Congregation Eilat's Rabbi Altshuler Goes to Bat Against an Apologist

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/atoz/article_1148825.php

Fabricating the history of Israel and Hamas

Margaret Zaknoen's column, "Our double standard toward Hamas" [Opinion, May 18], attempts to justify Hamas' violence by fabricating facts and distorting history.

Zaknoen forgets to tell readers that in 1948, just a few months after the United Nations passed a resolution that would have recognized a Jewish state and an Arab state a resolution Israel accepted and the Arab world rejected in toto Israel, a state of less than 700,000 people, was attacked by seven Arab armies.

Israel won that war for independence and it has had to fight continually since then against neighbors that have tried to destroy the only Jewish state in the world.

The description of an oppressive Israel is ludicrous: Israel, the size of New Jersey with a population of 7 million (1 million of whom are Arabs with full citizenship), is surrounded by 23 Arab nations whose land mass is the size of North America and a half, with a population of over 300 million.

These nations, except for Egypt and Jordan, have not exactly attempted to make peace with the Jewish state. Which side yearns for the other's destruction?

Israel has risked its survival since 1993 and the Oslo Accords, trying to negotiate with a Palestinian entity that refuses to recognize a Jewish state.

Arafat's refusal to gain virtually every inch of land for a Palestinian state in 2000, in exchange for an end to the state of war, is something that no one who wishes to see Israel live in peace with a Palestinian state will ever comprehend.

The tragedy of the Palestinian people is enormous. But it derives from the Palestinians' internecine violence, from Hamas and other assorted terrorist bands that still wish to see the annihilation of Israel, from bands of Hamas murderers who have been consistent in their support of the most extreme anti-American and anti-Semitic elements in the Middle East.

Stuart Altshuler
Mission Viejo
rabbi, Congregation Eilat

UCI New University articles from this week - some are MISSING from the website

Articles from the UC Irvine New University May 22, 2006 issue:

News: MSU Provokes With ‘Holocaust’ Week
By Ben Ritter
"Less than three months after UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union found themselves in the national spotlight as a result of a decision by the College Republicans to show controversial Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, the group is again at the center of a debate about free speech and religious expression. Only this time, they are the ones being accused of intolerance."
Read on at: http://www.newuniversity.org/article.php?id=4761

Commentary: Yossi Olmert’s Statements Invite Terrorism
By Aida Ashouri
"Yossi Olmert made his extremist views against the Palestinian people and the nation of Iran clear on May 17 during a talk entitled 'Israel: A Discussion of Recent Events'. Even though he is only the younger brother of the president of Israel, his influence in the political sphere is recognized. His statements revealed Israel as a rogue nation, unconcerned with international law and principles, and only concerned with its own economic interests."
Read on at: http://www.newuniversity.org/article.php?id=4778

However, the website is missing MULTIPLE items from the dead-tree version of this week's issue:
1) Campus Police Log
Location: Engineering Parking Structure
Description: Report of an unknown subject having drawn a swastika on caller's vehicle window
Date & Time: 04-30-06 at 22:56

2) News: [sic] Ariel Sharon's Brother Speaks About Israeli Politics
By Reut Cohen
It begins: "Yossi Olmert, a top Middle East scholar and brother of current Israeli Prime Minister [sic] Ariel Sharon, discussed the implications of Israel's new government, the [sic] Hamas leadership in Palestinian territories, the Iranian threat and the Middle East on May 17."
A note: From what I've gathered, Reut Cohen had submitted an article stating that the current Israeli Prime Minister was Ehud Olmert and somebody on the NewU staff CHANGED it to the erroneous statement in the article.

3) Letter to the Editor: The First Amendment at Work
By Manuel N. Gomez, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
It begins: "Last week the Muslim Student Union sponsored a week of events called 'Holocaust in the Holy Land.' Our campus received requests to cancel or condemn the program."

4) Letter to the Editor: MSU's Reasoning Offensive
By Paul R. Freedman, Falls Church, Va.
It begins: "Yeah, opinions-well, we all have them. This sermon needs no systematic rebuttal as it is incapable of rebuttal, being a string of by-now hoary anti-Zionist fictional cliches. That's fine, New U., Old U., it's the same old, same old."

5) Letter to the Editor: MSU's Reasoning Offensive
By Reut Cohen, second-year English major
It begins: "According to the May 15 edition of the New University, Huda Shaka' argues that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism and Zionism promotes genocide. It's important to address some of the hurt that many Jewish and Pro-Israel students feel when they hear these statements."
A note: if you want to read Huda Shaka's commentary, here's the link: http://www.newu.uci.edu/article.php?id=4753

I've emailed the NewU a request to publish these items - we'll see if they follow through...

Guess who won a FULBRIGHT Scholarship?

Vanessa Zuabi, former Vice President of the Society of Arab Students and one of the main players in MESSI (the UC Irvine Middle East Studies Student Initiative), won a Fulbright scholarship:

http://today.uci.edu/Features/profile_detail.asp?key=218

According to the profile, she will also be Student Speaker for Commencement Ceremony 1 of the School of Social Sciences at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 17 - I'm taking bets on what the topic of her commencement speech will be...

UPDATE

In case anybody's wondering, here's some info on our Fullbright winner. She's got three problems I can immediately point out:

First problem: SAS's involvement with the 2004 Anti-Zionism Week

"Despite these U.N. resolutions, Israel has illegally occupied the Palestinian territory," said Vanessa Zuabi, a second-year international studies and political science major and vice-president of SAS. "It has implanted checkpoints that prevent Palestinians from going to school, to work and from basic necessities such as food and water. Also against the U.N. resolution, there are illegal Israeli settlers that confiscate more and more Palestinian land. These actions are against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the fourth Geneva Convention and numerous other conventions issued by the U.N. Palestinians are on a daily basis dehumanized, brutalized and denied their human rights. As human beings we should not tolerate this."
http://horus.vcsa.uci.edu/article.php?id=2240

At the SAS event on the Monday night of the 2004 Anti-Zionism Week (i.e. while she was in power), the speaker used false facts in order to put Israel in a bad light (I have my own notes from the event and will publish them shortly).

Then there's the question: why has neither she nor the SAS (while she was in power) ever denounced the level of hatred espoused by at the Anti-Zionism Weeks and in general at MSU events? At one event in 2004, for instance, one student in the audience noted that the speaker stated that audience members should "ask the American Jews in the audience" why America is at war in Iraq.


Second problem: the anti-hate rally
When interviewed by the LA Times, Zuabi stated that all groups were invited to the 2004 "anti-hate rally".
http://www.unitedjerusalem.org/index2.asp?id=444075

Yet in a May 31, 2004 New University article by Ben Ritter, she is paraphrased as stating that the SAS "didn’t want AFI at the rally because they did not want to turn the rally into a political issue."
http://www.newuniversity.org/article.php?id=2530

Hillel and the Jewish Greek organizations were also told "don't come", and they are not political organizations. What gives?


Third problem, as shown in the SCCUR 2003 Conference Program where Mark Levine was her advisor

Israel’s Slave Trade: The Situation of Foreign Migrant Workers in Israel
Vanessa Zuabi
Mentor: Mark LeVine
University of California, Irvine

The Israeli government introduced non-Palestinian migrant workers to the labor market more than a decade ago when Yitzak Rabin closed off the de facto Occupied Territories in 1993. In recent years, there has been a drastic increase in instances of enslavement and trafficking of these foreign workers. Its primary manifestations include debt bondage, restrictions and violations of basic human freedoms, and renting and selling of workers. The government has not only failed to enforce laws protecting workers, they have created fertile ground for the development of conditions of slavery and trafficking in human beings in Israel. In addition, several officials within the government are owners or partial owners of the very companies that engage in these illegal practices. Many officials also receive millions of dollars from them in political monetary aid. The government’s economic ties with this three billion-dollar business of trafficking and enslaving workers have allowed them to condone these illegal actions and pass laws to further facilitate them. These practices have not only led to dehumanization and mass deportation of foreign workers in Israel, it has also had a tragic effect on the Palestinians living in Israel and in the Occupied Territories. My purpose in researching this project was to understand how the foreign worker phenomenon has affected the "Arab" labor sector in Israel and in the Occupied Territories. In addition I sought to better understand the discriminatory practices of the Israeli government and how this has affected not only the Palestinian minority, but all non-Jews living under Israeli occupation. My desire to understand this concept led me to delve further into the treatment of foreign workers in Israel. Much of my research was conducted in the Renaissance Prison in Nazareth, Israel. There are more than 500 "illegal" foreign workers being held there at this time. I was able to gather first hand accounts of the situation of foreign workers through interviews, as well as articles from Israeli magazines and newspapers, and human rights organizations focusing in this issue.

http://www.sccur.uci.edu/program_abstracts_o-z.html

How can the US State Department (sponsor of the Fulbright scholarship program) and UC Irvine reward anti-Semitism like this?

