JTA Publishes Article Comparing Level of Incitement at UCLA and at UCI

The Jewish Telegraph Agency recently published an article by Tom Tugend comparing and contrasting the week-long anti-Zionism events at UCLA and UC Irvine.

The summary is this: UCLA's quiet compared to UCI. Some who were at UCLA for their anti-Zionism week (held at the same time as UCI's) say this isn't true, but this quote from Jeff Rips, Executive Director of Orange County Hillel, is just unbelievable:

To balance the dour campus picture, Rips said that except during Palestine Week, there was little tension between Muslim and Jewish students.

Excuse me? Did I somehow dream up the monthly (sometimes more often) MSU events?

Ignoring Holocaust in the Holy Land week, there's been at least twelve events over the 2005-2006 school year where the MSU invited at least one speaker to come visit. (see the end of this post for the full list, including cut-and-paste descriptions from the MSU newsletter) I bet you dollars to donuts that all of these events included attacks on Zionists and Zionism using all of the old and new anti-Semitic canards.

This also doesn't count the off-campus retreats run by the MSU and the off-campus events advertised in the MSU's email newsletter where Malik Ali and other anti-Semites have been the featured guests. G-d only knows what goes on during those MSU road trips.

In all of the campuses I've been to on both the East and West coasts, I've never seen anything like this. My grades continue to suffer because I have to listen to - and respond to - the canards these anti-Semites pull out while the UC Irvine administration throws up its hands and says "can't we all get along?"

Jeff, bubbeleh, I love you to pieces. Do me a favor: for once, get your head out of the sand.

Suprise us all for once by accurately acknowledging the level of hatred and intimidation I and every other student of Jewish heritage at UC Irvine have had to deal with for the past few years.

Students of Jewish heritage like myself shouldn't have to pay $10,000 a year for the privilege of going to one of the top 10 public universities in the nation with a BULLSEYE on our backs.

Jeff, you and your organizations (Hillel, the B'nai B'rith Federation, and the ADL) should be supporting the Title VI complaint to the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The ZOA's filing of the complaint did more to change the way the UCI administration acted than anything Hillel, the Federation, and the ADL ever did these past few years.

Instead of trying to prevent the showing of the StandWithUs documentary "Tolerating Intolerance" - or, as I'm hearing you're doing, trying to hijack the event - you and your organizations should be standing behind StandWithUs, the AJCongress, and the ZOA and the Orange County Community-Campus Coalition and letting them run the show.

They've got the track record - you and your organizations don't.

For once, Jeff, instead of holding hands and singing koom-by-ya (or worse - fighting the people who are really attacking the problem), do something concrete and significant that'll make me feel safe enough so I can feel safe enough to just focus on my studies.

Read the whole JTA article here: http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=16664&intcategoryid=4

UPDATE
The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles also ran the story:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=15941

The 2005-2006 List of MSU Events with Malik Ali, Musa, Wahaj, and al-Asi, not including the Holocaust in the Holy Land events, or off-campus retreats:

Fall 2005 Quarter
Week 1 Malik Ali
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1158
Posted Tue Sep 27, 2005 4:19 pm
How Katrina Exposed the True Essence of US domestic policy.

Thursday 9-29
12- 2 pm
Cross Cultural Center
Amir Abdul Malik Ali & Dennis Lopez

Sponsored by the MSU and SPJ at UCI.

Week 5 Malik Ali
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1177
Posted Mon Oct 24, 2005 11:55 pm
What: Racism- the American Creed
When: Thursday October 27th
Who: Amir Abdul Malik Ali
Where: Anteater Plaza(in front of Library)
Why:
Basically... the reason why YOU should show up to this program is
because this is our first outdoor program of the year and we need to
make our presence known on campus from the beginning of the year.
This is also our chance to show that the Muslims on campus are down
for social-justice programs that do not only involve Muslims.

