Pro-Palestinian Crybabies on Campus

Hat tip Frontpage Magazine

I am cross-posting an article in Frontpage Magazine by Richard L. Cravatts on the topic of the pro-Palestinian "crybullies" on our college campuses. The article is spot on because it falls in line with my own experiences and observations at UC Irvine during the period 1998-2016 when I taught there part time-and since leaving. First, Mr. Cravatts'article.

 https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/ascent-crybully-campus-anti-israel-activism-richard-l-cravatts/

Fousesquawk comment: One of the major factors that led me to begin this blog in 2007 was the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel campaign at UC Irvine, not to mention countless other campuses around North America. It astounds me that the pro-Palestinian crowd, students, professors, and community activists, could possibly complain about being victims of oppression or bullying on campus when it is they who rule the roost in academia. The plain fact is that it is the pro-Israel Jewish students who are subject to bullying and censorship. Over the past 15 years, I have attended many anti-Israel events on campus. Not once have I seen any of the speakers shouted down. They enjoy complete freedom of speech (which I also defend). It is the pro-Israel events and their speakers who can expect to be shouted down and disrupted, as I have personally observed. That includes the infamous 2010 disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech at UC Irvine which was disrupted by the Muslim Student Union. I was present, and it was disgusting. Eleven students were arrested, charged, and successfully prosecuted. (There should have been more.)

In fact, the only thing that the little rascals of the Muslim Student Union/Association and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and their invited speakers have to fear is that some wise guy like me will show up and videotape their hate-filled, Jew-hating words and ask them a critical question. Many times they have tried to prevent me from video-taping their events, Only once have they succeeded (in 2014) because the campus cops who responded did not understand the law, after which the UCIPD apologized to me.

The plain fact is that the pro-Palestinian movement on college campuses, including UC Irvine, routinely uses tactics of disruption, intimidation, and bullying against pro-Israel students. All too often, this has crossed the line from simple criticism of Israel's policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians into sheer Jew-hatred and anti-Semitic rhetoric. How many times has Amir Abdel Malik Ali, a radical Oakland imam, spoken at UC Irvine (and other UC campuses)? Every time, he has delivered anti-Jewish invective. To be fair, he has not spoken at UC Irvine in several years. In his last appearance (2010), the UC Irvine chancellor issued a campus-wide statement condemning his speech though Ali's name was never mentioned, nor exactly what he said especially against Jews. (I was present then as well.)

So here we have these anti-Israel activists, students, professors, and outside community activists, who have succeeded in making universities unsafe and/or uncomfortable for Jewish students, complaining that it is they who are being picked on. Nonsense. It is they who do the harassing. It is they who engage in disruption. It is they who engage in bullying. It is they who try to get Jewish students off of student government. It is they who do not respect free speech. It is they who sponsor annual weeks of hateful rhetoric, not just against Israel and Zionists, but against Jews as well. It is they who invite hateful speakers like Malik Ali and so many others I can't list them all here.

It is they who have so badly damaged the reputations of so many universities as being centers of anti-Semitism. And to this, one must also assign blame to university administrators who are so cowardly or disinterested that they have allowed all this to fester. Again, the list of universities is too long to list here. They are hotbeds of left-wing, anti-Israel, anti-West agitation with leftist professors who are indoctrinating our children. Some of these misfits are even of Jewish background themselves, but they see fit to link arms and march with the very people who would destroy the Jewish state as well as any Jews who were left. They could care less about how Jewish students who support Israel are being treated. In addition, take just about any Middle East Studies department on any campus and it is all about pan-Arab, anti-Israel, anti-West agitation. Many are funded by countries like Saudi Arabia.

In other words, those who are active in the pro-Palestinian movement are on friendly ground on our university campuses. They have nothing to complain about. They are bullies, and like bullies, they cry when you stand up to them.