A friend asked whether halal food was made available to participants in the J-Street conference. This pursuant the complete absence of kosher at an event nominally for Jews ("pro-Israel Jews"), and allegedly organized by Jews, members of a group which insists, despite evidence to the contrary, that it is pro-Israel.
No kosher food available.
Kosher, it would seem, discouraged.
It might attract undesirables, you know.
Halal was probably not available either.
I do not think that Maen Rashid Areikat keeps 'glat halal'.
At least not in public.
It would blow his cover.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/11/plo-ambassador-to-us-advocates.html
Among the other "pro-Israel moderates" to grace the event:
Amjad Atallah
Nadia Bilbassy
Mustafa Barghouti
Naomi Chazan
Suhail Khan
Michael Lerner
Daniel Sokatch
Again, I don't know whether any of them keep halal.
I suspect that the need for dissimulation allows them a certain amount of leeway on that score.
SURREAL AND PHANTASMIC
I am hard put to find ANY indication that J-Street is in whatever way pro-Isreal.
If my readers can cite facts to the contrary, no matter how figmentive and circumstantial, nay Orwellian even, I would be most keen to hear it.
This request is specifically directed at Isaac Luria.
Because he keeps e-mailing me stuff.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Tayere Reb Luria, use this link for your response (or any questions you may have
about life, the universe, and everything), zeit azoi git:
LETTER BOX.
Even your correspondence will be kept in confidence. Yours too, Ms. Susskind. B'emmes.
==========================================================================
Showing posts with label Zionism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zionism. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Friday, December 05, 2008
DAN KLIMAN
If you haven't already done so, please read Zombie's post about Dan Kliman. It is an excellent source for updated information on the case.
Zombie knew certain aspects of Dan better than almost anybody else possibly could - both had received death-threats for making photos and recordings of the hatred and extremism evident at protests in the Bay Area.
[Zombie is, according to reliable reports, on an extremist hit-list. This is the Bay Area, and we have more unbalanced people here than many other places.]
Zombie's post:
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=110
Click: R.I.P. Dan Kliman.
Zombie's main page:
http://www.zombietime.com/
Click: zombietime.
[A great resource about public displays of insanity in the Bay Area - see mention of photos and recordings above.]
OyBay also posted about it:
http://oybay.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/the-unfolding-story-of-the-death-of-dan-kliman-zl/
Click: Unfolding story.
At this point the investigation continues. The SFPD have homicide investigators on the case, but still incline towards calling it an accident. Results will not be known for a while, and almost no information is being made public - that is standard procedure, by the way.
This may lead some to indulge in paranoid conspiracy theories - 'He was murdered for being a gay vegetarian rightwing leftwing purple-striped pro-Israel cat-lover from Mars!' - and others to worry about a cover-up. Both approaches are somewhat unnecessary.
And I note, pursuant thereto, that a previous post ( was Dan Kliman murdered? ) seems to have attracted some remarkable commenters. I am not entirely sure that absolutely all of them are sane. A few of them are probably dangerous.
Feel free to demonstrate where in the spectrum you belong.
===========================================
3:54 PM 12/05/08 update:
This article in the TimesUnion (Albany, NY) is informative.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=747007&category=REGION
There are a few details in that piece that I have not seen elsewhere.
Cinnamon Stillwell has also posted about Dan Kliman.
Here:
http://cinnamonstillwell.blogspot.com/2008/12/rip-dan-kliman.html
It is probably worth your while to bookmark Cinnamon Stillwell's blog, as there is often something interesting there.
http://cinnamonstillwell.blogspot.com/
Of course, if you are one of the anti-Israel trolls, you will not like what you find there. Oh well. Life is tough, isn't it?
Zombie knew certain aspects of Dan better than almost anybody else possibly could - both had received death-threats for making photos and recordings of the hatred and extremism evident at protests in the Bay Area.
[Zombie is, according to reliable reports, on an extremist hit-list. This is the Bay Area, and we have more unbalanced people here than many other places.]
Zombie's post:
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=110
Click: R.I.P. Dan Kliman.
Zombie's main page:
http://www.zombietime.com/
Click: zombietime.
[A great resource about public displays of insanity in the Bay Area - see mention of photos and recordings above.]
OyBay also posted about it:
http://oybay.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/the-unfolding-story-of-the-death-of-dan-kliman-zl/
Click: Unfolding story.
At this point the investigation continues. The SFPD have homicide investigators on the case, but still incline towards calling it an accident. Results will not be known for a while, and almost no information is being made public - that is standard procedure, by the way.
This may lead some to indulge in paranoid conspiracy theories - 'He was murdered for being a gay vegetarian rightwing leftwing purple-striped pro-Israel cat-lover from Mars!' - and others to worry about a cover-up. Both approaches are somewhat unnecessary.
And I note, pursuant thereto, that a previous post ( was Dan Kliman murdered? ) seems to have attracted some remarkable commenters. I am not entirely sure that absolutely all of them are sane. A few of them are probably dangerous.
Feel free to demonstrate where in the spectrum you belong.
===========================================
3:54 PM 12/05/08 update:
This article in the TimesUnion (Albany, NY) is informative.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=747007&category=REGION
There are a few details in that piece that I have not seen elsewhere.
