Columbia University: More Anti-Semitism from SJP

Students for Justice in Palestine, Hatem Bazian's* nationwide collection of brown shirts, continues to traffic in anti-semitic discourse  and imagery. In promoting this year's Israel Apartheid Week at Columbia University, they have produced a poster showing an Israeli soldier with horns protruding from its head.

* UC Berkeley professor

Of course, this is just another example of SJP and its allies using old anti-Jewish tropes to promote the Palestinian cause. And don't be fooled by Jewish Voice for Peace. If this were the 1930s-40s, they would be walking around with swastika armbands. Below is a statement from Columbia's Students Supporting Israel chapter. This week, in order to promote their so-called Israel Apartheid Week, Columbia SJP, CUAD, And JVP circulated a flyer throughout campus. At first glance, the flyer looks somewhat unproblematic but, upon close inspection, one can easily see the depiction of an Israeli soldier with horns on his head. While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a profoundly complex situation which can harbor intense emotions from the victims of both sides, such a disgusting and cheap act of portraying Jewish soldiers with physical deformities is downright abhorrent and anti-Semitic and must be condemned by Columbia University. This kind of repugnant caricature of Jews is a sore reminder of blatant anti-Semitism from the dark ages of medieval Europe when anti-Semitic propaganda depicted Jews as satanic consorts and an incarnation of absolute evil. Physically, Jews were portrayed as menacing, hirsute, with boils, warts and other deformities, sometimes with horns, cloven hoofs and tails. It is extremely painful to see that the same rhetoric is being used on the campus of an Ivy league university in the United States. This horrendous act by SJP must not go with impunity. Lame excuses on the basis of free speech or creating political satire must not be the basis of exoneration. We, as a pro-Israel student group, will not deny the current geopolitical complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are always eager to promote dialogue and engagement among students on campus to foster a pathway to peace. However, we shall not remain silent about SJP’s use of this blatantly distasteful and anti -Semitic imagery. We strongly condemn this disgusting act by SJP and demand proper disciplinary actions from Columbia University. SSI Columbia has already filed an official complaint to the school. We plead all of you to take a strong stance against this. Do not hesitate to reach out to the office of the President at bollinger@columbia.edu.  Please send us a message or email us for more information. You can reach us at SSIColumbiaU@gmail.com.  Also, join us today for a discussion on BDS, Free Speech, Terrorism with Benjamin Ryberg, the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Research at The Lawfare Project - 7:30 PM - Pupin 424 FB link: https://www.facebook.com/events/2280119565575293/ Facebook: SSI Columbia Instagram: @ssi_columbia Twitter: @SSIcolumbia