Berkeley Intifada As students embrace the Palestinian cause, UC Berkeley has lost whatever reputation it may once have had for tolerance. BY ANNELI RUFUS
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Wish I could counter this, but I can't. The campus is four blocks away and I only go there for the library. Recently, that means looking for Leo Strauss books that I can't find used. They are dirt cheap. It seems Leo is not in demand. And since the anti-occupation revolts in Iraq, I have lost almost all interest in reading and figuring out Strauss.
Anyway, there is anti-Semiticism at Berkeley, but from what I've seen it is primarily focused on several very vocal, very strident Pro-Israeli Jewish student groups. What student political group isn't very vocal and strident? They all are of course including frat groups. But the pro-Israel groups and the pro-Palestinian groups are and have been especially so, as they routinely battle each other in their political rhetoric, name calling, pushing, shoving, and demonstrating. It never quite reached the open street combat phase with burning trash cans and rocks, but it got as close as it could on several occasions in the last five years.
I am not sure I would call what I've seen anti-Semiticism of the kind that is broadly understood as such. What's at issue is Israel, and the Israeli war on the Palestinians. In a more politically developed form I would call it anti-Zionism. But the pro-Palestinian student groups are not particularly any more developed or articulate than either Anneli Rufus or Micki Weinberg who provided the narrative for the article above. So the label of anti-Semiticism has enough truth to stick.
Why would I even question this charge of anti-Semiticism? Because if rightwing Christians dominated pro-Israel political groups on campus, which is not entirely out of the question, they would get the same treatment and it would likely be worse. Perhaps worse, since they would also be the target for various pro-Choice and Gay rights groups. If they had one local church as their organization headquarters it would likely be covered in eggs and satanic symbols, maybe a dead cat or two. Thank Allah that almost all the churchs near campus are congregations with very long standing and very progressive community orientations.
I also say that most of this `anti-Semiticism' is anti-Israeli sentiment because, if there were Jewish student groups who represent the other side of Israel (anti-Sharon, anti-Likud, one state, full Palestinian rights, representation, etc..), they would get a much different response. So the real counter to the anti-Israeli sentiment and its spill over into anti-Semiticism here would be to establish at least one Jewish student group who represented the other side of the political spectrum in Israel. I suspect if such groups existed they would find great support and very, very little enmity.
As background to the incidences of anti-Semitic graffiti on Hillel House and Le Conte, let's recall that creeps like David Horowitz, and various professional pro-Israel political lobbyist have been active here, funding and supporting pro-Israel student groups---for the specific purpose of countering the pro-Palestinian groups, and strong anti-Israeli sentiment. They can use Hillel House and its student organizations because both are funded by non-profits.
For a slightly less inflammatory version, there is The Daily Free Press, from Boston University dated Sept 10, 2002:
``...Campuses like University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University and Harvard University have seen clashes between supporters of Palestinians and Israelis heat up to the point of violence over the past two years. Speakers on both sides have been demonstrated against, students have demanded their universities divest from Israel and a Hillel House has even been vandalized...
...Pro-Israel and pro-Palestine activities hit their peak last spring, highlighted by several near-violent incidents at several schools across the country.
At the University of California at Berkeley, confrontations between especially active pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups filled the headlines of the school's student newspaper throughout the semester. The school's Hillel House, the main Jewish organization on campus, was reportedly vandalized in the melee, and verbal confrontations bordered on violence several times last year.
Pro-Palestinian students also staged a sit-in at an auditorium on the campus in 2000, preventing former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking. Last month, when former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak spoke at UC-Berkeley, more than 200 people demonstrated outside, according to The Daily Californian...''
CG