Hate speech reared its ugly head again on a University of California campus during divestment debates, in what has become a sad and predictable pattern.
On Jan. 31, red swastikas were found spray painted on the exterior walls and grounds of the UC Davis branch of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi. This despicable act occurred a few days after the Associated Students of UC Davis voted to advise the university to divest from “corporations that aid in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and illegal settlements in Palestinian territories.”
Similar resolutions have been passed by the undergraduate student governments of a number of UC schools including UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UCLA, sparking protests and counter-protests across the state.
Campus divestment resolutions often deal with very sensitive cultural and political issues and regardless of the outcome of the vote, some portion of the campus community ends up feeling marginalized. But there is no excuse for resorting to hate speech or hateful acts like those seen at UC Davis in recent days.
All university administrators and student groups should join in denouncing this hateful act, and many already have.
Hate speech is both easier and louder than constructive dialogue and debate. It is reprehensible and has no place at institutions that are dedicated to conscientious conversation.
Hate speech attacks groups where they are at their most vulnerable, often stirring painful cultural memories. Its sole purpose is to cast aside rational argument, incite hostility, drive communities apart and take us all back to an era where religious subjugation and racial epithets were government sanctioned.
Whoever painted those swastikas sought to humiliate the Jewish community at UC Davis, yet they also undermined a larger years-long divestment movement spearheaded by Students for Justice in Palestine as a byproduct.
While the two events have not been definitively linked, the hostile nature of the discourse around divestment is almost certainly responsible for creating an environment where the vandalism could happen.
After the meeting, one of the UC Davis student senators who voted to pass the proposal, Azka Fayyaz, wrote a series of Facebook posts including one that read in part “Israel will fall insha’Allah.”
She later wrote an open letter to the UC Davis community that characterized her statements as satirical. But the statements come in the midst of a campus debate that already marginalizes campus communities, and her statements in this context are an offensive and shameful affront to her position as an elected campus representative.
However, the acts of these few individuals involved in defacing the AEPi fraternity house and making these offensive statements does not invalidate the divestment efforts of the larger UC Davis student body. For every hateful person, there are thousands who embrace mutual understanding and cooperation.
While every group or movement will have zealots who undermine their cause, they should not be taken as representatives of the whole.
It is easy to cast aside hundreds of hours of conversation and constructive dialogue under the red haze of hate, but that is precisely why it should not be done. If these acts are allowed to overshadow the entire divestment movement, then hate paints over reconciliation.
The BDS movement is not interested in dialogue. They are only interested in presenting fradulent arguments and negative opinions. They foment hate like we’ve seen in this recent crime against the Jewish people at Davis. The student Senator Azka Fayyaz praised Hamas in one tweet and wrote “Israel will fall” followed up by a Muslim quote in another tweet. Their entire movement is rotten at the core including it’s leader at UC Davis who is openly anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish in nature. Normal people don’t shout “allahu akbar” at Jewish students or make posters of world leaders like this:
http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2015/02/hamas-and-sharia-law-have-taken-over-uc-davis-2965612.html
Yup, because the 10 years of SJPs continual harassment of Jewish students has really gone a long way towards fixing the Israeli-Palestine conflict… OH WAIT.
The same student senator said UC Davis should be ruled by sharia law. Those comments and actions are far from a joke.
Apparently, the definition.of the word “satire” is lost on her. Academic standards at UCD must be falling.
When was the word “satire” used and why was she serious and dressed in a hijab with a Koran in her hand?
Paragraph 10: “She later wrote a letter . . . that characterized her statements as satirical.” I can’t explain her garb & choice of literature. You’d have to ask her.
The Divest-from-Israel campaign is no doubt meant to destroy Israel itself because it is geared toward destroying Israel’s economy as part of the larger and official Arab boycott of Israel as organized and enforced by the Arab League’s Central Office for the Boycott of Israel located in Syria.
The very epitome of hate.
Israel has a tenuous peace with Egypt that is only preserved by $2B annual US aid to Egypt, but that is the exception, not the rule. All other Arab countries want to see Israel destroyed. This is not a revelation.