General Union of Palestine Students storm meeting with Jerusalem mayor
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“The Middle East, Israel in particular, have always been hot topics for this campus,” Assistant Director to San Francisco Hillel Rachel Nilson said before introducing Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat for an open dialogue with SF State students and community members. Her statement turned out to be prophetic when, minutes after Barkat started his opening speech, members of the General Union of Palestine Students stormed Seven Hills Conference Center demanding Barkat’s expulsion from the campus.
“We don’t want you on our campus!” they shouted. “Get the hell off our campus!”
GUPS was joined by members of the Black Student Union, the League of Filipino Students, and Defend and Advance Ethnic Studies. The crowd of about 40 students quickly took up chants, clapping, waving Palestinian flags and thrusting their fists in the air.
“Free, free, free Palestine!” one of the lead protesters chanted, which the crowd behind her echoed. “If we don’t get no justice, then you don’t get no peace!”
While Barkat stood silently at the pulpit, Nilson and Jacob Mandel, student leader of the event, attempted to communicate with the protesters.
“We have heard your concerns; can you please have a seat?” Mandel said, his request quickly drowned out by the continued chants.
The protests initially caused a small amount of panic, causing Barkat’s bodyguard to immediately spring to his feet and a campus police officer to enter the conference center. However, after 10 minutes of uninterrupted chanting, the audience tried to be uninvolved as possible, talking amongst themselves, checking their phones and refusing to look at the protesters. Barkat did not try to engage with the protesters, and instead met and took photos with audience members.
“We have a right to hear what (Barkat) has to say, and we can’t hear it with all that,” physiology major Sarah Herman said, gesturing to the protestors.
San Francisco Hillel staff clustered together and talked briefly with Barkat before ushering attendees to gather on one side of the room around Barkat to allow him to finish his speech and receive questions.
“We’re trying to have a dialogue with all sides,” Engagement Associate Sasha Joseph said. “We don’t want to spark anything.”
Despite being provided with a microphone, Barkat was still largely drowned out by the protesters, who migrated closer to the audience. Three campus police officers stood at the front of the conference center, barring the demonstrators from getting any closer.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that we’re not allowed an environment where we can have an open dialogue,” political science major Antonia Ford said. “I have no issue with having different opinions and being angry, but they’re not here to talk, they’re here to yell, and that will never achieve anything.”
After almost an hour of nonstop chanting, Barkat finally said his goodbyes to attendees and exited, drawing triumphant cheers from the protesters, many continuing to scream for Barkat to get out. They filed out after Barkat, while San Francisco Hillel staff escorted audience members out through another exit.
“We were expecting protests. Protests have happened in the past,” Mandel said. “I’m very disappointed in how they acted. If they wanted to come and talk, I would’ve loved it. I would’ve loved if they engaged in the dialogue, but they don’t because they’re extremists.”
As the chants continued outside, Mandel said that he hoped that the university would respond seriously to what he felt were violations of the student code of conduct. Despite the interruption, though, Mandel is resolute that he and the Jewish community at SF State will not back down.
“The most important thing for me is that Jewish and non-Jewish students got to hear what was going on in Israel, and engage in a dialogue with each other and Mayor Barkat, and that’s what happened, and I’m so glad,” Mandal said. “The Jewish students on campus are not afraid.”
Memebers of GUPS present at the event declined to comment on the protests.
UPDATE: President Wong released a statement regarding Barkat’s visit:
Dear SF State community,
I am concerned for the state of civil discourse on our campus. There have been a number of events this academic year which have caused me to think extensively about our values and our mission.
Nir Barkat, Mayor of Jerusalem was invited to speak yesterday on campus by SF Hillel, a student organization. The Mayor’s talk, held at Seven Hills, was disrupted by a small but loud group of protesters. Members of our community who attended the event were deprived of an opportunity to hear from the Mayor.
As an inclusive academic institution, we strive to make San Francisco State University a welcoming environment for all. Students are encouraged to engage in thoughtful and respectful dialogue about difficult or controversial issues and, at the same time, to respect the rights of others to do the same. While there is a right to dissent, we must also uphold the right to speak and to learn.
The Dean of Students and University Police will perform a full investigation of this incident to determine if any violations of campus policy occurred. In addition, I am committed to examining the university’s planning and response mechanisms to better ensure that student events of this nature can occur unimpeded in the future.
We must come together as a campus to foster a supportive and collegial environment in which disagreements can occur thoughtfully and respectfully. We must strive to live our values — and to be a safe place where all the members of our community are free to listen and to learn.
I would appreciate your support in promoting this core value so the entire SF State community can feel welcome and safe to engage in the free exchange of ideas and views that is essential to our campus.
Les Wong
President
San Francisco State University
SamXie • May 12, 2016 at 7:46 am
Don’t let the Jews, er, the Zionists hijack this. The Palestinian students are the victims. This persecution of poor innocent students is Islamophobia- yeah-thats right. Islamophobia.
