UC Regents Pass Resolution on Anti-Semitism

Hat tip AMCHA Initiative and Brandeis Center


Today, the University of California Regents unanimously passed a resolution condemning anti--Semitism and anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism. Below are two links making the announcement from the AMCHA Initiative and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.


http://www.amchainitiative.org/largest-univ-pass-policy-protect-jewish-students-pressr

http://brandeiscenter.com/news/news_full/california_regents_denounce_anti_zionism

Both of the above organizations are to be commended for their work leading to this resolution, in particular Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith of the AMCHA Initiative and Ken Marcus of the Brandeis Center.

I am still awaiting the actual language of the revised statement of principles. Inserting language about anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism was fiercely opposed by the pro-Palestinian forces within the university.

This is just a  first step. Without cutting off the right of free speech, the university now must take affirmative steps to ensure that legitimate criticism of Israeli policies does not cross the line to Jew-baiting. When that happens, the perpetrators must be identified. That has been a big stumbling block. Had the offenders been neo-Nazis, skin heads or KKK types, the university would have had no problem identifying the perpetrators. Yet, when the perpetrators turn our to be members of the Muslim Student Association or Students for Justice in Palestine, administrators have been afraid to speak out. The fact that these groups have found willing allies among certain Jewish students, professors, speakers, or organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace does not absolve them from responsibility for words and deeds that have crossed the line multiple times on multiple UC campuses over the past decade and beyond.