Cinnamon Stillwell has also posted about Dan Kliman.
Here:
http://cinnamonstillwell.blogspot.com/2008/12/rip-dan-kliman.html
It is probably worth your while to bookmark Cinnamon Stillwell's blog, as there is often something interesting there.
http://cinnamonstillwell.blogspot.com/
Of course, if you are one of the anti-Israel trolls, you will not like what you find there. Oh well. Life is tough, isn't it?
Friday, November 21, 2008
TIKVAH: VICTIM OF DOUBLE STANDARDS AT U.C.
Background: During my years at Berkeley the campus environment was already problematic. Since then it has gotten much more so. The past few years have been "interesting". Last week, things came to a head.
MESSAGE FROM THE ZIONIST STUDENTS AT U.C. BERKELEY
Reproduced here as a courtesy. This blogger both sympathizes with them and admires their courageous stand, especially in the face of apathy and hatred - anti-Semitism is endemic among the university population in Berkeley, and virtually institutionalized.
Tikvah: victim of double standard at U.C.
By John E. Moghtader & Elodie Resseguie
Long a hotbed of anti-Israel activity, U.C. Berkeley has barely had a strong pro-Israel presence on campus. Until now, with Tikvah: Students for Israel, the Zionist student group at U.C. Berkeley.
We are the group that stepped up to protest when academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt visited Cal in October 2007 to hawk their book, a nefarious smear job titled "The Jewish Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy."
We were also there last month when the virulently anti-Israel academic Norman Finkelstein came to speak.
Before the lecture, we respectfully distributed our literature outside. Once inside, Finkelstein’s level of anti-Semitic vitriol prompted a walkout of Tikvah students and others not associated with our group. We shouted out our opinions while exiting, as the crowd hurled expletives at us. Finkelstein and his colleague then continued delivering their insulting lies.
As a result, the dean of students is now seeking to discipline Tikvah and individual students for an "offense" which in the past barely warranted mention when undertaken by student groups involved in anti-Israel activities.
For example, when Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes tried to speak on campus several years ago, he was shouted down by members of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association. At the time the chancellor said, "Uncivil behavior, lamentable as it is, is not a crime, nor is it a violation of the Code of Student Conduct." No disciplinary action was taken against SJP or its members for that incident, nor when Nonie Darwish was likewise shouted down a year ago.
Only last week, SJP disrupted an innovative Zionist hip-hop concert on campus. Even though no Jewish students were involved in the physical altercation that ensued (contrary to what was reported in the school paper and what SJP claims), we wait to see how the university will deal with the assailants from SJP.
Other violations by SJP of the U.C. code of conduct — such as blocking of pedestrian traffic with demonstrations, the brandishing of fake firearms, physical harassment and intimidation of Jewish students — were presented to the dean of students but have been ignored.
What we see here is a double standard, one for the rest of campus and another for the Jews and those who actively support Israel.
Our tax dollars support the U.C. system, and Jewish donors are very prominent in supporting the U.C. campuses. It’s time for the Jewish community to become aware of what is happening at our university.
Meanwhile, Tikvah has a consistent record of positive, pro-Israel programming on campus. Until our inception a year ago, there was no substantive pro-Israel voice on campus. We changed that, attracting students of various religious and cultural backgrounds to our cause. We have collaborated with many off-campus groups, including the Israeli Consulate, Israel Peace Initiative, S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, U.C. Berkeley Chabad, CAMERA, StandWithUs, JIMENA and more. Once again Jews walk with pride across Sproul Plaza.
We have also sponsored many successful events. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we took out ads in the student newspaper highlighting the civil rights leader’s strong support of the Jewish state. We have hosted lectures by Dennis Prager, Stanley Urman, Israeli Vice Consul Ishmael Khaldi (who spoke about being the highest-ranking Muslim in the Israeli foreign service) and others.
Last year we held two weeklong programs brimming with pro-Israel activities: Israel Peace and Diversity Week and Israel@60 Week (which included a widely attended on-campus Holocaust memorial on Yom HaShoah). We just finished our latest effort, Israel Liberation Week, and we have also been a positive influence on student government, with John Moghtader, a current senator in the Associated Students of the University of California, leading our group.
Regarding the Jewish Student Union and Berkeley Hillel, we must clarify misstatements that ran in j. Even though Tikvah is the largest and most active Jewish student group on campus, we have been allocated precisely zero dollars from the JSU this school year.
While the JSU and Berkeley Hillel remain silent, we are the ones on Sproul Plaza and around campus protesting the Finkelsteins of the world, educating students about Israel, organizing rallies and holding Holocaust memorials.
We were dumbfounded to find that Hillel is presuming to play some role in all this, as Tikvah has never been affiliated with Berkeley Hillel, nor have we ever received funds from them for any of our activities.
We are a grassroots student group. Our goal is to make sure Jewish students do not have to be subjected to a hostile anti-Israel, anti-Semitic environment on campus. That’s our bottom line.
John E. Moghtader, a third-year undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley, is an Associated Students of the University of California senator and president of Tikvah.
Elodie Resseguie is a fourth-year undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley and is on the Tikvah executive board. To learn more about Tikvah, e-mail tikvahsfi@gmail.com or visit tikvahsfi.blogspot.com.
