The AMCHA Initiative, a grassroots coalition dedicated to protecting Jewish students on university campuses, particularly throughout the University of California system, recently launched its new website to serve as a resource for anyone who cares for the well-being of Jewish students. However, the AMCHA Initiative has already come under fire from the very people who maintain the unacceptable status quo. Daniel M. Dooley, senior vice president of external relations for the Office of the President at the University of California, recently criticized the AMCHA Initiative for being “outdated and completely uninformed.” The following is a response to Mr. Dooley’s aspersions by the AMCHA Initiative’s co-founders, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, and Leila Beckwith, professor emeritus at UC Los Angles.
Dear Mr. Dooley,
We are faculty at the University of California and co-founders of the AMCHA Initiative, a grassroots coalition of thousands of members of the California Jewish community, who are concerned with the serious and growing problem of anti-Jewish bigotry at the University of California. The AMCHA Initiative comprises UC alumni, parents, grandparents, rabbis, religious school principals, synagogue members, etc., who have joined together to speak in one voice, demanding that UC administrators ensure the safety of our Jewish students on UC campuses.
In your response to a member of the AMCHA Initiative (forwarded below), you impugn our coalition’s efforts, saying that they are based on “outdated information,” and that we are “completely uninformed.” Presumably as evidence of the UC administration’s efforts to address the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students, you mention President Mark Yudof’s “campus climate initiative,” the “Olive Tree Initiative,” and the “aggressive position in prosecuting abusive and intolerant behavior” taken by the UC Chancellors with the support of President Yudof.
I would like to respond to each of the points you have raised in turn:
1) The President’s Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion was established in June 2010 by President Yudof in response to acts of intolerance and bigotry that had taken place on UC campuses earlier that year. In theory, these included numerous incidents of anti-Jewish bigotry, which had created a hostile environment for many Jewish students: the appearance of several swastikas; the malicious disruption of Jewish students’ events; the virulently anti-Israel divestment campaigns which sought to harm the Jewish state; and the “Israel Apartheid Week” events, which included rhetoric and imagery considered antisemitic by the U.S. State Department.
By any objective measure, Jewish students have experienced at least as much harassment and intimidation on UC campuses as any other ethnic group. Yet both in terms of the Advisory Council’s stated mission and the composition of its membership, it was clear to many in the Jewish community that the problem of anti-Jewish bigotry would not receive the attention it deserved. In fact, President Yudof established working groups within the Advisory Council, which were primarily focused on the concerns of African American, Latino, and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered students; Jewish students and antisemitic harassment were not a specific focus of any working group, despite the fact that anti-Jewish bigotry has been a long-standing, pervasive, and serious problem on many UC campuses. Indeed, a review of more than 600 pages of documents pursuant to a public records request of materials related to the deliberations of the Advisory Council during the 2010 – 2011 academic year revealed that there was virtually no discussion of acts of anti-Jewish bigotry.
2) You have described the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI) in very benign terms, as “a Jewish/Muslim student led dialogue on issues of mutual concerns…with a trip to the Middle East and a publication of essays of their experiences.” However, it has recently been revealed that this program exposes students to numerous individuals who participate in campaigns to harm the Jewish state and have called for its elimination, some of whom even have ties to terrorist organizations that have murdered Jews.
For example, on the 2009 OTI trip to the Middle East, the students met with Aziz Duwaik, a leader of the terrorist organization Hamas, whose stated goal is to destroy Israel and murder Jews. They were told by the UCI faculty who organized the meeting and accompanied the students to keep the meeting secret. Not only did the meeting and collusion to silence the students possibly violate both Israeli and American law, but meeting with a known terrorist leader, who was imprisoned 3 times by Israeli authorities for engaging in terrorist activities, exposed students to considerable danger. Although the meeting with a Hamas leader was made known to UCI Chancellor Drake by October 2009, the chancellor nevertheless did not shut the OTI down. Rather, he continued to fund the program, and even gave it the 2009 Living Our Values award a few weeks later. Indeed, even President Yudof directed a non-profit organization on whose board he sits to donate thousands of dollars to the OTI and bestowed on the program the President’s Award in 2010. (See HERE and HERE for two recent articles about the OTI at the University of California).