Three more photo SLIDESHOWS from May 17, 2006

Thanks to a brave person who for now will remain nameless (until he tells me otherwise), I can show these photos and others on the blog:

SLIDESHOW of Rabbi Yisroel David Weiss of Neturei Karta's "Zionism Hijacking Judaism" speech

Learn the reality of Neturei Karta here:
http://stand4facts.org/groups/AIG-20050207-12/flyers/flyer_1.pdf
http://stand4facts.org/groups/AIG-20050207-12/flyers/flyer_2.pdf
From MEMRI, Rabbi Dovid Weiss interviewed on Iranian TV


SLIDESHOW of Yossi Olmert Speech on "Israel: A Discussion on Recent Events"

What you're seeing here is the entire group of 15 or 20 Muslims simply getting up and leaving en masse. Why? They didn't want to hear the Olmert's response to the diatribes they chose to shout instead of asking a real question (yada yada yada Apartheid state of Israel yada yada IDF terrorists yada yada etc).


SLIDESHOW of MSU-Neturei Karta Huddle - the person who gave me these photos aptly commented "After leaving the Dr. Olmert talk, I came across Rabbi Dovid Weiss still talking to the Muslims in front of the Wall. I didn’t get close enough to hear him but I doubt that he was teaching this week’s Torah portion."

Another illegally posted MSU advertisement

May 23, 2006 approximately 3:25 pm PST:

I snapped this cell-phone picture of the MSU's advertisement for their Dawah (missionary work for Islam) BBQ, as advertised on their website and in two side-by-side advertisements in this week's New University:



They attached this poster to an electrical / telecommunications box in the middle of Aldrich Park (a large park in the center of UC Irvine campus), a clear violation of the UCI Campus Code on posting - link provided for the full description - I'm only going to include the juicy parts:

( http://www.students.uci.edu/judicial/uci_policy.php#42.00 )

42.20 Policy on Posting and Distribution of Literature

B. Approved Locations for Posters, Flyers and Announcements

1. Kiosks.

2. University general purpose bulletin boards.

3. Interior and exterior concrete surface of Bridge Road overpass.

4. Interior concrete surface of Humanities and Engineering/Social Science bridges.

5. Interior of the concrete railing in each of the lower plazas (i.e., that surface not exposed to Aldrich Park.)

6. Sites selected and controlled by the School of the Arts.

7. Sites selected and controlled by housing guidelines.

D. Prohibited Posting Surfaces and Distribution Areas

1. The ground, paths, and walkways.

2. Glass, wood, painted or finished surfaces which includes exterior walls of all buildings and structures.

3. Trash cans, benches, trees, shrubbery, and landscaping.

4. Inside classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories, and walls inside buildings.

5. Stairwells and stair railings.

6. Fixed poles, traffic control devices, guideposts, signposts, campus directional signs, or historical markers.

7. Automobile windshields.

8. The entrances to the Administration Building, Library, Gateway Commons, parking structures, or the UCI Student Center.

9. The bridge connecting the campus with the University Center.

10. Surfaces of Campus-approved Artwork.

H. Temporary Directional Signs

Temporary directional signs are only for directional purposes and must be removed within 24 hours after the event for which they were intended.

I. Sanctions

All unauthorized posted materials will be removed. Violators will also be subject to additional sanctions, including fines and/or loss of privileges, as listed in Section 105.00 of the Policies.

Letter Sent to then-Chancellor Cicerone and the Letter Cicerone Refused to Sign

June 2, 2004
Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone
The Chancellor’s Office
510 Administration Building
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-1900

Dear Chancellor Cicerone,

On March 15, 2004, several representatives of the Israel on Campus Coalition1 organized a meeting with Assistant Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Sally Peterson. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss our concerns regarding incidents of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist behavior and speech on the UCI campus. While we appreciate the fact that Ms. Peterson issued a written response following our meeting, unfortunately we view the content of her response as far from adequate. Other meetings with Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez and other administrators have yielded similarly unsatisfactory results.

Over the past two years UCI has been a silent observer as speeches which are in fact "hate speech” have been delivered on the campus. One such occurrence was in the Spring of 2002, at a forum which you attended. One of the panelists, Visiting Professor James Sterba, spent his allotted time justifying suicide bombings against civilians. Unfortunately, neither you nor Vice Chancellor Gomez distanced himself from such a view either then or later. More recently, in winter 2004 and again during the week of May 17, 2004, UCI witnessed a public lecture by Amir Abdel Malik Ali, a known hate-monger invited by the Muslim Student Union during its “Anti-Oppression Week” and again during its “Anti-Zionism/Zionist Awareness Week.” Mr. Ali had the honor of making his hateful speech from a lectern emblazoned with the UCI emblem. This was not his first appearance at UCI, and the tone, style and content of his past remarks have been well documented. His tirades were infused with venomous hatred. His speech was peppered with such intellectually enlightening insights and worn-out conspiracy theories such as “the bad Jews were going to assassinate President Gore to allow Vice President Lieberman to assume the Presidency” and “we all know that the Mossad (Israeli security service) destroyed the Twin Towers.” He spewed forth insults, lies, and hateful and baseless claims as if they were factual truths. His talk was a page taken straight from the notorious propaganda manual of Jew-haters, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish People.

A public university cannot restrict such speech, abhorrent as it is. However, the University Administration, and in particular you as Chancellor, has the obligation to speak out vigorously and unambiguously. It is time for you, as Chancellor, to exercise your freedom of speech and publicly oppose extremist messages as antithetical to the goals and identity of the institution. Such statements are consistent with principles of academic freedom and are a necessary step in distancing the University from expressions of bigotry. If in fact the Principles of Community, which you consistently reaffirm, are an integral part of the guidelines by which the University community conducts its affairs, then it is time for you to lead the faculty, administration, and student body in reaffirming these principles. Silence is complicity.

Other University presidents have embraced the opportunity of issuing such statements. In September 2002, Harvard President Lawrence Summers issued a memorable speech citing the upturn in anti-Semitic incidents and noting that supposedly progressive universities were taking part in actions that were anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent.

Chancellor Berdahl of UC-Berkeley was signatory to a letter, published in The New York Times, warning against extreme anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish activity on campus. It is my understanding that you chose not to sign the letter. In September 2002, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, concerned about a forthcoming conference which featured vehemently anti-Zionist speakers, issued a statement which closed with: ... “The agenda of the conference represents the views of the organizers and not the University of Michigan.”

The events organized by the Muslim Student Union have violated your message of civility in every way. Anti-Zionism/Zionist Awareness Week was not designed to provide an atmosphere of positive engagement and mutual respect. The construction of the “apartheid wall” during a week characterized by vicious propaganda and baseless lies directed against Jews precipitated an incident, which you were quick to label a “hate crime.” While we applaud your efforts to ensure free speech and maintain an environment of civil discourse, the incident is representative of much deeper issues.

The re-awakening of anti-Semitism (often dressed in its new guise of anti-Zionism) is a worldwide epidemic, documented by governments including the US, France, Germany, and Italy. Secretary of State Colin Powell recently attended a European Union conference on this very subject. We recognize that the University of California at Irvine has an obligation to protect the free market of ideas, but that obligation does not stop it from entering the market.

The members of the Israel on Campus Coalition would like to begin a dialogue with you regarding these and other serious matters, and suggest meeting with you no later than next month. Please give us at least two weeks’ notice of a convenient meeting time so that we can arrange our schedules.

We look forward to your prompt reply and anticipate your response with great interest.

