THE UPCOMING CONSEQUENCES OF CONDONING CAMPUS ANTI-SEMITISM

 

CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2024, OR THEREAFTER

 

 

BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
     “THE UPCOMING CONSEQUENCES OF CONDONING CAMPUS ANTI-SEMITISM”

 

 

        As college students head back to school, expect wider than ever consequences of many California colleges failing to act quickly against campus anti-Semitism of last spring.     

 

 

        That autumn reality was made clear by events of the summer.

 

 

        Those incidents were fueled by a realization on the part of pro-Palestinian protesters that their springtime demonstrations of almost pure religious hatred have gone essentially unpunished.

 

 

        This happened again in summer, not only in California, but around the world, with masked demonstrators wreaking violence along with their rhetoric in many places.

 

 

        When hundreds of pro-Hamas demonstrators wearing both surgical masks and checkered keffiyahs marched on a synagogue in Los Angeles in June, protesters attacked not only Jews who had mobilized to protect those under attack, but also journalists.

 

 

        This incident was quickly condemned by President Biden, Gov. Gavin Newsom and local Mayor Karen Bass, but there was only one reported arrest among protesters who blocked entrances and beat several worshipers.

 

 

        Days later, the pro-Hamas group Within Our Lifetime, which consistently glorifies the Oct. 7 slaughter Hamas carried out in Israel and especially its attack on a music festival, blocked New York’s Union Square carrying signs saying “Zionists…are not human” and “Long live Oct. 7.” They also swarmed a subway car demanding Zionists identify themselves. None did, and no arrests followed. And they blocked portions of the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles, also without serious punishment.

 

 

        Similarly, there was no pushback from authorities when pro-Hamas protesters blocked Interstate 880 near San Jose and the Golden Gate Bridge, much as they earlier had blocked Interstate 110 in downtown Los Angeles.

 

 

Later, masked demonstrators shouting “Intifada, Intifada” blocked entrances to multiple synagogues around California.

 

 

In all these cases and others around the world, there was almost no pushback from authorities, partly because the demonstrators masked or otherwise covered their faces.

 

 

        Now, the University of California has ruled out encampments by demonstrators on its 10 campuses in the new academic year and says buildings and walkways are not to be blocked. Also, no masking to hide identities.

 

 

Pro-Palestinian groups essentially laugh this off, in part because many protesters they send to campuses are not students at all and therefore not subject to campus discipline, the main enforcement stick UC says it will use. There have been proposals for city laws banning demonstrators from wearing masks or other face coverings. But so far, no locale has passed such a law, in part because demonstrators claim they need to conceal their identities to prevent being “doxxed” and denied employment or other privileges because of their activities.

 

 

        Behind all this lay the precedent set early on by university administrators, who allowed students and outsiders helping organize their rallies free rein to vandalize and block parts of campuses while also shouting hate slogans.

 

 

        As the last school year ended, some college administrators caved in to demands that they “negotiate” with protesters in order to end their demonstrations. Officials at places like UC Riverside, Cal State Los Angeles and the Pomona colleges met with protest leaders and agreed to “consider” ending their investments in companies that do business with Israel, but there was no serious follow-up. This was in part because university investments are controlled by UC Regents, Cal State trustees and the trustees of other colleges – not campus administrators. Campus leaders can’t deliver boycotts on their own.

 

 

        Two things to realize: The identification of all synagogues and other Jewish institutions as “Zionist” establishes that these protests are not merely anti-Israel, but plainly anti-Semitic. Those who wear Hamas headbands and yell “Oct. 7 Forever” and “Gas the Jews” are not protesting merely the war in Gaza but the very existence of a Jewish state. Backing Hamas places the protesters firmly behind an organization whose charter urges killing all Jews, everywhere.

 

 

        All this, along with Israel’s steady continuation of its campaign to decimate the entire Hamas organization, left protesters frustrated but not defeated, and therefore almost certain to come back with even more determination.

 

 

        Few were punished significantly last year, no matter how many rules they broke, so they have no reason to observe UC’s new rules in the nascent school year. 

       

 

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    Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net