Jew hatred is an ugly presence on America’s campuses, from UCLA to Columbia and everywhere in between. The anti-Semites masquerade as anti-Israel activists, but their message is clear: Jews must be cleansed from the Middle East.
This campus “conversation” must be changed. We should not be discussing whether genocidal lies – that Jews occupy land that doesn’t belong to them, that terrorists are “freedom fighters,” and that Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East is “an apartheid state” – are true or false. We need to be discussing whether a hate group like Students for Justice in Palestine should have official university recognition and whether its hate should be funded by student fees. We need to be discussing Students for Justice in Palestine’s support for terrorists and for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Because the left so far has controlled the narrative and made Israel the target, we have been losing the political war on campus. Prior to the launch of our campaign against “Jew Hatred on Campus,” no organization was attempting to defend Israel and the Jews by putting the onus on their enemies. Consequently, Jewish students have been the targets of intimidation and harassment by Students for Justice in Palestine, and there has been an uninterrupted flow of anti-Jewish propaganda on campus spread by SJP. SJP is a front for the terrorist group Hamas – whose slogans it mouths and whose agenda – the destruction of the Jewish state – it supports.
We are fighting back.
Our viral poster campaign condemning SJP as “Jew Haters” and for supporting terrorists appeared on more than 50 campuses around the country simultaneously. SJP responded by condemning the posters as Islamophobic and lobbied campus officials and local police departments to crack down on anyone who drew the connection between their campus efforts and the genocidal campaign against the Jews led by Iran, Hamas and other Islamist parties.
SJP’s reaction was predictable. Sadly, so were the reactions of many campus Jewish groups, who have been indoctrinated in the mandates of political correctness, and who instantly sprang to the defense of SJP's outrages and criticized us. SJP is the campus spearhead of the genocidal campaign against the Jews in Israel, yet campus Jewish groups refuse to identify them as such. They echoed SJP’s characterizations of the posters as Islamophobic. (In fact, the posters didn't mention Islam. They were directed against SJP, which claims to be a secular group, and which includes some misguided leftist Jews in its membership.) These Jewish groups should know better, given that they are SJP’s targets. But apparently they care more about appeasing anti-Semites in the name of multiculturalism than fighting them.
As one of our student activists, Ross Beroff, pointed out in an op-ed that ran in his university’s newspaper, “SJP tries to hide their naked anti-Semitism by partnering with groups with misnomers such as Jewish Voice for Peace. Throughout history, whenever a new group arises to try and destroy the Jews, there have been members of the tribe assisting them. For months, SJP had its Facebook profile picture in support of convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh. Other chapters have held fundraisers for her.”
SJP holds fundraisers and rallies for a convicted anti-Jewish terrorist, but instead of joining us in the fight against this hate group, our would-be allies are busy putting out statements distancing themselves from our actions. Their cowardice merely emboldens the Jew-haters.
But they will not succeed in silencing us. Our goal is to change the campus conversation entirely. Before, they talked about the SJP narrative, which claims falsely that Israel is an apartheid state, occupies Arab land, and victimizes Palestinians. These are lies of Hitlerian dimensions. Shame on these Jewish organizations who spring to the defense of their would-be grave-diggers.
By naming the SJP genocide supporters for what they are, we have begun to turn the tide. For the first time, The New York Times has covered anti-Semitic activity on campus. At UCLA, SJP holds emergency meetings attempting to stop us from telling truths about them. Across the country, media have taken notice of our campaign, and they are beginning to ask questions about why Jews have become targets on campus. Why does a hate group like Students for Justice in Palestine receive university funding and support? No group with anti-African American or anti-Hispanic agendas would be tolerated by university administrations. Yet SJP's anti-Semitic agendas receive university funding and university support. This injustice must end. A university campus is no place for a terrorist support group and no place for an organization whose sole purpose is to slander Jews and destroy their homeland.