=============================================
NOTE: This blogger frankly admits bias. My sentiments are pro-Israel, and necessarily negative about the Arab cause. However, if a member of the other side wishes to write a rational, well-balanced counterpoint, I will be more than willing to post it. Just bear in mind that it is my blog, and therefore my standards that need to be met.
Something eloquent, even if I think it utter balderdash, will slip in on appreciation alone.
I can always add comment below it disagreeing with what whatever you write. But I like eloquence. And chutzpah.
That said, the Arab and Filistinist side do at times make good points, and I do not wish to see comments utterly damning them or painting them as all black. Please reserve that for their simple-minded and depraved supporters.
=============================================
Friday November 21st., 2008 - 1:48 PM Pacific Standard Time
ADDENDUM: The message above by John E. Moghtader and Elodie Resseguie has now been cross-posted over at Jameel's place The Muqata.
Please see this post: TIKVAH STUDENTS AT U.C. BERKELEY
Please give Tikvah your attention and support, go visit their site, and blogroll it. Thank you.
MESSAGE FROM THE ZIONIST STUDENTS AT U.C. BERKELEY
Reproduced here as a courtesy. This blogger both sympathizes with them and admires their courageous stand, especially in the face of apathy and hatred - anti-Semitism is endemic among the university population in Berkeley, and virtually institutionalized.
Tikvah: victim of double standard at U.C.
By John E. Moghtader & Elodie Resseguie
Long a hotbed of anti-Israel activity, U.C. Berkeley has barely had a strong pro-Israel presence on campus. Until now, with Tikvah: Students for Israel, the Zionist student group at U.C. Berkeley.
We are the group that stepped up to protest when academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt visited Cal in October 2007 to hawk their book, a nefarious smear job titled "The Jewish Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy."
We were also there last month when the virulently anti-Israel academic Norman Finkelstein came to speak.
Before the lecture, we respectfully distributed our literature outside. Once inside, Finkelstein’s level of anti-Semitic vitriol prompted a walkout of Tikvah students and others not associated with our group. We shouted out our opinions while exiting, as the crowd hurled expletives at us. Finkelstein and his colleague then continued delivering their insulting lies.
As a result, the dean of students is now seeking to discipline Tikvah and individual students for an "offense" which in the past barely warranted mention when undertaken by student groups involved in anti-Israel activities.
For example, when Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes tried to speak on campus several years ago, he was shouted down by members of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association. At the time the chancellor said, "Uncivil behavior, lamentable as it is, is not a crime, nor is it a violation of the Code of Student Conduct." No disciplinary action was taken against SJP or its members for that incident, nor when Nonie Darwish was likewise shouted down a year ago.
Only last week, SJP disrupted an innovative Zionist hip-hop concert on campus. Even though no Jewish students were involved in the physical altercation that ensued (contrary to what was reported in the school paper and what SJP claims), we wait to see how the university will deal with the assailants from SJP.
Other violations by SJP of the U.C. code of conduct — such as blocking of pedestrian traffic with demonstrations, the brandishing of fake firearms, physical harassment and intimidation of Jewish students — were presented to the dean of students but have been ignored.
What we see here is a double standard, one for the rest of campus and another for the Jews and those who actively support Israel.
Our tax dollars support the U.C. system, and Jewish donors are very prominent in supporting the U.C. campuses. It’s time for the Jewish community to become aware of what is happening at our university.
Meanwhile, Tikvah has a consistent record of positive, pro-Israel programming on campus. Until our inception a year ago, there was no substantive pro-Israel voice on campus. We changed that, attracting students of various religious and cultural backgrounds to our cause. We have collaborated with many off-campus groups, including the Israeli Consulate, Israel Peace Initiative, S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, U.C. Berkeley Chabad, CAMERA, StandWithUs, JIMENA and more. Once again Jews walk with pride across Sproul Plaza.
We have also sponsored many successful events. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we took out ads in the student newspaper highlighting the civil rights leader’s strong support of the Jewish state. We have hosted lectures by Dennis Prager, Stanley Urman, Israeli Vice Consul Ishmael Khaldi (who spoke about being the highest-ranking Muslim in the Israeli foreign service) and others.
Last year we held two weeklong programs brimming with pro-Israel activities: Israel Peace and Diversity Week and Israel@60 Week (which included a widely attended on-campus Holocaust memorial on Yom HaShoah). We just finished our latest effort, Israel Liberation Week, and we have also been a positive influence on student government, with John Moghtader, a current senator in the Associated Students of the University of California, leading our group.
Regarding the Jewish Student Union and Berkeley Hillel, we must clarify misstatements that ran in j. Even though Tikvah is the largest and most active Jewish student group on campus, we have been allocated precisely zero dollars from the JSU this school year.
While the JSU and Berkeley Hillel remain silent, we are the ones on Sproul Plaza and around campus protesting the Finkelsteins of the world, educating students about Israel, organizing rallies and holding Holocaust memorials.
We were dumbfounded to find that Hillel is presuming to play some role in all this, as Tikvah has never been affiliated with Berkeley Hillel, nor have we ever received funds from them for any of our activities.
We are a grassroots student group. Our goal is to make sure Jewish students do not have to be subjected to a hostile anti-Israel, anti-Semitic environment on campus. That’s our bottom line.