Allan Bernstein DPM MBA
HCEMBA ‘97
Chair, Israel on Campus Coalition of Orange County

1 The Israel on Campus Coalition is an umbrella group consisting of major Jewish communal, educational and advocacy organizations in Orange County (including among others Hillel, The Anti-Defamation League, The American Jewish Committee, and The Jewish National Fund) and community volunteers.

Here's the letter referred to above from - published October 7, 2002 in the NY Times - that then-President of UC Berkeley signed, but UC Irvine felt was beneath them to sign. The signatures are so numerous that they became illegible when in image format, so I'm just posting the link:
http://www.ajc.org/atf/cf/%7B42D75369-D582-4380-8395-D25925B85EAF%7D/NewYorkTimesAd_Oct7_2002.pdf

Factually-Incorrect "Action Alert" from the National Council of Arab Americans

Apparently the National Council of Arab Americans's oxymoronically-named Defense of Civil Rights in America group published the following action alert.

NCAA/DCRA complains in their alert that our pressuring of the administration to denounce the anti-Semitism on campus is an attack on free speech. On the contrary: many college administrations, including UCI's, will fight to the death to make sure that even offensive speech can be used on their campuses and ours. However, the Presidents of Harvard, Rutgers, Georgetown, University of Michigan, and even UC Berkeley also did the right thing and denounced the anti-Semitism (future post will show a letter that was signed by well over a hundred college presidents stating just this in 2002).

Can UCI do the same? Of course not - they're better than all of those other college administrations.

NCAA/DCRA also complains that an example of "hate speech against the MSU...[was the] display of a charred Israel bus that had been destroyed in a 'suicide bombing' in January 2005 by a Zionist organization [i.e. Anteaters for Israel]."

Sorry folks, but the MSU's unequivocal and unwavering support of HAMAS and Hezbollah permits us to say "this is an example of HAMAS and Hezbollah's actions" by showing Bus 19.

I could go into more, but I've got some homework to do. See the full alert, complete with a photo of two MSU stooges dressed up supposedly as IDF soldiers (one of whom I believe was escorted by police off the plaza when he became belligerent) at: http://www.arab-american.net/projects/civilrights/dcra/news/UCI/uci.html

Action Alert: Defend Free Speech at UC Irvine

May 22, 2006

During the week of May 15, 2006, the Muslim Student Union at the University of California, Irvine held a campaign titled “Holocaust in the Holyland” that included a number of events including lectures by Norman Finklestein and others, a rally that included solidarity with worker’s rights and other social justice issues, and the building of a mock Israeli Apartheid wall. One of the lectures was titled “Israel: the 4th Reich.”

The official university response to student and community objections to these titles has been to uphold the MSU’s free speech rights. However, we fear that the pressure of local and national Zionist organizations may be pressuring the university to take a different approach. In addition, UC Irvine is being sued by the Zionist Organization of America in the Civil Rights Office of the U.S. Department of Education for allegedly fostering an anti-Semitic climate on campus. For these reasons, it is important that we applaud and support the position of the university administration at this time. For more background information, see below.

How to Help:

Write letters, email and call administrators at the University of California, Irvine, and suggest the following talking points:

1) Thank and support the university administration as it upholds free speech rights for the Muslim Student Union’s anti-Zionist week (especially in the face of the Zionist counter-campaign).

2) Reassert that anti-Zionism is not equivalent to anti-Semitism, and that these two titles, “Holocaust in the Holyland” and “Israel: the 4th Reich” are clearly statements against Israeli policies.

3) Question the disproportionate response by individual administrators (in the LA Times article, and in the public keynote address during an undergraduate research symposium) to the MSU titles, while anti-Muslim events on campus have not been so quickly criticized.

Please send letters and emails, and make phone calls to the following people:

Chancellor Michael Drake
University of California, Irvine
The Chancellor’s Office
510 Administration
Irvine, CA 92697-1900
chancellor@uci.edu
phone: 949-824-5111
fax: 949-824-2087

Manuel Gomez
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
University of California, Irvine
Student Affairs Office
405 Administration
Irvine, CA 92697-5180
mngomez@uci.edu
Phone: 949-824-4804
Fax: 949-824-2763


More on the Attacks on Free Speech at UCI
While the official position of the university as been an admirable one, individual university administrators have taken it upon themselves to make condemnatory statements about the MSU titles that may serve to undermine the university’s protection of the free speech rights of all students. First, in the LA Times article that reported on these titles as “slogans”, the Dean of Students at UCI, Sally Peterson, stated, in response to the MSU titles: "Hate speech is also protected speech. There's no law against being a jerk, basically." Second, on May 13, 2006, at an event celebrating undergraduate research at UCI, an event which many of our community members attended, the Dean of Undergraduate Education, Sharon Salinger, ended her keynote speech by discussing the news story about the MSU events, condemning the titles, and saying that the MSU was “clearly trying to incite someone.” These two statements made by individual administrators at UCI conflate the MSU with the titles of these specific events, and, more importantly, assume that the two titles are hate speech.

The problem here is that the MSU titles, which are clearly anti-Zionist in nature, are being treated as though they are anti-Semitic. Once again, it is necessary for us to underscore that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, and that making such accusations is a way of silencing legitimate public debate about Israeli state policies.

Another factor in this situation is that over the past few years, there have been a number of student-organized events at UCI that included hate speech or vandalism against the MSU. Two examples are the display of a charred Israel bus that had been destroyed in a “suicide bombing” in January 2005 by a Zionist organization, and the more recent display of the racist Danish cartoons by a Republican student organization at an event where one of the speakers referred to Islam as an “evil religion.” Again in those instances, the official response of the university was to uphold free speech rights. However, similar ad-hoc comments condemning those events were not made by individual administrators the way that they have been in the case of the MSU titles.

To summarize: The administration of UC Irvine, to its credit, has thus far defended the MSU’s right to free speech. However, a Zionist letter-writing campaign is underway in an effort to sway the administration, and several individual administrators on campus have made statements condemning of the MSU’s titles as hate speech (while continuing to uphold their right to free speech).

We encourage all to take action now to support MSU and defend the right of free speech! It is imperative that we act now to counter the Zionist campaign that is currently working to try to convince the administration that the MSU’s free speech rights should not be upheld in this case.




1260 Lake Blvd., Suite 208, Davis, California 95616
Ph. 530/756.5548;
Fx. 530/756.574
info @ arab-american.net
(888) 846-9451

© 2005 The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)

Flash movie on the old and new anti-Semitism

Much of what we experience on campus is new anti-Semitism (aka the "3 D's"):

1. Demonization: When the Jewish state is being demonized; when Israel's actions are blown out of all sensible proportion; when comparisons are made between Israelis and Nazis and between Palestinian refugee camps and Auschwitz - this is anti-Semitism, not legitimate criticism of Israel.
   
2. Double Standards: When criticism of Israel is applied selectively; when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while the behavior of known and major abusers, such as China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, is ignored; when Israel's Magen David Adom, alone among the world's ambulance services, is denied admission to the International Red Cross - this is anti-Semitism.
   
3. Delegitimization: when Israel's fundamental right to exist is denied - alone among all peoples in the world - this too is anti-Semitism.
   

(Read more at: http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-sharansky-f04.htm )

Click on the image below to see a flash movie to learn more about the similarities between the old and the new anti-Semitism.
http://www.conceptwizard.com/pipeline_of_hatred.html

Photo SLIDESHOW of the quotations stapled to the 2006 UC Irvine Muslim Student Union "wall"

This is a SLIDESHOW of photos taken May 17, 2006 at UC Irvine's Anteater Plaza right in front of the flagpoles. Come see the level of fabrication and out-of-context quotation that UC Irvine refuses to prosecute!

Here's the law for fabrications of this type inside the classroom setting:
"102.01 All forms of academic misconduct including but not limited to cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, or facilitating academic dishonesty."