Sign the petition. Demand Les Wong cancel the investigation. Don’t allow the Jews, er, the Zionists to take over our campus. They are white and privileged, so screw them all.
Dear SFSU President Leslie Wong,
I am writing to you to express my deep concerns over the recent backlash against students who participated in the April 6th 2016 protest to the visit to SF State by the Mayor of occupied Jerusalem, Nir Barkat. Barkat has promoted and orchestrated ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Jerusalem. SFSU is a public educational institution with a long history of promoting social justice and centering the narratives of injustice the world over, including Indigenous communities, communities of color and other marginalized and colonized communities. The students who protested were standing up for those very values.
I am also concerned about the impact of the recent backlash, which has included online bullying, smearing, in person harassment, sexual harassment, and even death threats, especially in an already pervasive climate of anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia.
Please take the following steps:
1. Immediately stop the administrative investigation to punish students’ speech activity, and instead protect students’ safety, rights, and ability to continue to participate in their educational pursuits.
2. Condemn the bullying, smearing, sexual harassment and death threats that are targeting student protesters and investigate the organizations attacking these students, and the relationship between members of the administration, and the University.
3. Implement training for faculty and administrators on Islamophobia and the proper enforcement of Title VI protections against anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination, including that experienced on the SFSU campus.
SamXie • Apr 12, 2016 at 11:59 am
This article is toned down for wholesale consumption. The protesters screamed their support for the “Intifada”- the violence that has left over 34 dead, and over 400 injured. They screamed “Get the f**k off our campus”.
Imagine if you will, if this had happened to a different student group. Would this be tolerated if LGBT students were harassed and prevented from meeting? How about if it were black students?
We all know “investigation” means stall until the bad press dies down.
Incidentally- there is a petition to ask Les Wong to resign, for failing to protect student rights on campus. You can find it here:
https://www.change.org/p/csu-board-of-trustees-resignation-of-the-president-of-san-francisco-state-university?recruiter=58251116&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-reason_msg&fb_ref=Default
Teddy Edwards • Apr 10, 2016 at 3:08 pm
Okay, I think we have a contender for which group is more of a threat to free speech. It used to be the Democratic Party Left. Well, I guess it still is.
GK • Apr 8, 2016 at 6:28 pm
Face it — in general, San Francisco is an antisemitic city. This has been going on for a long time, nothing new here. I noticed that a long time ago. If you are in doubt, put anything on your car identifying it as belonging to a Jew or to someone who in any way may be pro-Israel and you will find out quickly. I remember an organization calling themselves “Democrats For Hammas” (myself being a Democrat, I know their wasn’t any connection) marching down the street in unison in their khaki colored tee shirts. Their supporters on one side of the street waved signs and shouted words that were about as pro-Nazi as you can get. Little was reported in the news. It made me wonder if the ’30s was returning.
garyfouse • Apr 8, 2016 at 7:35 pm
GK;
The 1930s has returned. In Europe, the Jews are leaving in droves because of the violent harassment they get from the Muslim immigrants while Europeans turn a blind eye. In the US the focal point of this resurgence in anti-Semitism is on our college campuses. It is not neo-Nazis or skin heads. It is the
pro-Palestinian lobby.
Pres. Wong has allowed this situation to fester. In the past couple of years GUPS has produced posters and a video praising the killing of Israeli soldiers. What is he waiting for-somebody to get killed on campus?
jjs110 • Apr 8, 2016 at 10:44 pm
Wong definitely comes out of this story as both hapless and incompetent, a scared bunny who thinks that by cowering and not standing up to the pro-Palestinian neo-Nazis, the poison they spread wherever they show their hate-filled faces is simply going to go away. Either he is too terminally naive to occupy his job, too cowardly bureaucratic to take a stand when facing the emergence of fascism on his campus, or too sympathetic to the little fascists’ “cause” to maintain any shred of credibility, in the end the reason doesn’t really matter. What matters is his sheer proven inability to maintain control over his campus and to prevent the modern-day barbarians that are all Palestinian supporters from taking over. He better come down hard on every single one of the students identified on the videos of the event cirtculating on the net if he hopes to restore whatever credibility he has left. If he missed this boat, he needs then to resign. He is simply not up to the job.
Teddy Edwards • Apr 10, 2016 at 3:15 pm
A majority of Jewish college students, 54 percent, report being subjected to, or witness to, anti-Semitism on campus during any six-month period, according to a 2014 survey published by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Trinity College. This survey was undertaken BEFORE the violent summer conflict in Gaza, which researchers Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar said led to a “worldwide flare-up in anti-Semitism,” but they also noted that the “data suggest there is an under-reporting of anti-Semitism through the normal campus channels.”
Even more disturbingly, students report that they often felt universities did not take their concerns about anti-Semitism seriously. “The response of many university faculty and administrators to Jewish complaints and outrage often shows that their threshold for the definition of the existence of the crime of anti-Semitism is set ridiculously high,” write Kosmin and Keysar.
