The SJP has become so emboldened it no longer is content to wait until pro-Israel students can be ejected from a room on its say-so when anti-Israel venom is flowing. Now the SJP wants pro-Israel students banned from having a voice in the discussion at all. What was their motivation? A divestment from Israel resolution lost in a democratic vote by the student government earlier this year.
The statement from the pro-Israel organizations explains this latest set of SJP anti-democratic initiatives.
The SJP’s motive is clear: to manipulate the composition of the student government so that it is filled with anti-Israel activists who support the SJP’s hateful agenda. This is the SJP’s latest effort to harass, intimidate and bully pro-Israel Jewish students. The group’s shenanigans plainly follow from the SJP’s failed attempt to get the student government to endorse an anti-Israel divestment resolution last February.
When there was an outcry over the two new noxious SJP initiatives, the Board of Regents was forced to make a statement. That statement perhaps explains why the SJP is so emboldened. It is because the grown-ups are cowering in the corner, hoping no one is going to force them to take a position that might make troublemakers angry.
“UCLA encourages a climate of respectful engagement among students, faculty and staff, even in situations that are very difficult, painful and complex,” the statement said. “Student government functions independently, its proceedings proscribed by a constitution that makes available to students and student groups a process to review issues of alleged conflicts of interest. UCLA encourages all involved in this particular process to deliberate in an honest, respectful and inclusive manner.”
Really? They want everyone to be honest, respectful and inclusive? Did they read the SJP initiatives?
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, co-founder of the AMCHA INITIATIVE, was the primary author of the statement submitted by the pro-Israel groups. She wrote in the statement to the Board of Regents:
This is sheer hypocrisy. Where is the pledge requiring students not visit Israel, or any other country for that matter, with Palestinian, church or mosque groups? Second, what about a pledge to terminate SJP’s own unabashed attempts to manipulate the student government by filling it with pro-Palestinian activists? This group’s latest efforts underscore the anti-Jewish harassment, intimidation and bullying that are the hallmark of Students for Justice in Palestine.
In addition to AMCHA and the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, the Lawfare Project, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center for Campus Outreach, StandWithUs and the Zionist Organization of America signed the letter to the Board of Regents.
Sam Levine, the ZOA representative who spoke at Thursday’s hearing offered remarks which should have been chilling. The fact that he had to make these statements, and that the Board of Regents could remain heedless, should be cause for alarm for all supporters of American civil and human rights, decency and democracy.
Anti-Semitism is clearly the last acceptable form of bigotry on college campuses today. There is zero tolerance for sexism, racism against blacks or homophobia. If any other minority group were singled out and ridiculed the way that pro-Israel Jews were by this petition, the UCLA administration would not stand for it. Neither would you.
Imagine if an on-campus group were circulating a petition for student-candidates to sign, in which these students pledged not to participate in any activities sponsored or funded by the NAACP? How would the Black community react to this? How would you react to this? And how would the leadership at UCLA react?All we are asking for is that Jewish students be treated with the same respect as any other group on campus.
The following is the letter submitted by the seven pro-Israel organizations to the California Board of Regents on Thursday:
To: University of California Los Angeles Chancellor Gene Block
University of California President Janet Napolitano
University of California Board of Regents
May 15, 2014
Dear Chancellor Block, President Napolitano and UC Board of Regents:
We are deeply concerned about the behavior of a registered student group at UCLA, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
In an attempt to target, harass and intimidate pro-Israel Jewish students at UCLA, SJP members recently launched a campaign calling for a Judicial Board investigation of student council members who have taken trips to Israel sponsored by Jewish organizations. The SJP also demanded that candidates for student government positions sign a statement pledging that they will not go on any trip to Israel sponsored by three Jewish organizations.
The SJP has targeted only Israel. And it has targeted three Jewish organizations that sponsor trips to Israel. Not a single church or mosque that pays for or sponsors Israel trips was singled out.
This is an outrageous and impermissible violation of students’ right to free expression, their right to free association, and their fundamental right to travel and move freely. The SJP cannot be permitted to infringe on any student’s personal liberties and freedoms, or to bully students into not associating with certain Jewish groups that are dedicated to building love and support for Israel.
The SJP’s motive is clear: to manipulate the composition of the student government so that it is filled with anti-Israel activists who support the SJP’s hateful agenda. This is the SJP’s latest effort to harass, intimidate and bully pro-Israel Jewish students. The group’s shenanigans plainly follow from the SJP’s failed attempt to get the student government to endorse an anti-Israel divestment resolution last February.
Since the ASUC rejected the SJP’s divestment resolution, members of the SJP have engaged in what one Jewish student leader has described as a campaign of hatred and bullying directed “toward both the Jewish community and council members that voted against the resolution.” Some students who opposed the anti-Israel divestment resolution reportedly feel uncomfortable even walking on campus because of the hate mail they have received. According to the Jewish student leader, “Rather than dealing with their frustrations as a result of the failure of the resolution, members of SJP continue to target their anger at the Jewish community.”
The SJP is the only university-funded student organization at UCLA whose very mission targets an ethnic minority for hatred and vilification and whose activities routinely harass, intimidate, threaten and seek to silence members of that ethnic minority on campus.
The SJP’s conduct violates the UCLA Principles of Community which state:
We do not tolerate acts of discrimination, harassment, profiling or other conduct causing harm to individuals on the basis of expression of race, color, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religious beliefs, political preference, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, or national origin among other personal characteristics. Such conduct violates UCLA’s Principles of Community and may result in imposition of sanctions according to campus policies governing the conduct of students, staff and faculty.
The SJP’s conduct also violates Section 102.11 of UCLA’s Student Conduct Code, which prohibits harassment, defined as “conduct that is so severe and/or pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so substantially impairs a person’s access to University programs or activities that the person is effectively denied equal access to the University’s resources and opportunities.”
The SJP’s scheme to prevent pro-Israel Jewish students from having equal access to positions in the student government is a disgraceful violation of the Code.
UCLA’s Code of Conduct and its Principles of Community are more than just words; they demand action. Indeed, UCLA’s standards of conduct may be higher than what the law would require. According to the Code, the regulations it contains were “developed to create and maintain a safe, supportive, and inclusive campus community” – values that the SJP is completely indifferent to and does not support.
As leaders of UCLA, you have a duty to stop to the SJP’s acts of wanton discrimination, harassment and bullying, and its deliberate interference with students’ rights and freedoms. We call on you to protect the safety and well-being of Jewish students at UCLA and hold SJP members accountable for their shameful misconduct.
Thank you,
AMCHA Initiative
Institute for Black Solidarity With Israel
The Lawfare Project
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Outreach
Stand With Us
Zionist Organization of America
Cc: Charles Alexander, UCLA Associate Vice Provost, Student Diversity
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
California State Senator Holly Mitchell (District 26)
California Assembly Member Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (District 54)
California Senator Carol Liu, Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Education
California Assembly Member Das Williams, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education
Members of California Assembly Select Committee on Campus Climate
Members of California Legislative Jewish Caucus
California Jewish Community Leaders