John E. Moghtader, a third-year undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley, is an Associated Students of the University of California senator and president of Tikvah.
Elodie Resseguie is a fourth-year undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley and is on the Tikvah executive board. To learn more about Tikvah, e-mail tikvahsfi@gmail.com or visit tikvahsfi.blogspot.com.
=============================================
NOTE: This blogger frankly admits bias. My sentiments are pro-Israel, and necessarily negative about the Arab cause. However, if a member of the other side wishes to write a rational, well-balanced counterpoint, I will be more than willing to post it. Just bear in mind that it is my blog, and therefore my standards that need to be met.
Something eloquent, even if I think it utter balderdash, will slip in on appreciation alone.
I can always add comment below it disagreeing with what whatever you write. But I like eloquence. And chutzpah.
That said, the Arab and Filistinist side do at times make good points, and I do not wish to see comments utterly damning them or painting them as all black. Please reserve that for their simple-minded and depraved supporters.
=============================================
Friday November 21st., 2008 - 1:48 PM Pacific Standard Time
ADDENDUM: The message above by John E. Moghtader and Elodie Resseguie has now been cross-posted over at Jameel's place The Muqata.
Please see this post: TIKVAH STUDENTS AT U.C. BERKELEY
Please give Tikvah your attention and support, go visit their site, and blogroll it. Thank you.
Friday, November 14, 2008
PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS ATTACK JEWS ON CAMPUS
Follows a statement by the pro-Israel students at UC Berkeley regarding the violence directed at Jews on campus last night.
Please disseminate widely.
Members of Students for Justice in Palestine Attack Jews at UC Berkeley Hip-Hop Concert
(Berkeley, CA- November 13, 2008)
We, the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group at Cal, are deeply concerned by the latest in a series of attacks on Jewish and pro-Israel students at UC Berkeley perpetrated by members of Students for Justice in Palestine. On the night of November 13, 2008 at around 6:00 PM, members of Students for Justice in Palestine disrupted our hip-hop concert that celebrated the Jewish connection to the land of Israel. Then they attacked students who asked them to stop their disruption.
Three members of the Students for Justice in Palestine illegally draped large Palestinian flags behind the stage of the concert, which was part of Israel Liberation Week. Yehuda De Sa (one of the performers), Cal alumnus Gabe Weiner, and current ASUC Senator John Moghtader walked to the balcony from which the flags were hanging and asked the students to remove the flags as they misrepresented the concert's message. The SJP members immediately became hostile at this request and current SJP leader Husam Zakharia instigated a physical altercation by striking Weiner on the head. As Weiner and the performer tried to defend themselves, Moghtader stood away from the scuffle and then made a successful effort to break up the fight.
Members of Students for Justice in Palestine shouted anti-Semitic epithets referencing the Holocaust throughout the ordeal. Zakharia and others from SJP were detained by the police and charged with battery. Citizens' arrests were filed against SJP members who took part in the altercation.
The violence, intimidation, and harassment exhibited by members of Students for Justice in Palestine at the concert is only one act in a pattern of similar behavior that they have exhibited towards Jewish and pro-Israel students on this campus. Last year, multiple charges were filed against SJP and some of its members citing harassment, violence, intimidation, and violation of numerous other campus rules. These charges all went ignored by Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard.
We call on state officials, the President of the University of California, the Chancellor, the Dean of Students, faculty, and the student body to take a unified stand against the continued harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students on this campus, particularly by members of Students for Justice in Palestine.
----The Zionist Freedom Alliance Student Group at Cal
This blogger's afterword:
It has not been safe to be pro-Israel on campus in years. Bay Area universities have become, with the collaboration of administrators and the complaisance of many students, hotbeds of hatred and opposition to free-speech. I would have expected both the faculties and the officials in charge to have countered this, but it has become evident that most are willing panderers to extremists, the rest being both in denial, and in several cases outright anti-Semitic themselves.
To the Zionist students at UC Berkeley: Keep up the good work, boys, we're proud of you.
To my readers: Please show your support for the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group at Cal. They struggle against a vast array of anti-Semitic hate groups and front organizations, and bear the brunt of a battle for freedom of speech and diversity of opinion. Their opponents do not shy away from violence, intimidation, lies, and character assassination.
Please disseminate widely.
Members of Students for Justice in Palestine Attack Jews at UC Berkeley Hip-Hop Concert
(Berkeley, CA- November 13, 2008)
We, the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group at Cal, are deeply concerned by the latest in a series of attacks on Jewish and pro-Israel students at UC Berkeley perpetrated by members of Students for Justice in Palestine. On the night of November 13, 2008 at around 6:00 PM, members of Students for Justice in Palestine disrupted our hip-hop concert that celebrated the Jewish connection to the land of Israel. Then they attacked students who asked them to stop their disruption.
Three members of the Students for Justice in Palestine illegally draped large Palestinian flags behind the stage of the concert, which was part of Israel Liberation Week. Yehuda De Sa (one of the performers), Cal alumnus Gabe Weiner, and current ASUC Senator John Moghtader walked to the balcony from which the flags were hanging and asked the students to remove the flags as they misrepresented the concert's message. The SJP members immediately became hostile at this request and current SJP leader Husam Zakharia instigated a physical altercation by striking Weiner on the head. As Weiner and the performer tried to defend themselves, Moghtader stood away from the scuffle and then made a successful effort to break up the fight.