At schools where students strive to protect the rights of ethnic and racial minorities, stomp out sexual and gender discrimination, and regularly remind people to “check their privilege,” hate speech against the Jewish community is a pernicious problem.
“We still find anti-Semitic slogans written on bathrooms. We see swastikas on doors still, but they’re kind of dismissed. They’re painted over because there are just so many things that happened,” says Ori Herschmann, a senior at UC Berkeley who serves in the student government. “A lot of students find swastikas and come to me. [They see it] on dorms, on bathroom stalls, just random places on campus.”
garyfouse • Apr 11, 2016 at 9:13 am
You are correct. Just recently, after years of denial, the UC Regents finally approved a statement of principles on intolerance that specifically addressed anti-Semitism, which is the biggest -ism on our campuses today. It appears CSU needs the same thing.
Teddy Edwards • Apr 11, 2016 at 12:28 pm
Thanks for that news. I think that is a next step for those of us who want to see progress in that area, i.e. linking the UC Regents’ work to those running the Cal State schools.
garyfouse • Apr 11, 2016 at 2:30 pm
Then I would recommend contact with the AMCHA Initiative. They were the main driving force behind the UC statement. They are founded by two UC professors. Check out their website. They have also been involved in CSU issues.
garyfouse • Apr 8, 2016 at 5:43 pm
Yesterday, as a concerned citizen, I wrote an email to Wong objecting to the incident. The same day, he sent me this response.
Mr. Fouse,
I was troubled by reports coming to me from my police and security team
this morning. They are completing their investigatory work especially
with regard to the potential violation of a number of student conduct
codes which will inform the formal conduct hearings. We do not condone
their behavior and I am quite saddened by it. But our conduct processes
will now take over. Police were present and made a number of attempts to
move them out of the area. I appreciate your note. A letter to faculty,
staff, students, donors and supporters is being distributed today.
Respectfully,
Dr. Les Wong
President
San Francisco State University
—————————–
Given the accounts of the events, something doesn’t square here. Did the Campus police really make a number of attempts to move them out of the area?
I wonder if Wong was present at the event.
jjs110 • Apr 8, 2016 at 11:07 pm
According to subsequent articles published since this disgrace took place, it would seem now that in fact there was only ONE campus police person present. If that is confirmed, Wong’s statement that “Police were present and made a number of attempts to move them out of the area” appears to be an incredible and multiple lie: 1. there were no police present in plural. Only one was there. 2. He/she did absolutely nothing (confirmed by an article in the Times of Israel written by someone who was there), so when did the “numerous attempts” made?). 3. the videos of the events circulating show no action whatsoever from the police (man or woman). If Wong was present, it would make this inaction even more inexcusable. The bottom line at this point is to find out who gave the campus police (-man or woman) the order to stand down and do nothing FOR A WHOLE HOUR while the little Nazis shanted their tired old clichés (“From the river to the sear, Palestine will be free”) to prevent Barkat from speaking.
But while Wong was either ridiculously inept or complicit, he is not the only guilty party that allowed this disaster to happen. Hillel, the group that invited Nir Barkat in the first place, appears to have had no contingency plans whatsoever in place, even though their representative is reported to have said that they expected something like this to happen. As such, Hillel bears the most responsibility for not being fully ready to handle different types of outcomes, stuck as they are in their kumbaya mode, brainwashing Jewish kids into talking only about peace and “dialogue”, when they know better than anyone else that the pro-Palestinian crowd plays dirty, is not interested in dialogue and will make mince-meat of the Jewish students thus sent to face them, whoefully unprepared. Hillel sends Jewish students to battle with primitive and ineffective weapons that are no match for what the pro-Palestinian has in store for them. Not surprisingly, they are slaughtered (while the Hillel staff, responsible for these disasters, stays carefully in the background, only to claim that whatever happened was the students’ choice, which they had to “respect”). Such disingenuousness and hypocrisy are abhorrent, especially coming from an organization that still too many people in the Jewish community believe is doing a great job at standing up to the pro-Palestinian crowd. If that was the case, don’t you think we’d see some progress from one year to the next? How come things have gotten consistently worse over the last 20 years? Think about it and stop funding Hillel. They are not your kids friends, on the contrary. What happened at SFSU was entirely predictable.
garyfouse • Apr 8, 2016 at 3:26 pm
This is nothing less than Nazi-style Brown Shirt tactics all too common among the pro-Palestinian crowd. It is shocking that the potted plants of the campus police stood by and allowed this to happen. Birkat had a First Amendment right to speak and his audience had the same right to hear his words. The brown shirts should have been removed by force if necessary and arrested.
Are you proud of this SFSU? This is in your grand tradition of protesting everything under the sun.
