31 College Israel Student Organizations to UCLA Chancellor Block

The following statement was sent to UCLA Chancellor Block and the UC Regents on November 8th, 2018 in protest of UCLA hosting the National Students for Justice in Palestine conference.

November 8th, 2018

Dear Chancellor Block,

We, the 31 undersigned registered student groups from colleges across the United States, share the Jewish community’s dismay that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) will host the national conference of a violent organization – Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – which fuels campus anti-Semitism and which seeks the elimination of the world’s only Jewish-majority country. Until students are no longer harassed and threatened by SJP activists, UCLA should not be associated with this hate group with its history of violence on California campuses.

SJP violates UCLA’s own policies and principles, particularly the school’s “Principles of Community” which states: “We do not tolerate acts of discrimination, harassment, profiling or other conduct causing harm to individuals on the basis of expression of race, color, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religious beliefs, political preference, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship or national origin, among other personal characteristics. Such conduct violates UCLA’s Principles of Community and may result in imposition of sanctions according to campus policies governing the conduct of students, staff and faculty.”

Just last May, UCLA was the scene of SJP violence: Jewish, Kurdish and Armenian students were physically and verbally abused for sharing their perspectives on campus. In July, an SJP activist at Stanford made national headlines for calling for violence against pro-Israel students, while last year SJP was suspended for two years from the University of California, Irvine for the group’s attacks on students.

According to FBI statistics, Jews are the primary target of religious hate crimes in the United States. Other objective data has shown that campuses with anti-Israel groups such as SJP are overwhelmingly more likely to have anti-Semitic activity than schools which do not have a substantial SJP presence. The two phenomena are connected. SJP is therefore a threat to the physical safety of the Jewish community.

The anti-Semitism of one man, Robert Bowers, led him to murder 11 Americans in a Pittsburgh synagogue simply because they were Jewish. It is absolutely critical that UCLA take the anti-Semitic rhetoric of SJP members seriously. Robert Bowers wrote on social media that “Jews are the children of Satan.” Samer Alhato, one of the many anti-Semites set to speak or attend the conference tweeted, “Anyone been to Jerusalem? I hated seeing a bunch of Jews
there but other than that it’s a beautiful city.”

UCLA should live up to its formal Principles of Community, and take a principled stand against anti-Semitism by distancing itself from this veritable organization of hate. Violent activist groups, such as SJP, are a corruption of institutions of higher learning.

Thank you,

1. Aggies for Israel, University of California, Davis
2. Badger Alliance for Israel, University of Wisconsin-Madison
3. Binghamton University Zionist Organization
4. Bobcats for Israel, Ohio University
5. Bull Dogs for Israel, Brooklyn College
6. Cornellians for Israel, Cornell University
7. Ducks for Israel, University of Oregon
8. Eagles for Israel, Boston College
9. Emet Israel, University of Miami
10. Emory-Israel Public Affairs Committee, Emory University
11. Friends of Israel at Rockland Communit College
12. Huskies for Israel, Northeastern University
13. I-Team, San Francisco State University
14. Indiana Israel Public Affairs Committee, Indiana University
15. Israel Dialogue Education and Advocacy (North Carolina)
16. Israel on Campus, McGill University
17. Israel Student Association, Queens College
18. Israeli Student Association, York University
19. Jewish Leadership Association (Long Island University)
20. Knights for Israel, University of Central Florida
21. Matadors for Israel, California State University, Northridge
22. Mustangs United for Israel, California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo
23. Oral Roberts University United For Israel Club
24. Owls for Israel, Florida Atlantic University
25. Pirates for Israel, East Carolina University
26. Slugs for Israel, University of California Santa Cruz
27. Students Supporting Israel at Columbia University
28. Students Supporting Israel at Santa Monica College
29. Students Supporting Israel at University of California, Los Angeles
30. Swarthmore Students for Israel, Swarthmore College
31. Tikvah, University of California, Berkeley

CC: UC Board of Regents

Contributed by CAMERA staff.