Articles by Stand With Us

The below article was written by Roz Rothstein the director of the Jewish advocacy group, Stand With Us, and Roberta Seid, a professor of Hebrew at UC-Irvine, both of whom I know. I am pleased to cross-post it because I think it is quite informative.
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By ROZ ROTHSTEIN and ROBERTA SEID, PhD

Increasing numbers of students report that demonization of Israel is intensifying on campuses. Bewildered, many students wonder why each time they douse anti-Israel fires, they reignite.

It's simple. They face an organized movement undaunted by setbacks. The Muslim Student Union (MSU) and Muslim Student Association (MSA), allied with extremist groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), focus single-mindedly on demonizing Israel and its supporters. This is not your normal student activism. MSU and MSA members are methodical, well-funded, strictly organized and fervent. The leaders are usually devout and make hatred of Israel a religious as well as social justice cause.

These groups don't spontaneously plan actions just for their own schools. SJP and the 600 MSU/MSA chapters across North America use the Internet to coordinate their strategies. They share fliers, props and slogans, and analyze best practices to refine each year's tactics.

They maintain continuity. New leaders are groomed to replace graduates. Incoming students are actively recruited, welcomed into their supportive fold, and indoctrinated. Other methods also ensure continuity. A young man at an "apartheid wall" display in April said he is a Muslim missionary who volunteered to accompany the wall for three years, and "educate" students.

The MSU/MSA and SJP launch slick campaigns, street theater and campus displays like the "Apartheid Wall." They orchestrate demonstrations against pro-coexistence speakers and host pseudo-academic panels. They showcase speakers whose only credentials are a Jewish background and anti-Israel views. They seek academic credibility by asking professors to co-sponsor their events. They form coalitions with campus groups by supporting popular student causes and falsely claiming they promote human rights. They work to promote their agenda in student governments and newspapers.

With this groundwork laid, they recommend punishments for Israel such as divestment. Divestment resolutions, in turn, disseminate their anti-Israel message through campus debates and media coverage.

Most Israel supporters ignore this larger, organized offensive, hoping the fires will burn out. But they won't. MSU/MSA and SJP zeal is growing, fed partially by their successes and financial supporters. Even when they know they can't win a campaign, they count it a victory because they created a platform for their propaganda. As Berkeley divestment leaders commented, "We lost the vote but won the night. We made a statement recorded for posterity and forced everyone to listen and watch."

They also expect a disorganized counter-response. Pro-Israel students' attention is elsewhere-on their daily lives and futures, as it should be. They did not go to college to defend their identity or Israel. Most become involved out of necessity. Consequently, pro-Israel students are often unprepared for anti-Israel ambushes. Last April, the UC San Diego student senate suddenly proposed a divestment bill. Pro-Israel students had only a few days to mobilize while divestment proponents had spent a year recruiting allies and polishing their presentations.

Pro-Israel students are often concerned about unsupportive administrations. Most universities lack standards that protect the rights of students targeted by hostile campaigns. Pro-Israel students also believe that sympathy for the other side and information can defuse the situation. Unfortunately, this has rarely been the result.

Pro-Israel students are also disconcerted by the other side's half-truths and anti-Semitic stereotypes, violation of conduct norms, and by some fear. Eleven MSU students were arrested when they tried to shout down Ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California, Irvine, in February. In the United Kingdom, constant harassment has made Israel's supporters fearful of organizing events. At the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, a Jewish student removed a Palestinian flag from a pro-Israel exhibit, and was physically attacked by MSU students.

Israel's supporters must recognize the arsonist, and meet fire with fire, not flowers.

Well-meaning students must absorb the fact that they face a serious problem. They need a coordinated, long-term strategy that preempts the predictable anti-Israel actions. Coalitions must be built with pro-coexistence groups on all campuses. Best practices should be kept in place for incoming students.

The goal should not be changing the minds of anti-Israel ideologues, but educating the wider campus. Students must also challenge anti-Israel libels. Many fear a strong response will bring unwanted attention to the accusations, as some Jewish professionals claim. But ignoring them has allowed them to grow like a cancer.

Anti-Israel groups must be exposed for what they are: extremists who oppose coexistence and instill hate and divisiveness, not understanding. They are not pro-peace, pro-Palestinian, or pro-human rights, but enemies of all three.