Liana Derus • Apr 8, 2016 at 2:47 pm
ANTI ZIONISM IS NOT ANTI SEMITIC
Johnny Tran • Apr 8, 2016 at 2:55 pm
“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/MLKandIsrael.html
garyfouse • Apr 8, 2016 at 7:41 pm
Liana,
Mere opposition to Israel’s policies is not necessarily anti-Semitic. However, our State Dept. has a definition that does mention holding Israel to a double standard as opposed to their neighbors and other human rights violators. Denying Jews their homeland is on the DOS list.
Let’s be honest. This conflict is not about land. It is about religion. The Arab (Muslim) world will never accept a Jewish state in the Middle East. That carries over to the conflict on our campuses. The result is a climate of anti-Semitism and intimidation toward Jewish students. As a part-time teacher at UC Irvine (and a Gentile) I have seen it first hand for years. Jew hatred is behind this.
Michael Hess • Apr 8, 2016 at 8:48 pm
“Jew hatred is behind this.” Yeah, sure. So those thousands of Jews who are against the illegal occupation of Palestine are what, “self-hating” are they antisemitic? Are they race traitors?
Let me explain something to you kid. Blood libels have been in the news recently, I just wrote a piece about it yesterday at BBSNews where Michael Oren owes Bernie Sander the mensch, an apology for Oren being a disingenuous moron. Although I was slightly more circumspect in my article, see: http://bbsnews.net/2016-04-07/michael-oren-owes-bernie-sanders-apology/33263
It is a blood libel for you and others to claim that all Jews are in some sort of worldwide lockstep conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity including Apartheid in Israel. It is a blood libel for you to claim that it is a Jewish thing that there must be illegal colonies from Israel in another country where the illegal colonists do things like burn entire Palestinian families alive.
It is unconscionable for people like you to blame all of the world’s Jews for the extremist whackjob Israeli illegal squatter Jews who dance at weddings brandishing automatic weapons and stabbing a picture of an innocent Palestinian child, a baby girl. It is ludicrous that people like you want to blame the Jews in my family or I suppose Jerry Seinfeld or Sarah Silverman for the crimes of successive Israeli governments and the illegal colonists who commit “price tag” attacks on innocent Palestinians in their own country, a country by the way that existed twenty-four years before Israel.
Stop blaming all Jews for the crimes of those who are committing the crimes against humanity. And stop blaming the actual victims, the Palestinians. Remember this very basic truth. Israel was carved out of the existing state of Palestine, not the other way around.
— Proud supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace
garyfouse • Apr 8, 2016 at 9:52 pm
Well you sound like a charming fellow. First of all, I am not a kid. I am 70.
Secondly, I am fully aware that the Jewish community is very fragmented even when it comes to Israel. I do not call Jews who join forces with those that would destroy them “self-hating”. I leave that for other Jews to debate. I think they are misguided and simply jumping on the band wagon because it’s the left-wing thing to do. So I certainly don’t say that all Jews march in lock step for Israel. I have fought enough battles with the OC Jewish Federation and OC Hillel to know better.
Thirdly, you are ascribing claims to me that I have not made in your third and fourth paragraphs.. Now it is me who is engaged in a blood libel!!?? What Bernie Sanders, Michael Oren, Jerry Seinfeld or Sarah Silverman have to do with this is anybody’s guess. At least you didn’t bring up the Spanish Civil War in your rambling rant.
As for JVP, I saw some of your people in action at UCI a couple of years ago-Matan Cohen, Rachel Roberts and Estee Chandler, if I recall the names. They said that anybody who supports Israel should not be allowed to feel comfortable on campus and that their words were, “useless discourse”. In short, JVP is a bunch of ragtag anarchists who firmly believe in disrupting and not allowing others to speak.
Don’t think that I am going to engage you in a back and forth here. This is already more space and effort that I normally give to crackpot postings like yours.
proudzionist • Apr 9, 2016 at 8:07 am
Kudos to you, garyfouse and jjs110. Herr Hess spent the last 20 years trolling the web for any Israel-related articles, with the expressed purpose of bashing Israel and slandering anyone who has the audacity to support the only Jewish Country in the world; the only true Democracy in the Middle East. What separates Hess from other dime-a-dozen anti-Semites is his unique position of calling all Israel-supporting Jews (and Christians) “anti-Semites”. To Hess, a non-Jewish Cherokee Indian who uses the lie “I have Jews in my family” as a basis upon which to lend credibility to his daily Israel-bashing, the only REAL Jews are those atheists who see Israel as “a rogue nuke State” and “Apartheid regime” that subjects the peace-loving Palestinians to “brutal occupation” and “ethnic cleansing”. To Hess, every war in the world (and specifically including the Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria conflicts), and every Islamic terror attack since 1948 (and specifically including 9-11), are directly the fault of Israel, and anyone who disagrees with this assessment is not merely an anti-Semite, but cannot possibly be Jewish. And upon whom does he rely for blaming 9-11 on Israel? None other than Osama Bin-Laden (a hero of his, no doubt). Hess claims to show his support for REAL Jews by boasting his being a “Proud member of Jewish Voice for Peace”, an anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic organization that has very few Jews for members, and has no interest in “peace” aside from the “peace” of dead Jews…the “peace” that Jews experienced after the Zyklon B was vented into the gas chambers. And to Hess, if you don’t support such a “peace”, you’re clearly an anti-Semite and probably one of those “Christian Evangelicals” who feign support for Israel in order to usher in the second coming, and associated killing of 90% of the world’s Jews. You see, he’s just trying to protect the fictitious “Jews in my family” from “anti-Semite” Jews like me, the offspring of (anti-Semite) holocaust survivors who spent Kindergarten through college in (anti-Semitic) Yeshivas, who has lived in (anti-Semitic) Israel, who purchases (anti-Semitic) Israel Bonds, and who supports AIPAC, ZOA and ADL (“anti-Semitic” organizations, all). I could go on and on about this idiot troll, Hess, but I sense you’ve ‘got his number’.
