Jews in San Diego and Los Angeles are trying to minimize the impact of anti-Semitism on the campuses of San Diego State University (SDSU) and UCLA. Responding to the charge that SDSU is one of the worst ten campuses in the nation with regard to anti-Semitism, Tina Malka, associate regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in San Diego, said, “It’s utterly ridiculous to call San Diego State University an anti-Semitic university. I don’t believe Jewish students on campus feel it’s an anti-Semitic environment.” U-T San Diego reported that Malka said the activities revolving around the campaign to divest from Israel did not significantly affect the campus atmosphere.
Malka was echoed by Michael Rabkin, executive director of the San Diego chapter of Hillel, who said, “I can tell you the kind of activities we’re seeing at San Diego State are not putting it in a top-10 list of anti-Semitic campuses,”
The claim that SDSU and UCLA were in the top ten of the worst campuses for anti-Semitism came from a Los Angeles-based foundation created by political activist David Horowitz. The foundation’s list listed 14 anti-Semitic activities at SDSU in 2014, many of them associated with a chapter of the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine. Horowitz stated that the list was an attempt to expose anti-Semitic student groups that either support or are associated with Hamas, Hezbollah or other groups that “call for the destruction of the Jewish state.” He added, “These activities against Jewish and pro-Israel students would not be tolerated by university administrators if they were committed against students from any other ethnic group.”
Horowitz’s foundation asserted, “On college campuses across America, Jewish students and supporters of Israel have been engulfed by a new wave of anti-Semitism. Using anti-Zionism as a front for anti-Semitism, campus hate groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have been harassing and intimidating Jewish students on campus, violating federal civil rights law by creating a hostile environment for this religious and ethnic minority.”
At UCLA, the group Bruins for Israel has alternately remained silent during the Palestine Awareness Week, when scurrilous charges are made against the state of Israel, or attempted to scuttle efforts by other students to counter efforts by SJP.
The Zionist Organization of America has stated:
The so-called “Students for Justice in Palestine” is an anti-Israel propaganda hate group which calls for Israel’s destruction and calls for terrorism against Jews. It is no surprise that SJP’s founder, Hatem Bazian, is calling for a campaign to silence all voices that he disagrees with and the freedoms we all cherish. He advocates for the destruction of a country that gives its Arab citizens full political and civil rights, which is something not even given to Arabs in Arab countries. SJP representatives repeatedly taunt Jews with anti-Semitic name calling like “kike” and “Zionist pig.” In fact, only last week, one SJP member punched a Jewish student in the face at Temple University while other SJP representatives stood by laughing. SJP founder Hatim Bazian has even called for an intifada (terror war), right here in the United States!