Are pro-Israel bullies on US campuses

planning dirtier tactics?

Students are fighting to protect their right to exercise free speech, such as this mock Israeli checkpoint on a
California campus meant to educate peers about the realities of military occupation.
Nora Barrows-Friedman

Nora Barrows-FriedmanThe Electronic Intifada 29 September

2015

A member of the University of Californias governing body has called for the expulsion
or suspension of students for expressing their views about Israel, under the guise of
combating anti-Jewish bigotry.
This comes as Israel lobby groups, flush with huge new injections of cash, are stepping
up their efforts to silence the Palestine solidarity movement on campuses nationwide.
During a 17 September meeting of the University of California (UC) Regents to discuss
a statement of principles against intolerance, Richard Blum also threatened to have
his wife, US Senator Dianne Feinstein, publicly criticize the university if it did not
enforce penalties against perceived bigotry.
Feinsteins criticism could put the university system under federal scrutiny.
Another regent, Hadi Makarechian agreed, according to The San Francisco Chronicle,
saying that without punishment, were just stating a lot of stuff on paper.
Blum and other regents, backed by Israel lobby groups, are pushing the university to
adopt policies that free speech advocates warn could violate the First Amendment.
The Board of Regents had been due to vote on whether to adopt the US State
Departments definition of anti-Semitism as university policy at its meeting in July.
That definition is based on a working definition of anti-Semitism once considered by
a European Union body but later dropped.
Palestine solidarity and free speech advocates point out that the government definition
conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry. A key strategy of Israel advocates,
they say, has been to urge university administrators to treat criticism of Israel and
anti-Semitism as one and the same.
Failing free speech test
Despite efforts to suppress it, Palestine solidarity activism is becoming more
mainstream across US campuses. In California alone, 7 of 9 UC undergraduate
campuses have passed resolutions in recent years calling on administrators
to divest from companies that profit from Israels violations of Palestinians rights.

Pro-Israel groups routinely claim that opposition to these well-documented violations

is motivated by anti-Jewish prejudice.
During the summer, students, Jewish groups and free speech advocates warned that
adopting the State Department definition could chill free expression.
Following the outcry, UC President Janet Napolitano, announced that the definition
had been dropped.
Instead, she said that the regents would this month consider a more general
statement of principles against intolerance, including, but not limited to antiSemitism and other types of intolerance. The new statement did not specifically
mention anti-Semitism and emphasized the importance of free speech and academic
freedom.
The Los Angeles Times editorial board expressed concern that even this statement
could still fail the free speech test if there was no clear distinction between the
expression of opinions and acts of discrimination and violence.
However, after sustained pressure by Israel advocacy groups both before and during
the 17 September meeting, the revised policy was withdrawn.
The regents have instead tasked a working group with developing a new one, leading to
fears that the State Department text could be revived.
Sarah McLaughlin of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
(FIRE) warned of the danger to free speech.
If UC adopts the State Department definition of anti-Semitism (or any policy banning
criticism or intolerance), and accedes to Blums demands, students could potentially
face expulsion for any language a person subjectively believes is intolerant,
McLaughlin wrote.
Radhika Sainath, staff attorney at Palestine Legal and cooperating counsel at
the Center for Constitutional Rights, told The Electronic Intifada that punishing
students based on speech, as Blum proposed, would be unconstitutional.

The US Supreme Court has been clear that the university is supposed to be the
marketplace for ideas and public universities cannot discriminate against students
for their viewpoint or their expression, certainly not for speech deemed controversial,
or because donors or administrators disagree with it, Sainath said.
Keep fighting
David McCleary, a graduate student at UC Berkeley and member of Cal Students for
Justice in Palestine andJewish Voice for Peace, attended the regents meeting along
with a dozen students who oppose inclusion of the State Department definition.
McCleary said that at a previous regents meeting in San Francisco, Arab and Muslim
students talked about receiving racist threats and intimidation. But student groups
representing those communities, which are not as well funded as the Zionist advocacy
organizations Amcha Initiative and StandWithUs, have routinely been ignored by
university officials while Israel supporters are singled out for special protection.
Not every group can afford to print booklets for the regents and buy lunch for people
who came to speak for them, McCleary added.
McCleary is also a head steward and executive board trustee of UAW 2865 the union
representing 13,000 graduate student workers which last year passed an historic
resolution in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against
Israel.
He said that the union was not invited to join the working group and requests for
inclusion by a representative of UAW 2865 have been ignored by the regents and the
office of the UC president.
Were going to keep fighting and keep demanding this seat both publicly and
privately, he told The Electronic Intifada. We will shame the regents publicly if they
silence student voices like this.
The Electronic Intifada asked UC spokesperson Rebecca Trounson if the university
was concerned about potential violations to academic freedom and free speech if Israel
is singled out for special protection.
These are very contentious issues and the regents and the university are trying to deal

with this very sensitive issue as sensitively as they can, Trounson said.
She said she could not predict when the new statement would be ready, adding that the
redrafting effort was only at the beginning.
Flow of cash
As the new academic year begins, university students in California and across the US
are certain to face renewed public relations campaigns to denigrate the BDS movement
and silence organizing in support of Palestinian rights.
Palestine Legal says many students involved in Palestine solidarity activism have been
accused of anti-Semitism and terrorism, threatened with death and violence and
targeted for their ethnic or religious background.
In the first four months of 2015 alone, the group documented 60 cases of false
accusations of anti-Semitism that were in fact incidents where students or faculty
criticized policies of Israel.
Of 102 requests for legal support from across the country, 67 were from California.
Earlier this year, Republican Party mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, along with Haim
Saban, billionaire friend and contributor to Hillary Clinton, joined forces to pour
millions of dollars into Israel advocacy groups working in American universities.
The Jewish Daily Forward reported that university-based Israel activists would be
returning to campus this year fueled by a large new flow of cash.
One organization, the Campus Maccabees, backed by more than $50 million from
Adelson and Saban, has a declared aim to reshape the face of Israel advocacy in
colleges nationwide.
Israel lobby organizations on campus are especially alarmed by growing relationships
between Palestine solidarity groups and students of color and marginalized
communities, the Forward noted.
Back in Berkeley, McCleary said that although student activists are not backing down,
they know they have to brace for a long fight.
We have truth and justice on our side and they [anti-Palestinian groups] dont, he
said.

That said, they play for keeps and were expecting this to get a lot dirtier and
messier and for people to get hurt, McCleary added.
\
This is going to get a whole lot worse for activists before it gets any better. Its not
guaranteed that well win this. We need people who support truth and justice to join
this movement.
Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor of The Electronic Intifada and the
author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine.
Posted by Thavam