garyfouse • Apr 9, 2016 at 10:49 am
Yes, it doesn’t take much reading of this guy’s “prose” to figure it all out. Thanks for the background on him though. Of course lost in all his rambling was the central point: A peaceful assembly was disrupted and all but shut down by campus brown shirts while the university police stood by and did nothing.
The larger question is what kind of universities do we want to have in this country. SFSU prides itself on being a “leader” in campus protests. Thus, they tolerate murderous expressions by GUPS over the past two years while a feckless president wrings his hands and laments the lack of civil discourse. What does he expect?
How sad to see what is happening to this country.
Michael Hess • Apr 9, 2016 at 3:33 pm
It’s all made up background of course because PZ is a long ago debunked lying Hasbara troll who would not know the truth if it bit him on the nose. I am a reformed Zionist. Once you learn the truth you can never go back.
proudzionist • Apr 9, 2016 at 6:24 pm
“reformed Zionist”? Is that some new term to describe an atheist Eastern Band Cherokee Indian who’s never been to Israel, never met a Jew, never stepped foot in a Jewish school or synagogue, and has spent his entire worthless life criticizing, condemning and demonizing the only Jewish State in the world?
GFY, Hess. You were NEVER a Zionist, and you have no Jews in your family. You’re just a 2-bit lonely anti-Semite who can’t stand the fact that Israel survives and thrives.
jjs110 • Apr 8, 2016 at 11:42 pm
“Proud supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace”? That’s funny. You meant “Brain-dead supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace”, I take it. JVP stands for Jewish Voice for Palestine as they entirely endorse the false and fraudulent narrative propagated by the Palestinians in their vain attempt to re-write history and erase their mistakes, too many to count. A typical indication of your own warped mind is how you can rattle off offenses allegedly committed by some settlers (which to this day have not been proven accurate) while not mentioning a single one of the considerably more numerous and gruesome terrorist attacks committed by Palestinians. And you hope to be taken seriously? You are indeed a hoot.
Michael Hess • Apr 9, 2016 at 3:31 pm
Yep. I’m a hoot. Take a look at this article I wrote today debunking a lot of what you and the other antisemitic Hasbara trolls commonly spew, it was directed at Ziva Dahl in a hate filled lying piece she wrote for The Observer. You anti-Semites, who constantly attack Jews who do not support Israeli Apartheid, are getting old really fast. See: http://bbsnews.net/2016-04-09/ziva-dahl-observer-reporter-lies-illegal-occupation-palestine/33367
It is sheer folly to attack those of us who are advocating peace through the rule of law and international legal reality. Indeed it is absurd.
proudzionist • Apr 9, 2016 at 6:31 pm
He didn’t “attack Jews”, you moron. He attacked YOU. Are you now claiming to be Jewish, you anti-Semite troll? You’ve never advocated anything even remotely resembling the “rule of law”. All you’ve ever advocated for is the destruction of Israel. How’s that working for you? Ever been to Israel, Hess? It’s quite amazing. If you ever saw it with your own eyes, you’d finally understand what a fool you make of yourself every day.
P.S. Using your own comments from your own blog as an academic reference is the height of lunacy. I know you’ve never been to college. But now I’m thinking you’ve never even been to high school.
Arafat • Apr 10, 2016 at 6:12 pm
I’ve done some background checks on Herr Hess. His parents were alcoholics and also abused whatever cheap drugs they could get their hands on. Chances are good he suffers many of the mental illnesses associated with kids born to parents like his.
proudzionist • Apr 9, 2016 at 8:24 am
Hess, you miserable mongrel. This isn’t about “thousands of Jews who are against the illegal occupation of Palestine”. It’s about a dozen or so college-aged Arabs and Blacks who are so hateful of Jews and Israel that they will not allow the free speech of anyone speaking Israel’s behalf.