Winter 2006 Quarter
Week 2 Malik Ali
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1237
Posted Tue Jan 17, 2006 12:14 am
THURSDAY:

**Discussion with Amir Abdel Malik: The Bombings in Pakistan: Standing together as One Ummah Against Injustice and Oppression**

1:45pm at the Cross Cultural Center and then head over to Aldrich Park inshAllah.


Week 3 Malik Ali
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1240
Posted Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:01 am
THURSDAY:

***Constitution Under Fire with Amir Abdel Malik and
Fernando Chirino***

12 to 1pm at Anteater Plaza

***Latinos, Muslims, and the Movement with Amir Abdel
Malik and Denis Lopez***

1:30 to 3pm at the Cross Cultural Center


Week 5 Siraj Wahaj
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1252
Posted Wed Feb 8, 2006 12:03 am
Topic: "Africans in the Americas"
Speaker: Imam Siraj Wahaj
When: Wed Feb 8th at 330
Where: SST220B

Please join us for a program about African Muslim influence in the Americas with one of our beloved scholars Siraj Wahaj from New York. It isn't everyday that we are able to have a world renound scholar on our campus. Don't miss out!! See you there insha'Allah...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1253
[There is an image announcing a fundraiser for "Building the Future". Special guest speaker is Siraj Wahaj.]

Week 6 Musa
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1254
Posted Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:05 am
WEDNESDAY:

***The War on Black America with Iman Musa***

12 to 1pm at Anteater Plaza

Week 7 Malik Ali
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1258
Posted Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:25 pm
WEDNESDAY:

***One Message. One God: Abraham, Moses, and Mohammed (pbuh)***

12 to 1 pm at Anteater Plaza with Amir Abdel Malik.

***Dr. King Wants the Same Thing I Do; Freedom: The Legacy of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. ***

3:30 to 5 pm at SST 220A

Week 9 al-Asi
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1267
Posted Mon Mar 6, 2006 1:42 am

WEDNESDAY:

***Who is Behind the Cartoons?***

12 to 1 pm outside of Cornerstone on Ring Road

***Domestic Organizations in Support of Racism***

6:30 to 8pm in HIB 110
A panel of speakers with Imam Muhammed al Asi, Toshio
Whelchel and more.

Spring 2006 Quarter
Week 5
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/msu-uci/message/1316
Posted May 3, 2006 10:26 pm
Thursday Planner
3:30: A talk with...Amir Abd Al-Malek @ the CCC

This Just In: Chancellor Drake's Latest Email to the UCI Community

The UCI Chancellor's latest message is below but here's a quick summary: Chancellor Michael V. Drake, MD condemns "hate speech".

Little problem: what exactly is "hate speech"? I'm kind of lost and Drake doesn't give any specific examples.

So "hate speech" could be the anti-Semitic attacks that UC Irvine Jewish students, faculty, and staff have had to put up year after year...or perhaps not, as sentences like "Zionists, your days are numbered" and claiming (falsely) that there is a Holocaust in the Holy Land always fall inside "the bounds of civility." /sarcasm off

On the other hand, the MSU and SAS consider any Israeli Independence Day celebrations "hate speech". The MSU considers Bus 19 "hate speech" because in their dangerously extremist view bringing it to campus "ignited hate" - read their February 21, 2005 condemnation of the event in the New University paper: http://www.newu.uci.edu/article.php?id=3402

Obviously the MSU is full of bunk, but Drake's definition jives perfectly with the MSU's continuous, crazy, and obnoxiously loud speeches, news articles, and public displays that there's this massive Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, that Jews are the new Nazis and they're committing genocide against the Palestinians, and the use of suicide bombers that target for murder innocent men, women, and children because they are Jewish is a perfectly moral and legal way of waging war.

Chancellor, every time I step on campus, I walk around with a bullseye on my back because you and your administration aren't doing your jobs - you're supposed to protect my Title VI civil right to be able to go to school here without fear of intimidation against my religious, ethnic, and racial group. You're going to have to do better. I want specifics of recent events on this campus that fit the bill of "hate speech".