Members of the California Jewish community are appalled that UC administrators continue to fund, promote, and honor a program which brings students into contact with individuals and organizations that call for the murder of Jews and the elimination of the Jewish state.
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How this can be?
I'm not surprised. Someone once said that it was as if the map of the United States had been tilted so that all the odd balls had rolled into California.
sadly it seems logic, common sense and peaceful ideology are not the ticket here – they only understand what the other side offers – threats of death…
Make a stand! BRAVO for fight back against the ivory tower bigoted liars.
' TAQIYYA '
Do your own research about it if you don't know what this means.
islam IS EVIL. PERIOD.
islam strives for world domination.
The quran commands muslims to exercise jihad.
The quern commands muslims to establish shariah law.
The quern commands muslims to impose islam on the entire world.
islam is NOT a religion, it IS a totalitarian ideology.
islam IS and has remained a death cult from its beginnings.
islam wants to dominate all aspects of life, from the cradle to the grave.
shariah law is a law that controls every detail of life in a islamic society.
From civic- and family law to criminal law.
It determines how one should eat, dress and even use the toilet.
Oppression of women is good, drinking alcohol is bad.
The core of the quran is the call to jihad.
Jihad means a lot of things and is arabic for battle.
islam means submission, there cannot be any mistake about its goal.
islam and freedom, islam and democracy are not compatible.
They are opposite values.
mohamed's "wife" was six years old.
That makes mohamed a PEDOPHILE!!!
And you want to base a "Religion" on this a z z -holes rantings?
Are you INSANE?
I STAND with Israel
Jewish students should arm themselves
California and the UC system actually has a lot of parallels to the Islamic world, so this is not surprising. Most of the professors have not had an original thought since they took bad acid in 1975, so they rival Islamic scholars in a race to the bottom . Also, it is a scientific fact that all the frat boys/bro's/surfer stoner types hit on boys constantly because they think it's easier. I heard complaints about that all the time from guy friends, and gather this is also the situation in Muslim countries. They also probably have the same amount of respect for women.
The family values also overlap. I grew up in a small hippie town, the average inhabitant is an ex revolutionary, but there are also a disproportionate number of heirs to major corporations, famous left-wing anti-Semitic journalists, and marijuana barons. Somehow, around 1 in 10 or 15 of my peers (the sensitive ones) are no longer alive, largely because their parents were too busy "being political" to provide a modicum of love or safety. Many Muslim parents also seem to value the revolution more than their family.
Jews need to be “protected” on American campuses now? What, are there bones in the gefilte fish or something?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG-Tvi-XNIg
Thanks for sharing. When I don't attend David Project lectures, I love to watch Rachel Fish and Charles Jacobs videos. All I really saw in that video was some free speech happening and an off campus Hasbara setting up a protectionist racket on campuses to squelch that free speech by posturing as a defense organization. I am from Boston, so I know all about the ICC / Camera hydra, Rachel Fish, and Larry Summers, and Richard Landes, and Charles Jacobs and his secret funding (ELIANA BENADOR). They don't like Muslims to speak at commencement ceremonies. They hate the divestiture movement. They try to stop mosques from being built.
Here are two videos for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlT3ARuUSGc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQnr13ZE-cM
"All I really saw in that video was some free speech happening and an off campus Hasbara setting up a protectionist racket on campuses to squelch that free speech by posturing as a defense organization."
There has never been an attempt to prevent free speech about Israel. The haters of Israel always whine and wail about free speech whenever they get called out on their LIES and immoral screeds. Use your brain, it's not about preventing speech – its about exposing it for the filth that it really is.
It should be obvious, the most "vociferous critics of Israel" are Jews and Israelis themselves who use "their freedom of speech" to express their concerns every day.
"They don't like Muslims to speak at commencement ceremonies. They hate the divestiture movement. They try to stop mosques from being built."