Furthermore, and as to your “article” about Bernie Sanders, don’t make us laugh. You don’t write “articles”, and BS news isn’t a News Site. You write your own anti-Semitic commentary on your own personal hate blog. You are not the “editor” of BS news; you are its sole proprietor/contributor. Your blog has almost no visitors, as reported by the various internet monitoring systems
Additionally, and for the 10,000th time, stop lying about the “Jews in my family”. You have none. It is a lie you began spewing just a couple of years ago. If one of your cousins happens to have married someone whose cousin is married to a Jew, that doesn’t give you any claim to speak on behalf of Jews.
Finally, there has NEVER been a “country” or “state” of “Palestine”. Palestine has never been anything more than the description of a geographic region, much like “Appalachia”, and even that description made no implications for an Arab/Muslim territory. Indeed, prior to the 1960’s, Arabs did not affiliate with the word “Palestine”. And prior to 1948, the word “Palestine” was mostly used when referring to the land of the Jews.
Michael Hess • Apr 9, 2016 at 3:58 pm
There has never ever been anything antisemitic about BBSNews. Why would I hate my own family PZ? You have never explained this because you are a lying troll. Anyone can call BBSNews on the phone, hit our contact page, email us, and quickly discover that you are a lying anonymous troll, and I am quite real.
I could die tomorrow and it still will not change the facts. Israel is an Apartheid state that has committed the longest running crime against humanity in modern history. It is lying trolls like you who spread the blood libel that all Jews on this planet are in some sort of lockstep conspiracy to commit war crimes and burn little children and entire families alive!
You are the dolt who is trying to convince the world that Jerry Seinfeld is dancing around at a wedding brandishing automatic weapons and chanting “death to the Arabs” while stabbing a photo of an innocent Palestinians infant.
I have consistently advocated ending this conflict according to the rule of law and UN resolutions. You have consistently condoned crimes against humanity and the murder of innocent Palestinians to further an illegal occupation of their land.
You make your lying comments hoping against hope that people won’t look and see that you are a discredited liar, good luck with that. Yet again today I answered another crazed wingnut over at The Observer and debunked her thoroughly with hard cold facts. See: http://bbsnews.net/2016-04-09/ziva-dahl-observer-reporter-lies-illegal-occupation-palestine/33367 – The kinds that people like you cannot face head on, so you lie through your teeth in your sick and twisted Jew hate of those Jews who disagree with Israel being a cruel Apartheid state that is slated for certain destruction because of people just like you.
Since you have managed to destroy the Two State Solution(tm) forever, there is only one possible consequence, and given population parity was reached last year, that is the end of the Jewish National Home. You have nothing to be proud of. All you have managed to accomplish is to help bring about the destruction of the Jewish National Home. Oh sure Israel will still be there. Fortress Apartheid Israel, with well more than six million Palestinians held under abject subjugation in permanent Apartheid.
Surely you did not intend on giving them the vote in your One State ideal of Greater Israel did you? Of course not. You and yours will continue on until you have managed to get the entire state on board with ethnic cleansing, right now the recent and exhaustive Pew survey tells us that fully half of Israelis favor ethnic cleansing as a solution and eight in ten Israelis believe they should have greater privileges than their Palestinian citizens.
You disgust me with your lies and protestations even as you have helped destroy Israel. How dare you call me names when it is you who has been far more successful in ensuring that the Jewish National Home cannot survive as a beacon of light, but only the darkness of Apartheid and crimes against humanity!
We’ll next see you in a B’Tselem video accosting Palestinians with Lehava. You are a menace to all Jews with a conscience. And an embarrassment to ethical Judaism.
Just where do you get off trying to paint me as antisemitic when I am arguing against your attempt at destroying the Jewish National Home? I have not seen you at any of the meetings on how to end the conflict based on the rule of law, UN resolutions, and the Arab Peace Initiative. You were too busy trolling comment threads like these and spreading your hate and lies.
And you true anti-Semites are actually winning! You can go to sleep tonight confident that you have helped destroy the Jewish National Home and any possibility that the Apartheid state of Israel will ever be seen as a ‘beacon of light’ you sleep tight buddy, sleep tight. You are the real anti-Semites best friend! Proud Zionist eh buddy?
proudzionist • Apr 9, 2016 at 6:16 pm
You are the consummate anti-Semite, Herr Hess, true to your namesake, and this is simply indisputable. As for your ridiculous question about hating your family, I’ve never yet seen anyone accuse you of this. Frankly, I have no idea about your feelings toward your “family”, and couldn’t care less. What I do know with certainty, though, is that THERE ARE NO JEWS IN YOUR FAMILY!
You must think you’re quite clever, repeatedly referring to every Israel supporter as someone “who spreads the blood libel that all Jews on this planet are in some sort of lockstep conspiracy to commit war crimes and burn little children and entire families alive”. Is that your version of reverse psychology, moron? You do know that this sick type of reverse psychology works both ways, right? Try this one on for size… ‘It is lying, Palestinian-supporting trolls like you, who spread Islamophobia by claiming that all Muslims are in some sort of lockstep conspiracy to blow themselves up on city buses, fly commercial airliners into buildings, throw people off of roofs, burn people alive, and behead men, women and children’. See what I did there, troll boy?