Members of Students for Justice in Palestine shouted anti-Semitic epithets referencing the Holocaust throughout the ordeal. Zakharia and others from SJP were detained by the police and charged with battery. Citizens' arrests were filed against SJP members who took part in the altercation.
The violence, intimidation, and harassment exhibited by members of Students for Justice in Palestine at the concert is only one act in a pattern of similar behavior that they have exhibited towards Jewish and pro-Israel students on this campus. Last year, multiple charges were filed against SJP and some of its members citing harassment, violence, intimidation, and violation of numerous other campus rules. These charges all went ignored by Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard.
We call on state officials, the President of the University of California, the Chancellor, the Dean of Students, faculty, and the student body to take a unified stand against the continued harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students on this campus, particularly by members of Students for Justice in Palestine.
----The Zionist Freedom Alliance Student Group at Cal
This blogger's afterword:
It has not been safe to be pro-Israel on campus in years. Bay Area universities have become, with the collaboration of administrators and the complaisance of many students, hotbeds of hatred and opposition to free-speech. I would have expected both the faculties and the officials in charge to have countered this, but it has become evident that most are willing panderers to extremists, the rest being both in denial, and in several cases outright anti-Semitic themselves.
To the Zionist students at UC Berkeley: Keep up the good work, boys, we're proud of you.
To my readers: Please show your support for the Zionist Freedom Alliance student group at Cal. They struggle against a vast array of anti-Semitic hate groups and front organizations, and bear the brunt of a battle for freedom of speech and diversity of opinion. Their opponents do not shy away from violence, intimidation, lies, and character assassination.
PRO-PALESTINIAN PROVOCATION ON UC CAMPUS
The Daily Californian deliberately lies.
What happened was a violent provocation by Students for Justice in Palestine. What was immediately rushed onto the internet was a deliberate distortion of the facts and an attempt to paint Jews as violent racists.
This is not the first time that the Daily Californian has been caught violating the truth and promoting an extremist pro-Palestinian agenda.
This is the version originally posted:
SJP statement on violent anti-Palestinian attack on campus
November 14, 2008-- (Berkeley, CA)
Contact: admin@calsjp.org
Student organization "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP) is extremely concerned about a violent attack on three Arab Palestinian students on the evening of November 13, 2008 around 6:00PM, and calls upon campus administrators and authorities to immediately investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice.
According to dozens of witnesses on the scene, three organizers for the "Zionist Freedom Alliance" attacked one male and two female Arab students who stood nearby the event holding a Palestinian flag. The assailants were identified by the Daily Californian to include current ASUC student senator John Moghtader, Cal alumnus Gabe Weiner, and performer Yehuda De sa. The paper also reported that all three had been cited by the UC Police Department on several counts of battery.
The three Arab students had decided to display the flag as a silent statement after hearing offensive anti-Arab remarks at the concert. They did not attempt to interfere with the event. Shortly after they put their flags on display, the assailants were seen angrily rushing into Eshleman Hall and disturbing several meetings to reach the protestors who were located on the 2nd floor balcony. Students on the scene report that the men were yelling racial epithets directed at Arabs and Palestinians.
When the assailants arrived at the balcony, they attempted to push the protestors aside and take their flags away. Witnesses claim that the assailants eventually knocked one protestor against the balcony railing, with a scuffle ensuing where two Arab students, one male and one female, were hit several times. Within a few minutes the assailants began to rush away, though a small group of their supporters had followed them upstairs. Throughout the process the assailants and their supporters were also overheard making remarks like, "we're about to take care of some f***ing Palestinians," and "you Arab dogs, we will kill you."
The group of assailants was eventually pushed away by a crowd of students who were waiting for the police to arrive and collect statements. One of the assailants accused his victims of assaulting him, causing citations to be issued on the victims despite the testimony of several witnesses on the scene refuting the claim. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt during the ordeal.
SJP is concerned by the willful and concerted escalation to violence by these individuals, who are members of student organization Tikvah. SJP disagrees with the Daily Californian's characterization of the event as the result of "tensions between Palestinian and Jewish students." In fact, the incident was isolated, and the assailants are not representative of the Jewish community at Cal. After a series of similar threatening encounters with a handful of individuals this semester, SJP members began to document these incidents. Two of the attackers, John Moghtader and Gabe Weiner, were involved in another outburst at a campus lecture last month that led the Jewish Student Union to place Tikvah on probation [1, 2].
SJP calls upon campus administrators to pursue the incident immediately, and for students to remain committed to resolving their political differences through peaceful dialogue and discussion.
This is the version subsequently put on the Daily Cal site:
Fight Erupts at Israel Liberation Week Concert
By Will Kane and Vincent Quan
Daily Cal Staff Writers
Friday, November 14, 2008
Category: News > City > Crime
A previous version of this story was removed by editors after we became aware that some facts in the story were incorrect. That story has been replaced with this updated version.
The Daily Californian holds itself to high journalistic standards and always strives to produce objective and accurate content. The Daily Cal follows the ethics policy laid out by the Society of Professional Journalists, which is available at http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.