Here's the very next section, which prohibits similar misconduct OUTSIDE the classroom:
"102.02 Other forms of dishonesty including but not limited to fabricating information, furnishing false information, or reporting a false emergency to the University."

http://www.students.uci.edu/judicial/uci_policy.php#102.00

Photo SLIDESHOWS from Israel The Fourth Reich Event

The first photo SLIDESHOW comes from IsraelActivist - thank you for granting me permission to post it. Click on the photo to see the SLIDESHOW (it'll open a separate window):

The second photo SLIDESHOW are photos that I took (again, it'll open in a separate window):

Just something to note regarding the last photo of my slideshow - the "Approved by Osama Bin Laden" poster photo - since it'll probably not come out clearly enough: the guy on the right is wearing a green shirt with yellow lettering on his left breastpocket area. That lettering was something to the effect "American Minuteman Project".

Great StandWithUs video of Israel The Fourth Reich event

StandWithUs just posted a video of segments from the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union Israel The Fourth Reich event:

http://standwithus.com/UCI_incitement2006.asp?video=true

Video snippets of the "Israel: The Fourth Reich" Amir Abdel Malik Ali event

Below are three video snippets the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union's "Israel: The Fourth Reich" event. The speaker is Amir Abdel Malik Ali, an anti-Semitic firebrand invited time and again by the MSU.

I tried to capture the MSU's "apartheid" wall, Malik Ali, his supporters, and the protesters. If I can get my hands on it, I will post a full video of the event and a transcript of Malik's speech.

The videos requires the Shockwave Flash player - if you cannot see the video, you can get the player at: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/







From the UCI Campus Code:
"102.10 Stalking behavior in which a student repeatedly engages in a course of conduct directed at another person and makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her family; where the threat is reasonably determined by the University to seriously alarm, torment, or terrorize the person; and where the threat is additionally determined by the University to serve no legitimate purpose."

"102.11 Harassment by a student of any person. For the purposes of these Policies, 'harassment': a) is the use, display, or other demonstration of words, gestures, imagery, or physical materials, or the engagement in any form of bodily conduct, on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, alienage, sex, religion, age, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability, that has the effect of creating a hostile and intimidating environment sufficiently severe or pervasive to substantially impair a reasonable person's participation in University programs or activities, or use of University facilities; b) must target a specific person or persons; and c) must be addressed directly to that person or persons. (See Appendix M)."

http://www.students.uci.edu/judicial/uci_policy.php#102.00

Video of a section of the UC Irvine MSU / SAS "wall"

This is a video of one section of the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union / Society of Arab Students "apartheid wall". I will also be posting photos of the quotations shortly.

The video requires the Shockwave Flash player - if you cannot see the video, you can get the player at: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/

Comments on MSU Islamic Palestine event

The MSU held an event called "Islamic Palestine" tonight (May 18, 2006) from 8:30 to 10:15 pm in Humanities Hall 178. I was there for the whole thing.

The place was packed - every seat was taken and at least 10 people were standing in the back.

Amir Abdel Malik Ali (the MSU's favorite anti-Semitic firebrand) spoke for quite a while, then Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta (an "anti-Zionist" Orthodox Jewish sect) spoke for a bit. (See this post for more info on Neturei Karta and the other idiots the MSU likes to invite to speak on campus: http://concerneducistudent.blogspot.com/2006/05/flyers-with-info-on-msu-speakers-al.html)

Malik Ali did his usual shtick, albeit a bit calmer than usual. However, I had never heard Weiss speak - he's a funny guy!

Weiss hung himself and the MSU with some of his comments (such as "Zionist Filth"). He just doesn't know when to shut up. I actually felt sorry for Amir Abdel Malik Ali, sitting there politely next to Weiss with Weiss going on and on and on.

Malik Ali asked something to Weiss - I forget what it was about, other than if something was in the Torah or the Talmud, and instead of giving the short answer that Malik Ali wanted, Weiss went off on three tangents before finally answering Malik Ali's question.

The Q&A was especially funny: the first question went to Malik Ali, the rest went to Weiss, who continued to run at the mouth.

At the end, a female student in full hijab came up to the stage and announced that a collection was being started for a Palestinian orphan and that they wanted to see if they could get together $500. Then she said why they were doing this: because the Israelis prevent the orphans from getting an education, food, etc.

So the audience got fed yet another lie (blame the Jews - they're culpable in every problem, right?).

According to Yossi Olmert, the UN report states that the PA has been the largest per-capita recipient of foreign aid since 1994. Where'd it all go? It wasn't all spent on buying weapons. It wasn't spent on building houses. Maybe instead of blaming the Jews for their own problems, the MSU needs to investigate the Swiss bank accounts where the terrorists Arafat and Company stashed those billions of dollars.

Here, I found another source for feeding orphans in the PA - don't buy weapons; use the money to buy food.

I also have to wonder WHICH organization that money is being given too - a front organization for HAMAS, perhaps?

Yossi Olmert event

Several police officers (I would say 10) were inside and outside the lecture room and the Social Science Plaza A building. A barricade was set up blocking direct access to the elevator that led up to the lecture room, which housed about 100 - 125.

Only one door to the lecture room was open - the other three were closed and locked, with the windows papered over the two rear windows that faced the lectern.

All of the seats were taken and it was beginning to go SRO before the 2 pm start, at which point they shut and locked the 4th door - I'm assuming due to fire rules.

Audience appeared to be 2/3rds Caucasian, 1/3 MSU members. The MSU members sat clumped together in the first 3 rows on the right of the lectern.

Yossi spoke for about 30 minutes; it was a great speech.

Then he took questions, alternating between the MSU students and everyone else in the room. Yossi was very combative with the MSU students.

The MSU members were very adamant about making speeches themselves, not asking questions. At one point, amidst some boos and "sit down!" calls from the audience, the administrator on hand (I'm assuming he's one of the powers that be in the Political Science department) had to step in and tell the MSU student to get to her question so others might have a chance to ask a question.

The MSU students, after reading their last statement during the Q&A session, left en masse rather than wait around for a reply.

The MSU students did not hold their "History of Palestine" event as they had mentioned on their weekly calendar - apparently a class was in that room at that time. Instead, they milled around outside the SSPA building with the two Neturei Karta members who had come to campus to speak at the event earlier that day.

About 5 minutes later, all of the MSU students and the Neturei Karta members shifted around to the other side of the building, down to the roadway, walked along there a bit, and then headed back to their "wall".

New Email From UC Irvine Chancellor Drake

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Campus Civility
Date:	Tue, 16 May 2006 18:21:03 -0700
From:	Michael V. Drake, Chancellor
To:	All UCI Students: ;;All UCI Students:@es.nacs.uci.edu;

Dear Students:

Last week, I wrote to reiterate the core values that guide our interactions at the University of California, Irvine. They are: integrity (what kind of people we are), respect (how we treat others), intellectual and creative rigor (how we approach our work), commitment (how we face challenges), empathy (how we connect with others) and appreciation (how we value others).

The First Amendment provides great latitude regarding our freedom of expression. The university has a legal obligation to assure the free exchange of ideas, however infuriating we may perceive particular views with which we disagree. It is often offensive or inflammatory speech that requires Constitutionally-mandated protection.

I ask that you join me in ensuring that we remain a dynamic, respectful campus community that upholds these core values and where free speech, individual rights and safety are honored and respected.

Michael V. Drake, M.D.
Chancellor

http://www.chancellor.uci.edu

Men to one side, women to the other (or so they tried)

May 15, 2006, 5:30 PM

"Kingdom of Saudi America"

SSL 228

As per usual, the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union tried to segregate men to the speaker's right and women to the speaker's left. At least one brave individual refused to go along, even after private and public requests to move - BRAVO!

The same thing has happened to me at previous MSU events that I've attended which were not religious occasions. I too have refused to segregate even after repeated requests.

During the civil rights movement, my father helped organize a sit-in at a barber shop when the barber refused to cut a black person's hair. He was arrested, convicted, spent time in jail, and then had to fight to have his conviction overturned (which he was successful in doing so).

After he went through all that, I'll be DAMNED if I go along with any form segregation on a public university campus when its not a purely religious event.

Click on the photo to get a choice of sizes:

May 15, 2006 MSU Anti-Oppression Rally Photo Slideshow

SLIDEHOW of photos from May 15, 2006 UC Irvine Muslim Student Union Anti-Oppression Rally

Note that there was a scuffle during Mohammad Al-Asi's speech, but it was supposedly broken up quickly by people on hand. Here's a photo of the scuffle break-up to whet your appetite - click on the photo to see more (it'll open a separate window):

Koenig Report / Koenig Memorandum / Ben-Gurion Fabricated Quote

Time and again, the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union makes a poster with the following quotation on it:

"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."