You seem to be on a kick about Jerry Seinfeld. I don’t suppose it’s occurred to you that Jerry is a pro-Israel Zionist, who condemns BDS, and who recently completed a series of sold-out performances in Israel?. I guess this makes him one of those people who are “in some sort of lockstep conspiracy to commit war crimes and burn little children and entire families alive” right?
You’ve been talking about the impending destruction of Israel for 20 years. How’s that working for you? You’ve never been to Israel, have you Mikey? All you know about Israel is what you write on your little blog that no one reads, and then you have the audacity to use your own blog as some sort of academic reference for the BS you spew in talkbacks like this. You’re a cartoon, Hess. I’m almost embarrassed for you. You’ve been putting your silly little “(tm)” after every reference to the two-state solution for the past 10 years. WTF does that even mean, other than that you’re a demented juvenile who never tires of the same repetitive ‘shtick’? Your Arab terrorist friends could have had their own underserved state many times between 1967 and 2007, but they made it well known that they have no interest in this. All they want is Palestine “from the river to the sea”. Well, buddy boy, the pipe dream of a State of Palestine is over. And, NO, Israel will not absorb the few million Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza. It will merely annex large areas of the Judea/Samaria, and let your terrorist friends continue to live in a no-man’s land. Your comments about population parity are, like you, a joke. That you can truly believe Israel can somehow be compelled to absorb several million Muslim Arabs into its country as citizens is laughable, even for a moron like you.
Israel was doing just fine 20 years ago, when you first started predicting its imminent demise. It did just fine when you predicted its imminent demise after Cast Lead (2008-2009) and subsequent Goldstone Report. It did just fine during the more than 7 years since you began threatening how the Muslim-in-Chief Obama had “a laser beam” focus on bringing Israel to its knees. It did just fine after you predicted its imminent demise after Protective Edge in 2014. It has been doing just fine for the past 2 year that you’ve been threatening its imminent demise via the ICC investigation. Seeing how wrong you’ve been all these years, it appears you’ve now switched tactics. No longer are you predicting Israel’s demise. Now, in all your glorious idiocy, you’ve actually begun asserting that Israel has already been destroyed…to wit “You can go to sleep tonight confident that you have helped destroy the Jewish National Home”. As I said before, Mikey, you’re a cartoon. No one takes you seriously, as proven by the FACT that your blog has no readers, and that you’ve managed to garner all of 1,282 upvotes from 12,253 comments (that’s rich).
Now, go and cry yourself to sleep while tightly hugging a photograph of Osama bin-Laden, your favorite Islamic terrorist.
– proud supporter of AIPAC, HILLEL, ZOA and ADL
SamXie • Apr 12, 2016 at 12:44 pm
Anti-Zionism is precisely anti-Semitism. If you believe the Jewish people have less rights than all other people, how is that not anti-Semitic? If you believe all people are entitled to self-determination EXCEPT the Jewish people, how is that not anti-Semitic?
andy 123 • Apr 8, 2016 at 12:02 pm
I would have been fun if the bodyguards had stomped a few protesters into the ground. Then we could ask, “Hey, do ya feel safe now?”
jjs110 • Apr 8, 2016 at 11:17 pm
Not quite. Nir Barkat’s bodyguard’s role is to prevent any attempt of violence against Barkat himself, no one else. The one(s) who should have taken action are the campus police. They are the ones who should have warned the little fascists to desist, and when they refused just cuff them and haul them away, starting with the pudgy woman shown on the videos leading the chanting. As a leader of this unacceptable behavior, she should be sent away from SFSU altogether. When her identity becomes public, we should start a global petition to demand her dismissal. American campuses are sick and tired of the poisonous atmosphere spread every time pro-Palestinian activists show up. They don’t respect any rules nor anyone else’s right to listen to who they please. They behave like Nazi Brown Shirts, and as such need to be eradicated from US colleges as a whole. Starting at SFSU after this shameful episode would be an excellent idea. How about it, President Wong? Are you going to do what it takes?
ihatefacebook121 • Apr 8, 2016 at 12:00 pm
“We don’t want you on our campus!” they shouted. “Get the hell off our campus!”
No, it is NOT your campus. It isn’t even your country. YOU get the hell out!
jjs110 • Apr 8, 2016 at 11:24 pm
Typical. But also logical when you remember that the Palestinians have a long history of not producing anything, specializing instead on HIJACKING everything they can get their hands on, from planes to boats to churches to unions and students’ governing bodies, everything is fair game for their consistent practice of demonizing Israel and fostering anti-Semitism, when they are the ones who should be universally demonized. With a number of notable exceptions (especially given their small numbers), they are one cursed people, living off both an enormous lie and international (and clueless) charitable institutions and governments.