If you have any comments or questions regarding this article or our policies, please contact me at editor@dailycal.org.
-Bryan Thomas, Editor in Chief & President
Tensions between Palestinian and Jewish students on campus ran high Thursday night after a fight broke out on an Eshleman Hall balcony overlooking a concert promoting Israel Liberation Week.
At about 5:45 p.m., as rap artists performed on Lower Sproul Plaza, three Palestinian students hung up two Palestinian flags on the building's second floor balcony, witnesses said. The students said they were responding to the anti-Palestinian lyrics they heard.
Upon seeing the flags, ASUC Senator John Moghtader, former senator Gabe Weiner and Yehuda De sa, the concert's opening act, went up to the balcony in an attempt to remove the flags. All three men are Jewish.
At that point, a fight broke out, police said. Witnesses added that the fight prompted up to half a dozen members of the audience to run up to the second floor. Police said two students and one non-student were cited for battery. Weiner was one of those students.
"I went up to the second floor because the message they were sending was an abomination to our national rights," Weiner said.
Senior Husam Zakharia, who was hit in the face during the altercation, said the rap lyrics he heard spurred him to hang up the Palestinian flag.
"We're going to go up and we're going to put up our Palestinian flag in silent protest-exercising our freedom of speech to say we're here and we exist," he said, adding that he was surprised by the violent reaction.
A number of UCPD officers and Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard spent at least two hours interviewing students and witnesses, attempting to piece together the series of events.
According to police, the fight was related to incidents of vandalism earlier this semester. In September, a bus stop sign outside Eshleman Hall promoting Israel was vandalized. That vandalism was followed by pro-Israel graffiti in a classroom in Dwinelle Hall, increasing tension among Israeli and Palestinian advocacy groups on campus.
As the altercation on Thursday night took place, Eshleman Hall's second floor was full of ASUC officials including President Roxanne Winston.
Many senators who saw the fight expressed shock that such an incident could happen among students, most notably former and current ASUC senators.
"I'm very strong now in my sentiments in that there should be immediate disciplinary action," said ASUC Senator Kifah Shah. "If it culminates to violence where three members of SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) are hit ... then that's just ridiculous."
Tags: Student Life, crime
Article Link: http://www.dailycal.org/article/103566
Background: As the Daily Cal is well aware, Students for Justice in Palestine has over the past several years promoted an atmosphere of intolerance on campus, in which Jewish and Israeli students, and their supporters, have been threatened and intimidated. Their actions have carried over into the Berkeley street, and have resulted in several incidents in which a pro-Israel view has been shouted down, speakers have been insulted and manhandled, and property vandalized.
This is mirrored by similar acts at other university campuses in California, notably at SF State and at UC Santa Cruz. School administrators and student body functionaries have not only been unwilling to step in, several are on record as stating that Zionism has no place on campus, and that Jewish support for Israel is, ultimately, the cause of such friction.
The atmosphere on the Berkeley campus was already nauseatingly anti-Semitic and poisonous before this provocation; it remains to be seen how much more vile it will become. This blogger does not expect any significant attempt by authorities and campus police to get to the truth of the matter. Especially given the increasing financial influence of certain foreign regimes in academia.
We wish the Jewish students on California campuses God-speed and the best of luck. It is a foregone conclusion that pro-Palestinian provocateurs will seek to make the academic environment even more poisonous and dangerous for Jewish students than it ever was.
What happened was a violent provocation by Students for Justice in Palestine. What was immediately rushed onto the internet was a deliberate distortion of the facts and an attempt to paint Jews as violent racists.
This is not the first time that the Daily Californian has been caught violating the truth and promoting an extremist pro-Palestinian agenda.
This is the version originally posted:
SJP statement on violent anti-Palestinian attack on campus
November 14, 2008-- (Berkeley, CA)
Contact: admin@calsjp.org
Student organization "Students for Justice in Palestine" (SJP) is extremely concerned about a violent attack on three Arab Palestinian students on the evening of November 13, 2008 around 6:00PM, and calls upon campus administrators and authorities to immediately investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice.
According to dozens of witnesses on the scene, three organizers for the "Zionist Freedom Alliance" attacked one male and two female Arab students who stood nearby the event holding a Palestinian flag. The assailants were identified by the Daily Californian to include current ASUC student senator John Moghtader, Cal alumnus Gabe Weiner, and performer Yehuda De sa. The paper also reported that all three had been cited by the UC Police Department on several counts of battery.
The three Arab students had decided to display the flag as a silent statement after hearing offensive anti-Arab remarks at the concert. They did not attempt to interfere with the event. Shortly after they put their flags on display, the assailants were seen angrily rushing into Eshleman Hall and disturbing several meetings to reach the protestors who were located on the 2nd floor balcony. Students on the scene report that the men were yelling racial epithets directed at Arabs and Palestinians.
When the assailants arrived at the balcony, they attempted to push the protestors aside and take their flags away. Witnesses claim that the assailants eventually knocked one protestor against the balcony railing, with a scuffle ensuing where two Arab students, one male and one female, were hit several times. Within a few minutes the assailants began to rush away, though a small group of their supporters had followed them upstairs. Throughout the process the assailants and their supporters were also overheard making remarks like, "we're about to take care of some f***ing Palestinians," and "you Arab dogs, we will kill you."