They attribute the quotation to David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel.

They've cited as their source two different locations:

1. The "Koenig Memorandum" (Shown IN FULL at the end of this post - see if you can find the quote)
   
2. The books of Michael Ben-Zohar
   

Let me tell you that this is a completely FABRICATED quotation.

This quotation appeared at the top of the MSU's 2004 Zionism Awareness Week flyer, just above the watermarked image of a individual whose head was completely wrapped in a kayyefah (assumedly a Palestinian terrorist). On that flyer, though, there was no Koenig Memorandum citation.

Click here for a full-size version of the flyer below

CAMERA - the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (http://www.CAMERA.org - bless their stars - faxed me a copy of the Koenig Memorandum (in reality, the Koenig Report - shown at the end of this post). Here's what we found:

1. The Israeli government refused to implement the Report's inappropriate suggestions
   
2. David Ben-Gurion isn't mentioned once in the Report
   
3. The Report was published 3 years after David Ben-Gurion's death
   
4. The quote itself is nowhere to be found in the Report
   

Since the MSU had not provided a citation, I put a copy of the Report in the MSU's mailbox and emailed their entire leadership requesting a citation, explaining that the only citation I had found online for the quotation was "the Koenig Memorandum" and that appeared to be incorrect.

No response.

After I sent a second email a few days later, I got a "give us a sec" reply from their leader at the time; a few days after that, I got a reply stating it's "the Koenig Memorandum". Flabbergasted, I emailed them back saying effectively "are you all a bunch of idiots? I *gave* you the Koenig Memorandum. Try again." The reply a few days later? "It should be able to be found in one of Michael Ben-Zohar's books."

So I called CAMERA; they in turn called Ben-Zohar, and according to CAMERA, Ben-Zohar replied that there was no such quotation in any of his books.

Armed with now TWO fabricated citations, I contacted UCI Dean of Students Sally Peterson and met with her in late May 2004. I showed her the Koenig Report and explained the whole situation, stating that if anyone had used a fabricated quotation or citation in a class assignment, they could be given an F in the course and potentially thrown out of the university.

I stated that the campus appeared to be a "persistent hostile environment towards Jews", and that if this was a place of employment, I could sue and WIN big damages; in this case, not only was I not being paid, I was paying $10,000 for the privilege to be here at one of the top 10 public universities in the nation. If something wasn't done about it STAT, I was going to just go out and get an attorney, and sue UCI for all they've got.

Dean Peterson didn't want to outright shut down the MSU - she explained that she had been run roughshod over shutting down the College Republican's "Anti-Affirmative-Action bake sale" a month or two prior. So instead, she wanted first to hear from more Jewish students; thanks to the current Jewish student leadership, a bunch of Jewish students showed up at a meeting in late May/early June 2004, along with:

• Jeff Rips of B'Nai B'rith Hillel,
  
• Ken O'Grady of the ADL (don't get me started on my thoughts about him),
  
• Assistant Ombudsman J. Michael Chennault,
  
  
  
• Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Judicial Affairs Byron Clift Breland,
  
• Kristin Quanbeck of the UCI Office of Equality and Diversity (her job is to investigate harassment on campus),
  
• and of course, Dean Peterson.
  

The Jewish students and I all laid out what we've experienced based on what has happened on campus and how the blatant bigotry was affecting us and the environment on campus. After all of us had testified, I put a question straight to Dean Peterson: "Will there be a fact-finding investigation?" Dean Peterson responded "no" and said instead that she'd try to start an inter-religious dialogue.

Those dialogues were held in Fall 2004. It was a good idea and might have worked in another setting; I even thought that there might have been a break-through during one of the sessions. In the end, though, we ended back again at square one with when Amir Abdel Malik Ali arrived once again on campus in February 2005.

The fabricated Ben-Gurion quotation has appeared many times since at MSU events. At one such event, where Malik Ali read out loud this quote as well as others, I asked Dean Peterson if such a rule existed banning the use of fabricated quotations and citations at UCI student group events - she said no. I've since found the UCI rules regarding fabricating quotations:

102.00 GROUNDS FOR DISCIPLINE

Chancellors may impose discipline for the commission or attempted commission (including aiding or abetting in the commission or attempted commission) of the following types of violations by students, as well as
such other violations as may be specified in campus regulations:

102.01 All forms of academic misconduct including but not limited to cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, or
facilitating academic dishonesty.

102.02 Other forms of dishonesty including but not limited to fabricating information, furnishing false
information, or reporting a false emergency to the University.

(http://www.students.uci.edu/judicial/uci_policy.php#100.00)

Note that UCI's rules make sure to specify that one can be punished for academic misconduct (i.e. WITHIN the classroom) as well as dishonesty OUTSIDE the classroom. There's also other rules about harassment (section 102.11) and in fact an entire protocol on Hate and Bias Incident Response (Appendix M).

I can't BELIEVE that UCI still refuses to enforce its own rules. If they did, I wouldn't have to have just used up 2 hours writing this email intead of spending that time on my homework and had made it to the class that I'm now 30 minutes late for; my grades would also be a lot higher (and my stress level lower) if I didn't have to deal with this B.S. - I can't make it any clearer how much this environment is affecting me and my fellow Jewish students.

For all to use as reference: THE KOENIG REPORT

UPDATE 5/6/2008
My old host system deleted my files, so I've put the PDF up here. You will need the Flash Player to view the image. Click on this link to get the larger version.

73% of the MSU posters for the Zionism Awareness Week violate size limit rules

UCI code - Section 42.20, part E, clause 5:
"Only one poster, flyer, or banner per event is allowed in each posting area. Unless otherwise approved, banner size may not exceed 5 feet by 3 feet."
http://www.students.uci.edu/judicial/uci_policy.php#42.20

Since they're posting "Holocaust in the Holy Land" in the same posting area as posters for specific events, I would think that would be a violation of the letter of the law.

To check on length limits, I powerwalked around campus, stopping at all of the MSU posters with a tape measure and here's what I found:

Three or four posters were coming off the wall or were completely on the pavement, probably due to bad tape jobs.

Of the posters which were still attached to the wall by at least two corners, only five were at 5 feet long or under.

Every poster was three feet wide.

Number of posters that were longer than 5 feet 1 inch:
- Bridge between Engineering and Social Sciences: 2 of 4 (Zionism Hijacking Judaism and Holocaust in the Holy Land)

- Stairway area leading from Ring Road up to Langson Library: 2 of 2

- Cross Cultural Center entry walkway: 1 of 2 (HAMAS: the people's choice)

- Bridge between the Student Center and Humanities: 4 of 4

- Stairway leading from Ring Road down to Humanities Hall/Krieger Hall: 3 of 3

- Stairway leading from Ring Road up to the plaza between Steinhaus Hall and Howard Schneiderman Lecture Hall: 2 of 3 (Islamic Palestine and the non-gothic lettered Israel the 4th Reich); also, there are TWO "Israel the 4th Reich" posters here, which violates the dual posting rule.

(note, there was one other solitary poster on the other side of Langston Library which was under 5 feet)

Total # of posters that violate the size rule: 14 out of 19, or 73%

Flyers with info on MSU speakers - al Asi, Malik Ali, Rabbi Weiss and Netura (Neturei) Karta, and Norman Finkelstein

StandWithUs (http://www.StandWithUs.com) has created these great flyers:

Imam Mohammad Al Asi:

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20060416-60/flyers/flyer_1.pdf

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20060416-60/flyers/flyer_2.pdf

Finkelstein

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20050307-27/flyers/flyer_1.pdf

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20050307-27/flyers/flyer_2.pdf

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20050307-27/flyers/flyer_3.pdf

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20050307-27/flyers/flyer_4.pdf

Netura (Neturei) Karta

http://stand4facts.org/groups/AIG-20050207-12/flyers/flyer_1.pdf

http://stand4facts.org/groups/AIG-20050207-12/flyers/flyer_2.pdf

Amir Abdel Malik Ali

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20041222-22/flyers/flyer_1.pdf

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20041222-22/flyers/flyer_2.pdf

http://stand4facts.org/speakers/AIS-20041222-22/flyers/flyer_3.pdf

LA Times article on next week's Zionist Awareness Week

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-holocaust12may12,1,4968439,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Pretty much lays out the issues, though I should note that there are students on campus that would love it if the events next week were cancelled. I personally wouldn't mind if the MSU withdrew the events if it was without duress.