If often beleaguered pro-Israel students adopt proactive strategies more fully, there will be a positive change on campuses. Until then, the anti-Israel fires will continue and Israel will continue to be unjustly marginalized by extremist groups that themselves should have been exposed and marginalized long ago.

Roz Rothstein is the co-Founder and CEO of StandWithUs, and Roberta Seid, PhD is the Education Director of StandWithUs.
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The below article was also sent to me by Stand With Us and concerns the last UC Regents meeting in San Francisco.
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May 20-San Francisco] "Pay attention to the growing anti-Semitism on UC campuses...Condemn anti-Semitism as clearly and vigorously as you would condemn other forms of racism," Dr. Mike Harris of the Bay area chapter of StandWithUs, S.F. Voice for Israel, urged the University of California Regents during their meeting on Wednesday, May 19.

Harris urged the regents to set up a committee to implement the U.S. State Department definition of anti-Semitism that recognizes that anti-Zionism is a new form of anti-Semitism and condemn it on UC campuses.

The message was reiterated the second day of the meeting when UC Irvine lecturer and StandWithUs Education/Research Director Roberta P. Seid, PhD, exhorted the Regents. "You were justifiably outraged by recent offenses against African American students," said Seid. "But where is your outrage and leadership for pro-Israel students who have been subjected to nine years of organized efforts [by Muslim Student Unions (MSU), SJP, and other extremist groups] on campus to bully, maliciously stereotype, silence, and marginalize them? Many feel they are no longer safe."

Just as the image of a noose triggers memories of persecution and deeply offends African Americans, so, too, the campus image of the Star of David equated with a swastika is deeply offensive to Jewish students, according to an online petition signed by 600 Jewish UC students.

There is a growing backlash against the increasingly aggressive activities of MSUs and other extremist organizations whose goal is to incite intolerance and hatred of one minority student group-Zionists, which include Jews, Israelis, and Israel's supporters.

"Enough is enough. We have worked closely with pro-Israel students throughout the University of California system and around the world for nine years as they try to counter this dangerous trend. It is time for responsible authorities like the Regents to set up guidelines about what constitutes civil, academic discourse and to lay out clear consequences for student organizations that don't adhere to these standards," stated Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs.

Seid also informed the Regents that she and 64 other UC Irvine faculty members had signed a letter protesting the anti-Israel activities that make reasonable dialogue impossible and have given the UC schools a growing reputation as centers of intolerance and hate.

Like the UC Irvine faculty signatories, StandWithUs is unswervingly committed to free speech. "However, the anti-Israel campaigners make a mockery of this bedrock value by claiming it gives them the right to shout down the free speech of those with dissenting views, as they tried to do when Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren spoke at UC Irvine last February. Their threatening actions during pro-Israel talks make it necessary for student organizations to hire security when their speakers come to campus. The Regents and chancellors should be outraged at this threat to free speech on campus," added Rothstein.

Harris and Seid addressed the Regents during "public comments" when many people sign up to speak. Seid also distributed a packet to each Regent that included her comments and other relevant material, including: the UC Irvine faculty letter and a Jewish student petition for equal rights that protested the activities and was already signed by 600 students. In addition, the packet included evidence about the anti-Israel extremism such as a transcript of frequent Muslim Student Union guest speaker Abdel Malik Ali, who admitted after questions from Rothstein that he supports Hezbollah and Hamas, and he urged Muslim students to not speak with Jewish students, whom he called "the new Nazis." The packed also included a transcript of a UC San Diego Muslim Student Association member who answered speaker David Horowitz's question to her by announcing that she supported Hezbollah and its genocidal goals. Finally, it included a copy of Rothstein and Seid's article, "Facing Hatred on Campus: You Can't Fight Fire with Flowers," which reveals how this anti-Israel movement operates and its extremism.

"Other groups that have been targets of hate have gotten a lot of attention from the Regents because they protested loudly and attended Regents' meetings to air their grievances. The pro-Israel community had hoped to resolve the problem through dialogue and outreach, but more needs to be done. Now is the time to inform the Regents about the extent of the problem and urge them to act so that the UCs are centers of intelligent debate, diversity, and mutual respect, not of hate, ignorance, and demonization. As they are better informed, I feel confident that the Regents will do the right thing for all of us," said Seid.