Update From Cal State Northridge

"Problem? What problem?"

My friends at the AMCHA Initiative are still sending letters to various California state officials protesting the fact that California State University at Northridge professor David Klein is still using an official university server to dish out his anti-Israel propaganda. Out-going CSU chancellor Charlie Reed is too busy eating lobster and drinking French wine at extravagant conferences to reply to his mail. 

"It's all for the children.... Burp"


California's version of Eric Holder, Attorney General Kamala Harris, says there is nothing to see here, folks-move on. Here is the latest letter to Harris from the AMCHA Initiative.

Dear Attorney General Harris and Deputy Attorney General Haytayan:

We would like to bring to your attention an article that recently appeared in the Electronic Intifada, an online publication that promotes calls for the boycott of Israel.  The article, entitled "In blow to Zionist censors, California backs professor's right to call for Israel boycott on state university website," celebrates your apparent refusal to prosecute CSU Northridge Professor David Klein for alleged misuse of state resources by posting his webpage promoting the boycott of Israel on the CSUN web server.

In the article, Klein is quoted as saying of your decision: "I hope that it is a source of encouragement to other faculty members to do similar things, to go ahead and take a public stand against apartheid in Israel and ethnic cleansing, and all the injustices there."

Please understand that there are many California taxpayers, including ourselves and the group of concerned citizens we represent, who are deeply troubled by your decision and its impact on the Jewish community, particularly on Jewish students.  As you may be aware, the U.S. State Department's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism has declared that the academic boycott of Israel, which is prominently promoted on Klein's website, is anti-Semitic. In addition, the Jewish community recognizes campaigns to boycott Israel as deliberate assaults on the Jewish state and the Jewish people, and mainstream Jewish organizations across the political spectrum have vigorously condemned these campaigns.

In our opinion, we believe that Prof. Klein's calls for the boycott of Israel on his CSUN-hosted "Boycott Israel Resource" web page are in violation of the following California statutes:

• California Education Code 89005.5, which provides that no one shall use the name of any California State University campus for political activity, including "boycott."
• California Government Code 8314, which states that it is unlawful for any state employee to use public resources for "personal or other purposes which are not authorized by law."

Indeed, since you provide no explanation in your letter, we are puzzled as to why you concluded that Klein's explicit and numerous calls for the boycott of Israel on his University-hosted website are not a violation of California law.  

Therefore, in addition to our previous query requesting you to determine whether the personal attacks against us and our organization by Prof. Klein and Interim President Hellenbrand on their CSUN-hosted webpages constitute misuse of public resources, we, and many in the California Jewish community, would like to know the following: on what basis did you conclude that Prof. Klein's University-hosted "Boycott Israel Resource" page was not a violation of state law?

Thank you for your attention to this matter.  We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin

Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative

Leila Beckwith

Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative

Cc: CSU Chancellor Charles Reed
        CSU Presidents

CSU Board of Trustees

CSU General Counsel Christine Helwick

California Governor Jerry Brown
California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom
California Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
California Attorney General Kamala Harris

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley

City Attorney for the City of Los Angeles Carmen A. Trutanich

Congressman Brad Sherman 

Congressman Howard Berman

California State Senator Alex Padilla (Northridge)
California State Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (Northridge)

Bcc:    Members and supporters of the Jewish community

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Fousesquawk comment:

First of all, Harris' refusal letter was addressed to the Global Frontier Justice Center, which had sent a complaint letter to her regarding Klein and CSUN.

Let's be clear: Kamala Harris is a liberal ideologue. In her previous stint as San Francisco DA, she refused to seek the death penalty for any murders. San Francisco was (and still is) a sanctuary city that refused to turn over illegal alien defendants over to ICE. One of them, a gang member released from jail, murdered a man and his son in a road rage incident. 

In my view, what would be appropriate is for someone in authority to point out to the university that using an official state university server to further a political agenda is, at the very least, not proper because it implies that the university is putting its imprimatur on professor Klein's personal view-especially on an issue that is dividing students on campuses all over the country. The negative responses from CSU Northridge's administrators and the out-going glutton-chancellor indicates that CSU has an official position on this (Israel-Palestinian) issue.The professor should be told to take down his personal views from what is clearly a CSUN site.