Anti-Semitism on California Campuses

by Richard L. Cravatts • March 28, 2016 at 5:00 am

The problem on campuses across the country is that pro-Palestinian activists, in their zeal to seek self-affirmation, statehood, and "social justice," have waged an extremely caustic cognitive war against Israel and Jews.
Being pro-Palestinian on campuses today does not necessarily mean that one is committed to helping Palestinians be productive, live well, build a free and open nation or create a civil society with transparent government, a free press, human rights, and a representative government.
What being pro-Palestinian seems to have come to mean is continually denigrating and attacking Israel with a false historical narrative and the grotesquely misused language of human rights. What is claimed to be anti-Israel sentiment often rises to the level of raw anti-Semitism.
It is enough to make Jewish students, whether or not they care about Israel at all, uncomfortable, unsafe, or even hated on their own campuses.

Being pro-Palestinian on campus today seems to have come to mean continually denigrating and attacking Israel with a false historical narrative and the grotesquely misused language of human rights, which often rises to the level of raw anti-Semitism. Pictured above, a mock "Israeli checkpoint" set up during "Israeli Apartheid Week" in 2010 on the University of California, Los Angeles campus. (Image source: AMCHA Initiative)

The California university system seems to have the dubious distinction of being the epicenter of the campus war against Israel. The situation that has apparently reached such intolerable levels that the Board of Regents of the University of California (UC Regents) was forced to take some action. This effort resulted in a study entitled the "Final Report of the Regents Working Group on Principles Against Intolerance." The study attempts to establish guidelines by which any discrimination against a minority group on campus would be identified and censured. The report, however, specifically focused on the thorny issue of anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism as a prevalent and ugly reality throughout the California university system.