LGF has a story covering the upcoming 2006 Zionist Awareness Week

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20472_MSU_Hate_Week_at_UCI#comments

Note: Many of the comments you will see are blatantly anti-Islam - not just anti-Radical-Muslims, they're anti-All-Muslims (which, if you haven't figured out yet, I find rather disgusting).

I read Little Green Footballs primarily for the news links and to alert their less crazy readers to the situation on campus. I suggest you do the same if you wish to read the commentary.

As the saying goes, you can't argue successfully with an idiot - they'll drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

More 2006 Zionist Awareness Week Posters

Found today on the bridge between the Student Center and HIB (Humanities Instructional Building):



Found by the SSPA (Social Science Plaza A):

2006 Zionist Awareness Week Electronic Flyer

Since I'm hoping this will be indexed (and the graphic might still be illegible), here's a textual version:

Monday May 15

"Anti-Oppression Rally 'United for Justice'"
12-1pm Anteater Plaza

"Hamas: The People's Choice"
Imam Mohammad Al Asi
5:30-7:30pm SSL 228

--

Tuesday May 16
"Kingdom of Saudi Arabia"
Imam Mohammad Al Asi
12-1pm Anteater Plaza

"Obstacles to Peace: Israelis or Palestinians"
(formerly "Why Israel?" per SCAMA-Events)
Featuring Guest Speaker Professor Norman Finkelstein, DePaul University
7:30pm-? Student Center Crystal Cove Auditorium

--

Wednesday May 17
"Zionism Hijacking Judaism"
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss
1-2pm Anteater Plaza

--

Thursday May 18
"Israel: The 4th Reich"
Amir Abdel Malik Ali
12-1pm Anteater Plaza

"Islamic Palestine"
Amir Abdel Malik Ali
8-9pm SSTR 100

2006 Zionist Awareness Week Posters

I found these 2006 Zionist Awareness Week posters yesterday on the stairway between Humanities Hall and Krieger Hall (buildings 601 and 600 respectively on Campus Map )



I found these two posters on the bridge between the ICS/Engineering section and the Middle Earth/Social Sciences section (the narrower section of light blue above buildings 305 and 315 and below the 9 in the diamond) - on the same bridge, there were repeats of the posters shown above:

Picture of Mohammad al-Asi from MSU's Domestic Organizations in Support of Racism event

Originally posted May 19, 2007 6:14 PM

MSU Alkalima Speical Project: For Justice We Fight

Posted originally May 19, 2007 5:11 PM
Found this on the Alkalima website on July 20, 2005
Original Link: http://www.alkalima.com/publications/Alkalima-FightForPalestine.pdf

Front side:

(center bottom)

A rock in the hand of a Palestinian is considered to be a weapon of mass destructions, while the Zionists are armed with tanks and nuclear weapons and they are only considered to be "defending their interests against hostile elements"

(right side)

Why we fight

Zi·on·ism, n. : An organized movement of world Jewry that arose in Europe in the late 19th century with the aim of reconstituting a Jewish state in Palestine. Modern Zionism is concerned with the development and support of the state of "Israel." -American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition

Islam is a religion that advocates justice. It requires that its followers stand up against oppression everywhere. In Islam, fighting against oppression to make justice prevail is an act of worship. The jihad [struggle] for justice in Palestine may be sought through speaking out against the aggression; however, if all peaceful attempts do not resolve the crisis, the use of force is then justified to deter the oppressors until justice is established.

Jihad consists of many kinds of worship, of both internal and external forms. However, its main implications are love and devotion for God, trust in Him, the surrender of one’s life and property to Him, patience, asceticism, and glorification of His remembrance. The individual or community that participates in jihad finds itself between two blissful outcomes, either victory and the establishment of justice, or the reward of martyrdom and Paradise. At the core of the Islamic resistance movement in Occupied Palestine is an issue of universal justice.

Muslims must fight injustice to fulfill their religious obligation to defend the oppressed, weak, as well as their families and homes in the Holy Land. Palestinians are the rightful inhabitants of the land, not the foreign Zionists who have forcibly displaced the Palestinians and let them to live in squalid conditions. It is not befitting for any human being to be forced to live this lifestyle, not even under the pretext of peace. It is better to die on ones feet than to live on ones knees, an attitude the freedom fighters defending Palestine embody today.

Although the Zionist occupiers may use terrorism and assassination to thwart the continually resisting indigenous population, the freedom fighters will continue to fight until their land is liberated or until they are blessed with martyrdom.

(left side)

Zionist Torture Exposed

Perhaps most notable in Israeli practice is the institutionalization of torture as a normal part of the interrogation process in dealing with Palestinians (not Jews). This was well established in a London Times investigation back in 1977, but it has been maintained and eventually enlarged in response to the Intifada, and given open, official legal status.

A report of Justice Moshe Landau in October 1987 concluded that "moderate physical pressure" is legitimate when interrogating Palestinians, which led one Israeli Knesset member to ask: At what voltage does an electric current applied to one’s testicles stop being "moderate physical pressure?" This gross perversion of human and civil rights became Israeli law and legitimized torture, without any reaction whatever from the West.

It is now standard practice to handcuff, blindfold, insult and beat, and often further torture Palestinian prisoners, including small children, many of whom are psychologically shattered by their experience in the hands of security police (Shin Bet, also called Shabak) interrogators. An April 1992 report by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem estimated that 5,000 Palestinians had been tortured in the prior year, or some 420 per month.

Every few months there is a small back page article about another Palestinian prisoner who died in jail during or after "interrogation." In one case in 1992, a young man named Al-Akawi, brought to court after "moderate physical pressure," looked so badly beaten and unwell that the judge took the "unusual step" of giving the Shin Bet only eight more days for interrogation. But by 5 PM the next day the authorities summoned Al-Akawi’s father to come and remove his son’s body.-Edward S. Herman

http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/may94herman.htm

Back side:


(to be done later)

MSU statement on Green Shahada Graduation Stoles

Posted May 19, 2007 4:59 PM

Original link: http://www.muslimstudentunion.com/fireworksMain/main.cfm?currentPage=shahada.cfm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Headline: False allegations and slander against Muslim students at UC Irvine concerning the wearing of religious symbols during graduation ceremonies.

IRVINE, California -- June 17, 2004.

This Saturday, June 19th, will be the 39th commencement of the University of California Irvine.

Graduating students will walk while being adorned with various sashes, stoles, and emblems representing various honors, clubs, and religious symbols. However, there has been a tremendous amount of controversy in the local and national media concerning the stoles that some of the Muslim students will be wearing. Although the same stoles were worn a year ago at UC Irvine and various other schools without any concern, some ignorant and malicious individuals decided to make an issue out of them this year and spread lies and rumors about what the stoles stand for and say.

It was falsely reported to the media by some students at UC Irvine that Muslim students would be wearing stoles that advocate support for HAMAS. Furthermore, these students erroneously alleged to various aural media outlets that the stoles stated in Arabic the term "martyrdom", in an attempt to slander the Muslim Student Union and its members at UC Irvine by depicting them as war mongers

Due to the irresponsible action of these students, both the administration and students at UCI have been under extreme pressure and distress, in a time where graduation should bring about feelings of joy and happiness. The truth of the matter is that the graduation stoles that will be worn are simple expressions of religious freedom and unity amongst Muslim students. The stoles state on one side in Arabic "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is His messenger" and "Say: God increase my knowledge" on the other side. This statement is the declaration of faith for Muslims, and its depiction on a stole is similar to a Jewish student wearing a Star of David or a Christian student wearing a cross on his respective stole or gown.

The administration has pledged its support for the Muslim students to wear their stoles and that this is an issue of free speech and they acknowledge that the accusations are false. In an effort to clarify that all such allegations are unequivocally false and blatant lies, the Muslim Student Union will be having a press conference on Friday at 3:30 pm at UCI.

