently intimidate and harass pro-Israel supporters. Members have been responsible for physically assaulting Jewish students, vandalizing communal property and violently disrupting pro Israel speakers and events. Protests organized by SJP chapters regularly include hate-speech and chants such as “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free” – calling for the destruction of the Jewish State.

San Francisco State University, December 2013: Mohammad Hammad, president of San Francisco State University’s General Union of Palestinian Students—the chapter kept its original name from 1973—posted a picture of himself wielding a knife on his Tumblr page. “I seriously cannot get over how much I love this blade,” he wrote in the caption. “It is the sharpest thing I own and cuts through everything like butter and just holding it makes me want to stab an Israeli soldier.” According to CBS News, Hammad has come under investigation by anti-terrorism officials and the FBI.

UC Berkeley, March 2010: Husam Zakharia, while serving as president of the SJP chapter on campus, rammed a female pro-Israel student activist with a shopping cart. She was holding a sign reading “Israel Wants Peace.”

Temple University, August 2014: A Jewish student was hit in the face by someone who was with a group of students, many of whom were confirmed as SJP members. Two witnesses heard members of SJP call him a “kike” after the attack. “Before this, I just thought Students for Justice in Palestine was crazy”, the victim said after the incident, “but I didn’t know it would lead to violence.”

Loyola University, September 2014: Members of SJP at Loyola University Chicago verbally assaulted Jewish students affiliated with Hillel who were staffing a table with literature for a Birthright Israel trip. SJP members reportedly surrounded the table, blocking the movement of the Hillel students and preventing others from approaching. One student witness told The College Fix, a news website that covers campus issues, that SJP members ambushed the Jewish students.

Northeastern University, 2013: The entire SJP was suspended from campus for the school year for intimidating students on campus. In 2011 the chapter chose to interrupt an on-campus Holocaust remembrance event by whipping out anti-Israel signs and yelling insults at the audience and speakers before storming out.

Florida Atlantic University, April 2012: SJP members postedeviction notices on the dorm room doors of 200 students, most of them Jewish. The tactic has been repeated at various campuses. As one NYU student said, “this made me feel targeted and unsafe in my own dorm room and I know others feel exactly the same as myself.”

SJP is rapidly creating a hostile and unsafe environment on US campuses for all who do not share their radical anti-Israel views. For this reason, they have even been labeled by some as “Hamas on Campus.”

Another of the students named on the poster, Osama Alkhawaja, has been instrumental in creating a threatening environment for Jewish students.

Alkhawaja organized a “die-in protest” on campus in October 2014 which was supported by members of the Arab Student Association (ASA) and the Muslim Student Association (MSA). A month later, he was heavily involved in the SJP SDSU dropping of approximately 500 leaflets from the top of the student hall ordering students to evacuate immediately and warning that “Those who fail to comply with the instructions will endanger their lives and the lives of their families.”

So Rachel Beck, cry me a river.

About the author

Picture of David Lange

David Lange

A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
Picture of David Lange

David Lange

A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
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