Arafat • Apr 9, 2016 at 5:27 am
Westerners try to make cars safer. Muslims try to make them more dangerous.
Arafat • Apr 8, 2016 at 5:00 am
The Muslim Students Association’s Terror Problem
by IPT News •
Comment
While it strives for respectability, the Muslim Students Association (MSA) has a dark side. For example, a 2007 report by the New York Police Department describes MSAs as “part of a growing trend of Salafi-based radicalization.”
The report lists MSAs as an example of “Salafi Influences and Incubators,” stating: “Extremists have used these university-based organizations as forums for the development and recruitment of like-minded individuals – providing a receptive platform for younger, American-born imams, to present a radical message in a way that resonates with the students.”
But the organization’s role in radicalizing other Muslims is just part of the problem. Patrick Poole shows how some of the organization’s most senior members have been implicated in a variety of terror-related conspiracies:
“These include an MSA national president who was al-Qaeda’s top financier in the U.S., as chapter president who was one of al-Qaeda’s co-founders, and a former MSA faculty advisor who is currently the terrorist most wanted by the U.S. government,” according to Poole. “Other MSA leaders have been recently identified in several domestic and international terror plots, and some currently are facing terrorism charges.”
A few of the spotlighted by Poole include:
Abdurrahman Alamoudi, who served as MSA national president in 1982 and 1983, is serving a 23-year prison sentence for his international terrorist activities. In 2005, the Treasury Department called his arrest “a severe blow to al-Qaeda, as Alamoudi had a close relationship with al-Qaeda and raised money for al Qaeda in the United States.”
Aafia Siddiqui was convicted in February of the attempted murder of a U.S. Army captain while she was incarcerated and being interrogated at a prison in Afghanistan. Siddiqui was active in the MSA while attending MIT. According to a 2005 story in Vogue, Siddiqui authored a guide published by the national MSA organization encouraging members not to water down Islamic doctrine on issues such as jihad.
Ali Asad Chandia, convicted of terror charges as part of the Northern Virginia jihad network, was president of the Montgomery College (Maryland) MSA. He is serving a 15-year prison sentence.
Al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, currently the U.S. government’s most wanted terrorist, served as chaplain for George Washington University’s MSA.
Wa’el Hamza Julaidan, former president of the University of Arizona MSA, was one of al-Qaida’s co-founders and its logistics boss.
Arafat • Apr 8, 2016 at 4:59 am
by Khaled Abu Toameh • March 25, 2016 at 5:00 am
While the anti-Israel activists are busy protesting against Israel on Western campuses, Palestinian students and professors are persecuted by their own Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas governments.
Let us redefine “pro-Palestinian.” Instead of bashing Israel, real pro-Palestinians will demand democracy for those they champion, and scream for public freedoms for Palestinians under the PA and Hamas regimes, which have always smashed dissent with an iron fist.
PA security forces systematically target students and academics under various pretexts. Hundreds of students have been rounded up. Many remain in detention without the possibility of seeing a lawyer or a family member.
Palestinians on campuses in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have once again been reminded that they remain as far as ever from achieving a state that would look any different from the other Arab dictatorships in the region. The campus incidents, which have hardly caught the attention of the international media and anti-Israel activists in the West, also expose the media double standard about human rights violations.
In the first case of its kind under the PA, Kadoori University in Tulkarem suspended a student who hugged his fiancé in public.
jjs110 • Apr 8, 2016 at 11:31 pm
This is a very important comment, and not only because it comes from one of the few Palestinian journalists whose voice can be trusted for telling the truth and highlighting the many shortcomins of Palestinian society. His message underscores the amazing hypocrisy of the pro-Palestinian “activists” who sabotaged Nir Barkat’s lecture at SFSU. While they clamor obnoxiously for something that will never happend (“From the river to the sea….”), students their age would be risking life and limb if they dared utter one tenth of what was said at SFSU in Gaza or Palestinian universities in the West Bank. (Side note in passing: before Israel liberated the West Bank in 1967, there did not exist one single university for the benefit of Palestinians there. Now there is at least half a dozen).
Arafat • Apr 8, 2016 at 4:54 am
SFSU reaps what they sow. If the administration was not filled with PC-worshipping, new-are, half-wits this would never have happened. But they created the environment where Jews are forced to watch their backs and common decency is thrown to the wayside.
Johnny Tran • Apr 7, 2016 at 6:30 pm
Anti-semitism and a total disregard for first amendment rights. It’s a sad day at SFSU.
Arafat • Apr 8, 2016 at 4:58 am
The west’s approach to Islam is what the Jewish sages had called the “righteousness of fools.”
Teddy Edwards • Apr 10, 2016 at 3:05 pm
Since the West has exercised different approaches depending on those in charge at any particular time, no one knows the context of your comment.
Teddy Edwards • Apr 10, 2016 at 3:06 pm
No, it isn’t. It exposes one side for the barbarians they are. It’s a teaching moment.