Muslim Student Union of UC Irvine
www.msu-uci.com
www.muslimstudentunion.com

Summer 2004 Alkalima: The Assassinations of Sheikh Yassin and Dr. Rantissi

This was originally posted May 19, 2007 4:34 PM PST
Original link was: http://www.alkalima.com/article.php?id=0603_assassination

The Assassinations of Sheikh Yassin and Dr. Rantissi
By Abdulrahman Hachache

Why the assassinations will have serious consequences for “Israel” and the Islamic Resistance Movement

Hamas, an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in Egypt, was founded in Palestine by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. In his youth, Sheikh Yassin studied under Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the Brotherhood in Egypt. Taking the knowledge he received back home to Palestine, he established an Islamic Resistance Movement to counteract Zionism. Sheikh Yassin experienced a life of struggle as he was quadriplegic since youth, but, through struggle, his knowledge and wisdom allowed him to serve as the spiritual leader for the Hamas movement in Palestine. Having been jailed and beaten by Israel to the point where he lost vision in one eye, Sheikh Yassin was released by Israel as a gesture for having attempted to assassinate another Hamas leader in Jordan.

On March 21, 2004, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin had just concluded Fajr prayer at a Masjid in Gaza when he was cowardly assassinated by three missiles launched by an Israeli helicopter. A few weeks later, after President Bush and Sharon met at the White House, Dr. Rantissi, the newly appointed leader of Hamas was assassinated in his car in a similar way as Sheikh Yassin.

These assassinations are taking place at a time when civil liberties are being increasingly restricted in the US. One may ask: why is it that Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and Dr. Rantissi were assassinated? Anybody who are targeted for assassination, whether it be Malcolm X or Dr. King in the US, or Sheikh Yassin and Dr. Rantissi in Occupied Palestine had to have been perceived as a threat. The biggest threat to the West since the end of Communism and the Cold War has been Islam’s rising popularity to people all over the world. If one is trying to establish Islam economically, socially, or politically, one becomes a threat to the West and those governments supporting it. The people being targeted in Occupied Palestine are threats to the status-quo entity.

Twenty years ago, during the time of South African apartheid, there were those who were favored by those in control, and those that were threatened or killed. At the time, the ANC, founded by Nelson Mandela, was defined by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. At the end, he became the leader of the movement to end apartheid because of his popularity among the people.

Similarly, ten years ago Hamas was considered a terrorist organization by Arabs and non-Arabs alike. Since then, the Arab people have realized that the only solution to the Zionist situation is through military force, which is espoused by Hamas, Hizb’Allah, Islamic Jihad, and other Islamic resistance organizations. Hizb’ Allah, led by Sheikh Nassrallah, proceeded with the use of military force and was successful in liberating South Lebanon.

Arab countries have come to realize that the only group able to liberate land from the Zionists was Hizb’ Allah. Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who only had control of his tongue, stuck to his correct legitimate ideology and was assassinated as a hero of the Palestinian people and Muslims worldwide. Although he had various physical limitations and the only thing he could command was his tongue, Sheikh Yassin used it to fight and "terrorize" the evils of Shaytan (Satan) and the enemies of Allah.

Just as the legacy of those before them has grown after their martyrdom - as has been the case with Hassan Al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and Malcolm X - Sheikh Yassin and Dr. Rantissi have joined these martyrs in the Islamic Movement; their influence on future generations will be immense. Hamas, Hizb’ Allah and other Islamic Resistance groups have vowed to respond to the killings of these martyrs, and the quickest response so far has come from Hizb’ Allah, who launched missile strikes on "Israel" immediately after the martyrdom of Sheikh Yassin.

The killing of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin has sparked a fire in Muslims all over the world. "Israel" has elevated Sheikh Yassin from a man to a martyr. In that same vein, it will be one hundred years from now that Sheikh Yassin will be established as a dominant hero in the Middle East as Malcolm X was in the States. The assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, founder of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine, whose persistence, piety, and self-sacrifice led to his popularity amongst people all over the world, gives rise to the beginning of the second generation of Islamic Resistance.

The actions taken by "Israel" can be compared to a snakehead analogy. By taking of the head, you are able to debilitate the rest of the body. However, this strategy is clearly shortsighted and counterproductive. The Qur’an states, "Men said to them, ‘A great army is gathering against you,’ and frightened them, but it (only) increased their Faith. They said, ‘For us Allah is sufficient, and He is the best disposer of affairs’" (3:173).

The likely consequences of "Israel’s" assassination of Sheikh Yassin and Dr. Rantissi will be a new group of people whose knowledge, spiritual soundness, and sincerity will lead them above the rest. If Hamas is sincere, the assassinations will embolden the organization and those within it by making them stronger and eventually allowing them to succeed and reap the rewards they seek, as long as they stick steadfastly to their objective and work for the sake of Allah.

Hachache is a fifth year History major at UC Irvine

MSU's Flyer from 2004 Annual Hate Israel Week

Posted originally 5/19/2007 4:39 PM

Photo from May 2004 Annual Hate Israel Week

Posted originally May 19, 2007 4:21 PM PST

Note the Swastika = Jewish Star (Judaism = Nazism) and Mohammad Al-Dura from Pallywood.

Notes from the SAS's May 17, 2004 evening event

Posted May 19, 2007 4:53 PM

Received this via email

Notes from 5/17/2004 6:30-7:30 pm at UCI Flagpoles
SAS event with 3 speakers

1948 Speaker: Khaire denne Abuljebain (Osama Abuljebain’s grandfather?):

- “4 million refugees”?
- “Some things to note on destruction of houses in Rafah in Gaza Strip”
- Recognizes British and Allies won against Ottomans and thus gained rights of control of Palestinian Mandate area
- All nations except Palestinian Mandate got independence
- Promises were made to Palestinians
- Residents were “Canaanites and 7th century Muslims”
- Minorities: Christians and Jews
- Lived in Jaffa in early 30’s – no Zionists then
- In fact, intermarriages between Muslims and Jews
- Immigration of Jews led to fight against Zionists
- “Palestine was full”
- 1914 census: Jews were 8% of population
- “Laws were imposed requiring villagers to sell their land to Jews”
- Then 1947 decision: Palestine should be partitioned
- “US Administration and Truman helped impose” solution, “although not practical”
- “Partition took Arab land and gave it to Jews”
- Brought about fights
- “Divided land ½ to Arabs and ½ to Zionists”
- “Jews then took everything”
- “Intifada is to get rid of Jews in Gaza and West Bank”
- “We have a right to fight but no one is listening to us”
- “We have laws of UN but no one is listening”
- “France tried to expel Nazi occupiers”
- “Fighting to send Jewish occupiers out of our land”
- “British gave all the guns and arms to Jews”
- “I had a shell to my leg and had to leave”
- “Now 8 million Palestinians, 4 million refugees…some in Arab world”
- “Bush promised to help with state of Palestine”
- “Aim is to create democratic state for all – Jews and Arab”
- “Want to create a real state”
- “if scattered, not a real state”

Jerusalem presenter:
- “Occupied in 1948, and against the rule in 1967, annexed”

1967 Speaker: Omar (UCI Person)
- “Oslo was our hope”
- “As a small child, I listened to the radio: ‘Israelis won’, ‘Arabs won’ – no one was sure”
- “There was a rumor that in 1948 there were lots of massacres by Jews of Arabs”
- “My father had a choice: to be or not to be a refugee”
- “In 1967 while Arab tanks retreated, we were told that the Arab armies were making a maneuver.”
- “There was a helicopter overhead with a speaker that said ‘surrender, surrender, the Israeli army is coming’”
- “My parents were hurt by war in 1948 and now in 1967”
- “Israelis came to our door”
- “There was a rumor that the Jews will rape and kill, but in reality the Israelis took all the private cars”
- “70 km were annexed from Palestinians for Jerusalem”
- “We were under special emergency laws”
- “They changed the curriculum in the schools”
- “My father took me out of the schools and instead sent me to the West Bank, to Bethlehem, to study the Jordanian curriculum”
- “Had municipal elections”
- “Settlements have vast percentage of West Bank”
- “Then there were Jewish terrorist attacks against Arab leaders – some killed and maimed – they then cancelled the elections”
- “Tribal leaders tried to form governments, but a boycott prevented success.”
- “Since 1967, no economic development or health services in Palestinian areas”
- “Under UN rules, Israel responsible for such things.”
- “This only created resentment.”
- “The first intifada was less violent and had more hope”
- “Sharon’s plan had a huge resistance to it”
- “There are hundreds of settlements with lots of investments”
- “A joke from the territories: there are dilapidated cities and nice highways. If your street has holes in it, you must be in a Palestinian area. If you have a nice street, it must lead to a Jewish settlement.”
- “There is no difference between today and 1967”