Nonsense, none of the people you speak of hate Muslims or try to stop Mosques from being built. They do hate the divestment movement because they know that its the intellectual heir to the Nazi boycott of Jewish goods from 1930's.
Well, your way off there, because Rachel Fish made her name for herself by trying to stop the Harvard commencement address five or six years ago. And you are way off again, because Charles Jacobs and Benador Associates along with slumlords Monty Gold and Anna Kolodner did try to block a mosque from being built in Boston, and failed, even though they had a big drive at Kehillath Israel in Brookline to support their frivolous lawsuit against the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
BTW, the videos you provided are well known fakes. No doubt you lazily pulled them from Alex Jones or his good buddy Weltner. Christians have FLOURISHED in Israel.
While Christians are unwelcome in Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia, and most have been driven out of their longtime homes in Lebanon, Christians continue to be welcome in Israel. In fact, Israel is the only Middle East nation where the Christian population has grown in the last half century (from 34,000 in 1948 to 145,000 today), in large measure because Israel guarantees their equal rights and freedom to practice religion.
In fact, it was during Jordan’s control of Jerusalem from 1948 -1967 when Christian rights were infringed and Israeli Christians were BARRED from their holy places. The Christian population DECLINED during that time by nearly 50%, from over 25,000 to less than 12,500. Since Israeli rule over Jerusalem, the population has slowly been GROWING.
The Christian population has been rapidly declining under Palestinian Authority rule. Currently, less than 27,000 Christians live among 3 million Muslim Palestinians. The proportion of Christians in Gaza and the W. Bank has dropped from 15% of the Arab population in 1950 to less than 1% today. Over 75% of all Bethlehem Christians now live abroad, and the majority of the city’s population is Muslim. The Christian population declined 29% in the W. Bank and 20% in Gaza from 1997 – 2002 ALONE. By contrast, during the same time period, Israel’s Arab Christian population GREW from 14% to over 27%.
Of course the Palestinians regularly persecute Christians. For example, Samir Qumsiyeh, a journalist from Beit Sahur reported that Christians were being subjected to "rape, kidnapping, extortion and expropriation of land and property." Qumsiyeh, has a list of "93 cases of anti-Christian violence between 2000 and 2004" and specifically mentioned the case of a 17-year-old girl from his town who was raped by members of Fatah. He added that “almost all 140 cases of expropriation of land in the last three years were committed by militant Islamic groups and members of the Palestinian police” and that the "Christian population of Bethlehem has dropped from 75 percent in 1950 to 12 percent today." Qumsiyeh has warned that if that trend continues, “we won't be here any more in 20 years."
Too bad I know messianic Jews who got stoned by orthodox rabbis in Israel. It runs contrary to the wonderful statistics about Christians in Israel. Plus I grew up in the United States, where we got to hear and hear how Christianity is inherently antisemitic and how Christian Identity movements are the greatest threat to Jews, when it is not Black Muslims, Black Hebrews "self-hating Jews" or college lecturers.
Maybe because of the Jew hatred people like you spew on college campuses,Flipside.
I went to college, and I saw David Horowitz, Curtis Sliwa, Kerri Dunn, Khallid Muhammad, Tipper Gore, and various other censorship paramilitants spewing at podiums, but not myself, sorry. I was busy cataloging all these Hasbara swear words like "Hate, Patriot, Spew, Vile, Venomous, Vitriol" and the other Foxmanisms you all cross-plagiarize. Back then, the big enemy to Jews wasn't Muslims, it was "nativist" american patriot movement people and Afrocentrists. I never could figure out why these propagandists were obsessed with spew, especially since it rhymes with Jew. It's shameful that the Hasbara lexicon of slam words hasn't really evolved since 1989.
I heard a survivor of the Holocaust say many years ago, as he looked into the television camera and spoke directly to Jews, "As for you Jews who live in America and think you are safe, beware, it will come for you also." It has.
The Left in the U.S. have picked Islam as their preferred religion for one reason- the Left hate the U.S. as much as Islam does. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".
It looks like the Alinskyites and their protegees recognize the accuracy of the Amcha grassroots movement, so are getting together to attack the organizers of Amcha.