You've stepped closer to what you need to say, but your message still doesn't cut it. For once, show all of us you've got balls.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Hate Speech
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 19:58:11 -0700
From: Michael V. Drake, Chancellor
To: All Students: ;;All Students:@es.nacs.uci.edu;

Dear Students:

This is the third in a trilogy of messages sent to the campus community this month reiterating our core values of respect, appreciation and empathy, our refusal to tolerate illegal behavior, and our Constitutional obligation to respect and uphold First Amendment rights.

Today, I would like to address behavior that adheres to the strict definition of the law, but falls distinctly outside the bounds of civility. In a society of laws, we all must abide by a written code that draws the line between legal and illegal activities. The law sets a minimum standard of behavior. But there is a zone between illegal behavior and desirable behavior. In this zone we find disrespectful, deliberately offensive, but not specifically illegal acts. In the case of hate speech this behavior is protected by the Constitution.

Hate speech is difficult to define precisely. It is largely defined by the individual hearing it: what some or many may find hateful or offensive, others may not. Hate speech tends to be directed at individuals or groups. The provocateur chooses words specifically to offend and inflame. We can all think of examples of this behavior: words that are used to provoke outrage.

This winter and spring there have been incidents testing the bounds of the First Amendment at many campuses across the country, including ours. The controversies have revolved around a variety of issues, often not related to campus life per se, but rather reflecting larger international frictions.

Make no mistake: I find hate speech abhorrent, illogical and ultimately pitiful. Hate speech is inconsistent with advancing understanding or dialogue. It is also inconsistent with the great tradition of free speech at the University of California. I ask you to join me in renouncing hate speech as a form of expression, and to join with our larger university community in fostering open and candid dialogue.

I invite you to visit the web page of Student Affairs Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez (http://www.vcsa.uci.edu), which includes important information related to the practice of free speech and events that UCI is sponsoring to encourage constructive dialogue on difficult issues currently being addressed on campuses across the country.

And, as always, I invite you to review our values, which can be found at http://www.chancellor.uci.edu/values.shtml. By upholding these values, we can ensure a healthy exchange of ideas in a civil, non-threatening environment.

Fiat Lux
Michael V. Drake, M.D.
Chancellor

http://www.chancellor.uci.edu

Jacob Bezier NewU Op-Ed: It's War, Not Genocide; also, three letters to the editor not on the NewU website

‘Genocide’ Does Not Describe Middle East
by: Jacob Beizer
May 30, 2006
New University

If the Mexican government were sending suicide bombers across the border to blow up buses and nightclubs, I would hope that the American government would build a wall to keep them out. In my opinion, that is not a racist policy. It is simple protection. It is not different from the bars that people put on their windows when they live in a crime-ridden neighborhood.

Israel is doing the same thing, and the Muslim world is accusing them of creating an apartheid state. This is not the case. The wall serves the purpose of protecting the Israeli people from terrorist attacks that the Palestinian government has no genuine intention of halting. The segregation in South Africa was established because of the ethnic prejudice inherent in the British imperial government. It would have been in place whether or not the black people in South Africa were dangerous.

Read more at: http://www.newuniversity.org/article.php?id=4803

--

There were also three letters to the editor not published on the NewU website. This is simply a small version of the image - you can see the full-size scan by clicking on the image (thank you to Ami for the scan):

RSS site feed in case anyone's interested

Copy and paste this address into your RSS feeder (Firefox has one built-in, Yahoo now accepts them):

http://concerneducistudent.blogspot.com/atom.xml

UPDATES: UCI New University FINALLY Posts Reut Cohen (including corrections) - also, photo links recreated

As I mentioned in a previous post, the UCI New University newspaper had published in their dead-tree edition an error-ridden article claiming that Yossi Olmert was Ariel Sharon's brother. From what I heard, the article's author, Reut Cohen, had submitted an accurate article, but somebody on the newspaper staff had changed it. These are our future journalists of America? G-d save us all...

Anyway, the article never made it to the NewUniversity.com website until just before the weekend. Here it is, with the corrections added:

Prime Minister’s Brother Speaks About Israeli Politics
http://www.newuniversity.org/article.php?id=4786

On another note, I've recreated the photo links that Flickr broke.