The group of assailants was eventually pushed away by a crowd of students who were waiting for the police to arrive and collect statements. One of the assailants accused his victims of assaulting him, causing citations to be issued on the victims despite the testimony of several witnesses on the scene refuting the claim. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt during the ordeal.
SJP is concerned by the willful and concerted escalation to violence by these individuals, who are members of student organization Tikvah. SJP disagrees with the Daily Californian's characterization of the event as the result of "tensions between Palestinian and Jewish students." In fact, the incident was isolated, and the assailants are not representative of the Jewish community at Cal. After a series of similar threatening encounters with a handful of individuals this semester, SJP members began to document these incidents. Two of the attackers, John Moghtader and Gabe Weiner, were involved in another outburst at a campus lecture last month that led the Jewish Student Union to place Tikvah on probation [1, 2].
SJP calls upon campus administrators to pursue the incident immediately, and for students to remain committed to resolving their political differences through peaceful dialogue and discussion.
This is the version subsequently put on the Daily Cal site:
Fight Erupts at Israel Liberation Week Concert
By Will Kane and Vincent Quan
Daily Cal Staff Writers
Friday, November 14, 2008
Category: News > City > Crime
A previous version of this story was removed by editors after we became aware that some facts in the story were incorrect. That story has been replaced with this updated version.
The Daily Californian holds itself to high journalistic standards and always strives to produce objective and accurate content. The Daily Cal follows the ethics policy laid out by the Society of Professional Journalists, which is available at http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.
If you have any comments or questions regarding this article or our policies, please contact me at editor@dailycal.org.
-Bryan Thomas, Editor in Chief & President
Tensions between Palestinian and Jewish students on campus ran high Thursday night after a fight broke out on an Eshleman Hall balcony overlooking a concert promoting Israel Liberation Week.
At about 5:45 p.m., as rap artists performed on Lower Sproul Plaza, three Palestinian students hung up two Palestinian flags on the building's second floor balcony, witnesses said. The students said they were responding to the anti-Palestinian lyrics they heard.
Upon seeing the flags, ASUC Senator John Moghtader, former senator Gabe Weiner and Yehuda De sa, the concert's opening act, went up to the balcony in an attempt to remove the flags. All three men are Jewish.
At that point, a fight broke out, police said. Witnesses added that the fight prompted up to half a dozen members of the audience to run up to the second floor. Police said two students and one non-student were cited for battery. Weiner was one of those students.
"I went up to the second floor because the message they were sending was an abomination to our national rights," Weiner said.
Senior Husam Zakharia, who was hit in the face during the altercation, said the rap lyrics he heard spurred him to hang up the Palestinian flag.
"We're going to go up and we're going to put up our Palestinian flag in silent protest-exercising our freedom of speech to say we're here and we exist," he said, adding that he was surprised by the violent reaction.
A number of UCPD officers and Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard spent at least two hours interviewing students and witnesses, attempting to piece together the series of events.
According to police, the fight was related to incidents of vandalism earlier this semester. In September, a bus stop sign outside Eshleman Hall promoting Israel was vandalized. That vandalism was followed by pro-Israel graffiti in a classroom in Dwinelle Hall, increasing tension among Israeli and Palestinian advocacy groups on campus.
As the altercation on Thursday night took place, Eshleman Hall's second floor was full of ASUC officials including President Roxanne Winston.
Many senators who saw the fight expressed shock that such an incident could happen among students, most notably former and current ASUC senators.
"I'm very strong now in my sentiments in that there should be immediate disciplinary action," said ASUC Senator Kifah Shah. "If it culminates to violence where three members of SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) are hit ... then that's just ridiculous."
Tags: Student Life, crime
Article Link: http://www.dailycal.org/article/103566
Background: As the Daily Cal is well aware, Students for Justice in Palestine has over the past several years promoted an atmosphere of intolerance on campus, in which Jewish and Israeli students, and their supporters, have been threatened and intimidated. Their actions have carried over into the Berkeley street, and have resulted in several incidents in which a pro-Israel view has been shouted down, speakers have been insulted and manhandled, and property vandalized.
This is mirrored by similar acts at other university campuses in California, notably at SF State and at UC Santa Cruz. School administrators and student body functionaries have not only been unwilling to step in, several are on record as stating that Zionism has no place on campus, and that Jewish support for Israel is, ultimately, the cause of such friction.
The atmosphere on the Berkeley campus was already nauseatingly anti-Semitic and poisonous before this provocation; it remains to be seen how much more vile it will become. This blogger does not expect any significant attempt by authorities and campus police to get to the truth of the matter. Especially given the increasing financial influence of certain foreign regimes in academia.
We wish the Jewish students on California campuses God-speed and the best of luck. It is a foregone conclusion that pro-Palestinian provocateurs will seek to make the academic environment even more poisonous and dangerous for Jewish students than it ever was.
