BDS at THE Brown University

Spring may not yet be in the air, but once again, we have a university tying itself into knots with what has become an annual affair: Whether or not to pass a resolution urging the university to divest from Israel and/or any companies that do business with Israel. (BDS-Boycott, Divest and Sanctions). In this case, the governing body of Brown, the Corporation of Brown, is being pressured to divest. As usual, the black hand of Students for Justice in Palestine, a nation-wide student group of little Brown Shirts, is behind the effort.

In the below article written for the Jewish News Syndicate, Bassem Eid, himself a Palestinian journalist and human rights activist, points out how the BDS movement on college campuses not only stirs more anti-Semitism, but actually hurts Palestinians in the West Bank who depend on Israel for their jobs.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/stop-hate-at-brown-university/

Brown University is no stranger to this issue and the resultant anti-Semitism directed at Jewish students that invariably results. I have seen it myself during my years teaching part-time at UC Irvine. Twice I have heard the lies propagated by BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti when he spoke at UC Irvine and UC Riverside.

When I was researching my book on the history of Erlangen, a town in Germany where I was stationed in the US Army in the late 1960s, I learned that the university was the first where Nazi students had formed a majority in student government, a fact Hitler acknowledged with gratitude when he spoke there prior to taking power. Because of that, the Friederich-Alexander University in Erlangen had earned the moniker, "the brown university".

Since I have written several times about problems at Brown over the years, I have bestowed the same moniker on Brown-hence, The Brown University, much like Ohio Staters like to refer to The Ohio State University. Not that Brown is the worst university in this regard-their name makes them a convenient target-but the moniker, in my view does fit, nonetheless. 

The Amcha Initiative is an organization dedicated to fighting campus anti-Semitism and documenting incidents and problems at universities across the country. From their online data base, here is the file for Brown.

In fairness to Brown, I would be surprised if the university were to follow the wishes of SJP and the other little rascals on campus. Universities have routinely-with only one exception that I am aware of-rejected any approved BDS resolutions. But that universities allow this issue to fester, not only tying up student governments on a regular basis, but stirring hate, anger, and division on campus as well, is what I don't understand. Yes, there is the issue of free speech and the fact that universities are supposed to foster independent thinking about every issue under the sun. But would they be so indulgent with a student group who, for example, wanted to pass resolutions that would incite anti-Mexican or anti-black sentiments on campus? I think not.