--

UPDATE:

The NewU published a formal correction in the May 30, 2006 dead-tree issue (it's not on their website):

In last week's issue of the New University, the article "Ariel Sharon's Brother Speaks About Israeli Politics" incorrectly stated that Yossi Olmert is the brother of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He is the brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The mistake was made during the editing process and was not the fault of the article's author. In the article "MSU Provokes With 'Holocaust' Week," Imam Mohammad Al Asi was quoted as saying that "there are no differences between the rulers in Tel Aviv and the rulers of Israel." He actually said, "There are no differences between the rulers in Tel Aviv and the rulers in Riad." The Muslim Student Union did not allow any audio recordings of the event, so the article's author was unable to review quotes as per the usual practice.

Info on the Ahmadi Muslim movement

In the May 12, 2006 LA Times article that came out just before the 2006 MSU Anti-Zionism Week (click here for it), there was mention of a Muslim student organization that I had never heard of:

Ijaz Sayed, president of the Ahmadi Muslim Student Assn. at UCI, said, "You'll never find us holding an event like that…. We all have to live on this Earth together and somehow create peace here."

I looked them up on Wikipedia and here's what I found:

Ahmadi (Urdu: احمدیہ Ahmadiyya), are followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. They comprise two subsects, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (sometimes called the 'Qadiani' community, after Qadian, India, though this term is considered offensive by some) and the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat-i-Islam).

Ahmadi Muslims' beliefs are considered heretical and outside of Islam by most mainstream Muslims, though an exception may be made by some in the case of the smaller Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement.

Read here if you'd like to learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadiyya

Apparently terrorists targeted them in the past:

Attack on mosque leaves eight dead

MONG, Pakistan - Armed assailants opened fire Friday inside a mosque belonging to a small sect that has been ostracized and banned from calling itself Muslim in Pakistan, killing eight people and wounding 19 others, police and a doctor said.

The attack occurred in Mong, a village of 18,000 people 150 miles southeast of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. About 150 people in Mong belong to the Ahmadiyya sect, which differs with other Muslim groups over the definition of Islam's founder Mohammed as the "final" prophet.

The Ahmadiyya sect was founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a 19th century Indian religious leader who claimed to be a prophet seeking Islam's renewal.

(From http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/nationworld/article_706125.php )

LA Times takes a look at UC Irvine after the latest anti-Zionism Week - CAIR chides MSU!

The LA Times posted another article on the problems at UCI (hat tip: LittleGreenFootballs's commenters):

Mideast Debate Takes Root at UC Irvine
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-muslim27may27,0,4161084.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

What boggles the mind is CAIR even comments that THEY wouldn't have chosen the titles the MSU chose:

"If you haven't been through a bit of radicalism in college, you've missed out," said Hussam Ayloush, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "They're very harmless, nonviolent kids, but they're very vocal."

Still, some local Muslim leaders quietly acknowledged that they were no fans of [Amir Abdel Malik] Ali or his growing influence on local campuses. Ayloush questioned the wisdom of the Muslim Student Union deliberately provoking Jewish students by using "holocaust" or Nazi references.

"I wouldn't have chosen those titles. But would I describe them as anti-Semitic? No," Ayloush said. "That wouldn't work out in real life. It would backfire. You wouldn't even get Muslim attendance."

Here's my discussion of the LA Times article put out before the week got started:
http://concerneducistudent.blogspot.com/2006/05/la-times-article-on-next-weeks-zionist.html

And in case you're interested, the LA Times also ran a column from Dana Parson on May 14, 2006 bringing the controversy well into focus:

Baiting is a Poor Form of Free Speech
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-parsons14may14,1,908381.column

Apparently Flickr's computers didn't like their latest upgrade...

Flickr goofed massively and thus some of the photos and slideshows need to be recreated. I'll recreate the missing images sometime by the end of the coming weekend.

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: