Today we are witnessing a resurgence of global Jew hatred not seen since the 1930s when Hitler was laying plans for the “Final Solution” –the physical extermination of European Jewry. In the Middle East, Hitler-admiring leaders in Iran and parties like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are openly planning to finish the job that Hitler started. And in America, on campuses across the country, student groups explicitly echo the poisonous messages of these Jew-hating parties that hold events calling for the destruction of the Jewish state - the unavoidable meaning of their signature chant, “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” since the river is the eastern boundary of Israel and the sea its western boundary.

These university-approved organizations – most prominently Students for Justice in Palestine - engage in rhetoric and activities that clearly fall under the definition of “anti-Semitism” used by the U.S. government which states: Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”  They deny the Jewish people - and only the Jewish people - their right to self-determination; they demand that Israel be judged by standards not applied to any other nation; they deploy classic anti-Semitic imagery; they propagate the idea that Israel exists on land stolen from the Arabs, and they demonize Israel as an apartheid state.  

In a letter to the Daily Californian published on March 20, members of SJP claim to have been persecuted by a poster campaign I organized to highlight its anti-Semitic and anti-Palestinian activities. One poster, for example, featured two Hamas terrorists about to execute a Palestinian for alleged collaboration with the Jews. The SJP letter goes on to describe its “protests,” which I believe clearly express a genocidal goal — the elimination of the Jewish state. It complains that the Daily Californian editors refused to print a passage in their original submission because it was “libelous and unverifiable,” which it clearly was. As quoted in their letter: “The [SJP] flyers called attention to the real eviction notices Palestinians in the Occupied Territories receive from the Israeli military as part of the Israeli government’s policy of expelling Palestinians from their land in order to build ethnically-exclusive settlements, an ongoing project of ethnic cleansing that has seen some 27,000 Palestinian homes demolished since 1967.” (emphasis in original)

These SJP claims misrepresent the situation. Since its creation, Israel has been home to more than a million Arabs who as Israeli citizens sit on its Supreme Court, are members of its Knesset and enjoy more rights than the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Of the two parties that seek to represent Palestinians, one is a terrorist group sworn to eliminate the Jewish state. It is SJP that supports ethnic cleansing, not Israel.

Nor does Israel “occupy” any Arab land. Israel was created the same way Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon were created – out of the ruins of the Turkish empire which ruled the area for 400 years prior to their creation. Native Americans have a greater claim to the United States than Arabs do either to Israel or Gaza and the West Bank. More to the point, there appear to be no Hamas or Fatah or SJP protests against the Hashemite rulers of Jordan whose oppressed majority population is Palestinian. That is because the goal of the Palestinian movement as led by terrorists is not the liberation of Palestine but the destruction of the Jews.

The 70 year Arab war against the state of Israel is racist to its core. There is no peace in the Middle East because it is impossible to negotiate a peace with people who want to eliminate you. SJP’s actions make them a supporter and active abettor of a war against the Jews (the fact that some obtuse Jews are unable to recognize this and are members of SJP does not mitigate its truth).

SJP is responsible for the atmosphere of fear that is a palpable reality for many Jewish students. As such, SJP clearly violates UC Berkeley’s “Principles of Community” under which officially recognized student groups are supposed to operate. Under the U.S. Constitution, SJP has every right to spew its noxious hatreds and spread its lies. But it does not have a right to the privileges of legitimate student groups or to funding by the university and the taxpayers of California. This is an outrage that needs to be addressed by the office of student affairs at this university, and the sooner the better.

This op-ed was carried in the March 31 edition of the Daily Cal