Jericho speaker:
- “Hopes were raised for my independence, but developments and checkpoints created fragmentation and daily siege”

2000 speaker (VP of SAS?):
- “I have not lived there and experienced it”
- “My family lives there and I have seen the effects”
- “I worked for the Arab Association for Human Rights”
- “There is a sense of community and strength”
- “’History is a people’s memory’ – Malcom X”
- “The daily struggle adds to our identity…gives hope…despite dehumanization of our culture”
- “Our cause lives in people who believe in peace, equality, and justice”
- “It is felt by all who have felt discrimination, racism…”
- “Equality doesn’t exist”
- “So many misconceptions covering reality have blinded Arabs and Israelis both”
- Witnessed attempt to transport $2,000 of medical equipment through a checkpoint – doctors held at gunpoint while Israeli solders destroyed half of it.
- “People cannot receive proper medical aid”
- “I recently could not go into the territories because they were closed”
- “In Ramallah, people collect everything in big bags and cross illegally”
- “Now we have a wall”
- “Palestinians cannot cross the wall but Jews can”
- “Wall divides us as human beings”
- “The misconception is that Jews, Palestinians, and Christians cannot live together. This is not true – everybody in Nazareth lives in peace.”
- “The wall divides us but we need to stay united”
- “I remember riding in a car from the airport in Palestine while 8 years old. There were sporadic cactus plants surrounded by trees. I asked about the cactus plants and was told that the cactus plants were symbols where arab villages once stood. Every year, the Israelis cut them down, but they always grow back bigger and stronger.”
- “I know this the next time the Israeli army gets gun happy and guns down 13 high schoolers.”
- “This is the universal cause for freedom, justice, and equality.”

MSU: "Reward the Speakers and those who have helped"

Posted originally May 19, 2007 4:47 PM

To my knowledge, one needs to get permission to request donations for funds. I wonder if the MSU can produce documentation that they received permission to gather these donations.

Reward the Speakers and those who have helped the MSU-UCI

Assalamu alaykum,

On Thursday June 10th at 6:30pm we will be having our annual end of the year banquet! At the banquet, we would like to reward 3 Individuals who have dedicated a great deal of time and hard work to help the MSU of UCI, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, Dr. Imad Bayoun, and Sister Maha. We are currently collecting donations for these gifts.

If you would like to donate, please contact Muzzammil at mahussai@... and he will coordinate with you.

Jazakum Allahu Khair,
MSU UCI Board

UCI MSU Alkalima Spring 2004 Editorial

Originally posted May 19, 2007 3:39 PM PST
Original link was "http://www.alkalima.com/article.php?id=0602_editorsDesk"

Editorial

Being a stickler for equal rights, I’ve always believed that leaders
are made, not born. However, last quarter, if someone had told
me that leaders are born, not made, I would have wholeheartedly
agreed with them. Being in a leadership position myself, I
encountered several problems that tested my abilities and
frustrated me to the extent that I resigned myself to the idea that
I was not born to lead people - that regardless of how much I
worked towards it, I would never be the charismatic, dynamic
leader I always wanted to be.

Yet when the Alkalima staff arrived at the theme of "Leaders and Revolution" for its
next issue, I slowly began to reaffirm my initial belief that leaders are, in fact, made,
and not born. True, there are those individuals who have a natural tendency to take
charge and elicit responses from their followers, but being a leader means much
more than being charming and engaging. Acquiring the skills that make a leader
takes time and energy, and a determination to succeed. The mark of a true leader is
perseverance, thriving in adversity and making light of any discomfiting situation that
confronts her. What makes a leader truly exceptional is her ability to create positive
change - change so dramatic that it may even be considered revolutionary. Changing
long-held dictums and challenging the way people think is never an easy
undertaking, but when done effectively by a strong leader, the results are
extraordinary.

No one ever said being a leader would be easy. It takes sacrifice, resilience, and
most importantly patience. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws), the best of men
and leaders, sacrificed so much for the sake of Islam and was a just and patient
leader. He led by example, placing the good of his people before his own. His
complete faith and trust in Allah allowed him to rise above the challenges that
confronted him, for only through Allah’s guidance and mercy does a leader truly
succeed.

"If ye help not (your leader), (it is no matter): for Allah did indeed help him, when
the Unbelievers drove him out: he had no more than one companion; they too were
in the cave, and he said to his companion, ‘Have no fear, for Allah is with us’: then
Allah sent down His peace upon him, and strengthened him with forces which ye saw
not, and humbled to the depths the word of the Unbelievers. But the word of Allah is
exalted to the heights: for Allah is Exalted in might, Wise" (The Holy Qur’an 9:40).

When one does become a leader, however, it is her moral obligation not to abuse her
power, because her people will do whatever she wants and directs them to do.
Currently, the United States suffers international censure - a plight the American
people have to face - because of the mistakes made by the miscalculations of its
leaders. A leader must take responsibility for her actions, for the extent of the
influence that a leader holds over her people is immeasurable. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin,
the face of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, carried so much influence
over his people that they were willing to sacrifice their lives because he believed it
would further their movement. He was a frail, nearly-blind 73-year-old who was
paralyzed from the neck down, and yet he held so much pull over his people. Setting
aside his actions and political agenda for a moment, one cannot help but marvel at
the extent of Yassin’s power and influence, especially since Israel thought that it was
necessary to use three missiles to eliminate him.

So many leaders - even those in some "Muslim" countries - have made thoughtless and irresponsible decisions, and thus - regardless of whether they deserve it - an entire people is subsequently labeled as selfish and inhumane.

When you really think about it, leaders incite revolutions. They may not necessarily be violent or political revolutions, but some form of change does result from a leader. What is variable is whether that revolution a positive - an outcome that rests in the hands of none other than the leader and her faith and trust in Allah.

Shahtaj Siddiqui
Editor-in-Chief
Alkalima Newsmagazine

MSU Event: The Life and Struggle of Shiekh Ahmed Yassin: A Lifetime Legacy of Resistance in the Face of Oppression

Originally posted here 5/16/2008

Original Link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/884

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah,

MSU UCI Presents…

The Life and Struggle of Shiekh Ahmed Yassin:

A Lifetime Legacy of Resistance in the Face of Oppression

with Dr. Imad Bayoun

“Think not of those, who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provision. Jubilant (are they) because of that which Allah hath bestowed upon them of His bounty, rejoicing for the sake of those who have not joined them but are left behind: that there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve. They rejoice because of favor from Allah and kindness, and that Allah wasteth not the wage of the believers.” Qur’an (3:169-171)

Where: Social Science Lab 270

When: 7:30 PM, Tuesday April 13^th

For more information contact: MSU_UCI@... or br. Kareem @ (714) 595 - 8662

Flyer from MSU website for Amir Abdel Malik Ali's February 26 2004 Speech

Posted originally May 19, 2007 4:43 PM PST

NewU: News In Brief: Students Lead Silent March For Peace

Posted originally at 5/20/2007 11:03 AM
Originally posted at: http://www.newuniversity.org/plain_article.php?id=1394
Available at: http://web.archive.org/web/20051222141410/http://www.newuniversity.org/plain_article.php?id=1394

Students Lead Silent March For Peace

Beginning at the flagpoles at noon, April 4, the Society of Arab Students hosted a silent march for peace addressing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The march led down Ring Road, encircled the Humanities Plaza and ended in a chanting huddle at the Student Center.

Many anti-Israeli posters were displayed and one of various protest chants included, “Sharon, Sharon, you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide,” referring to the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon.

Flyers were also handed out with history of the conflict.