SF State to Host Israel-Basher November 3

Omar Barghouti


San Francisco State University will be putting on one of those bash-Israel sideshows on November 3. Of course, it will be labeled (falsely) as some sort of seminar or discussion. The featured speaker will be Omar Barghouti, and the event is entitled: "Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: A Quest for Justice, Human Rights and Peace". And who is Omar Barghouti, you ask?

You don't want to know, but I will tell you anyway.

Omar Barghouti was born in Qatar in 1964, grew up in Egypt, was educated at Columbia University in electrical engineering and now lives in Ramallah (West Bank). He more recently turned up a couple of years ago as a PHD candidate in philosophy at Tel Aviv University, a fact which raised a lot of hackles among many Israelis since he basically calls for the end of Israel as a nation.

“My studies at Tel Aviv University are a personal matter and I have no interest in commenting.”- Barghouti replying to an Israeli newspaper. (But he wants American universities to boycott Israel academically.)


Barghouti identifies himself as a Palestinian since, according to him, his parents "fled a West Bank village" to which they always longed to return". (They live today in Jordan.) He is now described as an independent Palestinian researcher. commentator, and human rights activist and more coherently, as a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

(With a resume like that, SF State should be charging $1,000 a plate for admission.)

Aside from Barghouti, this one-sided event is being hosted by the following groups (among others):

International Solidarity Movement, ANSWER, US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Middle East Children's Alliance, Jewish Voice for Peace and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

Don't be fooled by the "Jewish" connotations on a couple of the above outfits. These groups are all solidly anti-Israel.

This one-sided event is also being sponsored by the SF State College of Ethnic Studies (who else?). The welcoming address will be given by the Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at SFSU, Kenneth Monteiro. In case you care, this event, which will advocate for an end to Israel as a nation, will be funded with California taxpayer dollars. (What the Hell. Everything else is.)

So in case you are unable to attend this side show, I'll tell you exactly what will happen.

Barghouti will speak and condemn the nation that allowed him to study at Tel Aviv University. He will tell you that a two-state solution is off the table. In the meantime, he will encourage everyone to boycott Israel academically and economically. American universities must divest themselves from any financial interest in Israel. I imagine he will also have harsh words for the nation that allowed him to come here and study at Columbia University. (Maybe that's where he learned that America is a bad place. After all, we are Israel's "enabler".)

In addition, rest assured the lecture hall will be packed with Palestinian supporters, academic leftists, impressionable young students in the middle of their college experience being brain-washed by their wacko leftist professors, and other anarchists with nothing else to do on November 3.

Have I left anyone out, Dr Monteiro?

Oh yes! There MAY be a handful of Israel (or America) supporters, who, if they deign to ask critical questions of the learned Mr Barghouti, will be jeered, heckled, insulted or shouted down. (I know. I've been there and done that-several times. It's actually fun.)

So if you are a member of the local community, and you are interested in what goes on on American college campuses, you might want to stop by and watch what passes for higher education these days.