Monday, November 27, 2006
TWO, FOUR, SIX, EIGHT, OUR SLOGANS TRAIL OFF ECCENTRICALLY - BEING A REPORT ON FRIDAY'S COUNTER-DEMO TO THE BAY AREA WOMEN IN BLACK
Well, the good news is that we managed to muddle their message. By dogging them and mingling in with their march, we confused several people into thinking it was more or less a pro-Israel March. We were helped by the fact that the women in black march silently, reproachfully, whereas we march noisily, and engage people in discussion. Plus our signs and flags are visually more engaging than dull females wearing shrouds.
The bad news is that though the media covered the event, they almost entirely failed to mention that there was a counter-protest, or convey the import thereof.
Part of it was the predictably slapdash approach of journalism.
Part of it was deliberate disregard - our spokesman explained what it was about, our flyers made that point, and our signs made no bones about it either.
And part of it was probably bias. A message that isn't simplistic and huggy just doesn't get into the papers or the television report. Our points of view are too complex, and not particularly feel-good. If each of us had our druthers, our signs would convey an entire thesis, with annotations and appendices. It is a struggle to be brief and to the point.
Nevertheless, "HAMAS MUST BE DESTROYED" is a far-less appealing message than some emotional bint wailing "what about the CHILDREN" (didn't actually happen, but that seems to be the gist of their issue).
You would've thought that our message would've been noted loud and clear by the media. It wasn't, and it may have gone over their pointy little collective head entirely. This despite the sterling efforts of the young fellow who got a hold of the bull-horn, keeping up a slogan-barrage.
But, after half-an-hour of hollering, he was punch-drunk with lack of sufficient oxygen and a depleted blood-sugar level.
And it is at this point that he dropped the rhetorical ball once or twice.....
"TWO-FOUR-SIX-EIGHT.......!"
Followed by no slogan. No catchy rhyming responsum. No content or context. Just a series of numbers followed by zero.
We really need to work on stuff to yell.
We also need to work on our songs - shabbesnacht songs, while nice, are jes' totally baffling at mid-day in a shopping area. A song in Hebrew greeting the angels of the most-high is more appropriate for Tzfas at sundown than Macy's at lunch-time. And the very nice episcopalian gentleman with whom I engaged in conversation while marching was somewhat at a loss when I explained the song to him - though he understood that a common song hoard among so diverse a group is necessarily extremely limited.
Still, if we are going to sing shabbesdikke lieder, how about doing lecha dodi and tzur misheloh next time? I'm rather fond of those two.
Or even a Yiddishe version of the Internationale - that ought to have a bitterly ironic resonance in the Bay Area.
Lastly, I should mention that a passing gentleman opined that we were the 'real Nazis'. I fear he may not have undertood what the term 'Nazi' actually means. It is sad that public education failed him so. He has my deepest sympathy. Every day is no doubt hard and confusing for him, a struggle merely to find his way out of his front-door successfully in the morning, and an occassion for jubilation when he does so without having made several wrong choices en-route to said door.
The bad news is that though the media covered the event, they almost entirely failed to mention that there was a counter-protest, or convey the import thereof.
Part of it was the predictably slapdash approach of journalism.
Part of it was deliberate disregard - our spokesman explained what it was about, our flyers made that point, and our signs made no bones about it either.
And part of it was probably bias. A message that isn't simplistic and huggy just doesn't get into the papers or the television report. Our points of view are too complex, and not particularly feel-good. If each of us had our druthers, our signs would convey an entire thesis, with annotations and appendices. It is a struggle to be brief and to the point.
Nevertheless, "HAMAS MUST BE DESTROYED" is a far-less appealing message than some emotional bint wailing "what about the CHILDREN" (didn't actually happen, but that seems to be the gist of their issue).
You would've thought that our message would've been noted loud and clear by the media. It wasn't, and it may have gone over their pointy little collective head entirely. This despite the sterling efforts of the young fellow who got a hold of the bull-horn, keeping up a slogan-barrage.
But, after half-an-hour of hollering, he was punch-drunk with lack of sufficient oxygen and a depleted blood-sugar level.
And it is at this point that he dropped the rhetorical ball once or twice.....
"TWO-FOUR-SIX-EIGHT.......!"
Followed by no slogan. No catchy rhyming responsum. No content or context. Just a series of numbers followed by zero.
We really need to work on stuff to yell.
We also need to work on our songs - shabbesnacht songs, while nice, are jes' totally baffling at mid-day in a shopping area. A song in Hebrew greeting the angels of the most-high is more appropriate for Tzfas at sundown than Macy's at lunch-time. And the very nice episcopalian gentleman with whom I engaged in conversation while marching was somewhat at a loss when I explained the song to him - though he understood that a common song hoard among so diverse a group is necessarily extremely limited.
Still, if we are going to sing shabbesdikke lieder, how about doing lecha dodi and tzur misheloh next time? I'm rather fond of those two.
Or even a Yiddishe version of the Internationale - that ought to have a bitterly ironic resonance in the Bay Area.
Lastly, I should mention that a passing gentleman opined that we were the 'real Nazis'. I fear he may not have undertood what the term 'Nazi' actually means. It is sad that public education failed him so. He has my deepest sympathy. Every day is no doubt hard and confusing for him, a struggle merely to find his way out of his front-door successfully in the morning, and an occassion for jubilation when he does so without having made several wrong choices en-route to said door.
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GRITS AND TOFU
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