UCI HILLEL..A CHAPTER THAT SHOULD BE EXPELLED: NICOLE HUNGERFORD
The UCI Hillel Jihad against the Jews:
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/04/11/a-chapter-that-should-be-expelled-from-hillel-3/
A Chapter That Should Be Expelled from Hillel
Posted By Nichole Hungerford
It is an open secret that university Hillel chapters often find
themselves on the side of campus constituencies that support the
agenda of Israel’s most vicious enemies. One particularly appalling
example of this alliance comes to us from the University of
California, Irvine (UCI), whose Hillel chapter has formed an
incestuous association with the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), a
controversial student program that emulates the model of the terrorist
front group, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and indeed,
even works with ISM leadership. In its most scandalous episode yet,
the OTI has been exposed for arranging a meeting between students and
a prominent leader of the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. UCI
Hillel’s on-going alliance with such an organization and its record of
deceit demand that drastic measures be taken.
Controversy with UCI Hillel erupted in November 2010 when the
organization’s president promoted a speaking event featuring a
Palestinian activist named George Rishmawi. The event was arranged
under the auspices of the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), but was
promoted over Facebook by Hillel leadership. Importantly, the original
Facebook flier described Rishmawi as the “cofounder [of] the
International Solidarity Movement” (ISM) and the “head of [the] Siraj
Center for Holy Land Studies.” This is crucial to note, as the
significance of Rishmawi’s affiliation with the ISM cannot be
overstated. The ISM is a viciously anti-Israel organization that
endorses Palestinian terrorism and is infamous for its abetment of
terrorist operations in Israel through its facade of “nonviolent”
activism. The group specializes in propagandizing Westerners, whom it
uses as human shields to provide cover for terrorists.
Needless to say, when the Orange County Jewish community was alerted
to the event, many were outraged. The Orange County Independent Task
Force on Anti-Semitism publicized the event on its website, but
shortly thereafter, the event information, including biographical
information on Rishmawi, had changed. Rishmawi was described as the
“Coordinator for Siraj, Center For Holy Land Studies” and a “former
member of the International Solidarity Movement” (emphasis added).
Hillel UCI President Matan Lurey explained on the event’s page that
there are, in fact, two George Rishmawis, and that there had been
confusion about which one had been invited by OTI. Defenders of the
talk claimed that it was George S. Rishmawi who was invited to speak,
not George N. Rishmawi, a relative and colleague of the former, and
notorious cofounder of the ISM.
Unfortunately, the controversy only escalated from there, much of
which, is chronicled at www.ha-Emet.com (Hebrew for “the truth”), a
community response to events exposed in November. Numerous members of
the Jewish community, led by Dee Sterling, were disturbed by the
Rishmawi talk and dispatched a letter to Jordan Fruchtman, executive
director of Orange County Hillel (which oversees the UCI Hillel). The
letter was also sent to Shalom Elcott of the Jewish Federation of
Orange County (JFOC) and Jay Feldman, coordinator of the JFOC’s Rose
Project, which funds the OTI. More broadly, the letter objected to
Hillel and the federation’s support for the OTI, which was being
increasingly exposed for the radically anti-Israel student
indoctrination program that it is. The letter read, in part:
“It is particularly disturbing that the UCI Hillel, under the guidance
of Hillel Director Jordan Fruchtman has also contributed to supporting
the OTI. A former Hillel Israel Fellow participated in an OTI trip and
the current student leader of Hillel is actively promoting the event
this coming Monday with George Rishmawi….We also ask Jordan Fruchtman
how Hillel which, ‘…provides opportunities for Jewish students to
explore and celebrate their Jewish identity…’ can reconcile this noble
work with the history and actions of the ISM.”
The response from the recipients of this letter, however, was truly
disgraceful. With respect to Fruchtman in particular, rather than
accept responsibility for the egregious lack of judgement, Fruchtman
disseminated a letter to the Orange County Jewish community personally
attacking Sterling, claiming that she was maliciously spreading
untruths and was mistaken about which Rishmawi was speaking. “Hillel
does not support George N. Rishmawi or ISM, the organization with
which he is affiliated,” Fruchtman said. “As a matter of principle,
the values of ISM are in direct conflict with Hillel’s values and
Hillel’s stance on Israel…[T]he person that has been invited by the
Olive Tree Initiative to speak at UCI on November 22, 2010, is a
different George Rishmawi, whose full name is George S. Rishmawi[.]”
Fruchtman advised others to ignore Sterling’s “reprehensible”
statement.
Beyond the extreme lack of decorum in terms of the letter’s personal
attack against an active, upstanding member of the Irvine Jewish
community (for the crime of voicing her objections to a malicious
anti-Israel activist being brought on campus), the letter sent by
Fruchtman was seriously factually challenged. First, it is
incontrovertible that an event featuring the “cofounder of the ISM”
had been promoted by Hillel leadership. In fact, the Simon Wiesenthal
Center of Los Angeles issued a similar objection to the JFOC based on
the same information. The alleged confusion was only “clarified” when
public criticism was made of Hillel publicizing the event in the first
place.
Secondly, George S. Rishmawi (the “good one”) also has a close
relationship with the ISM. His biography at the Siraj Center also
describes him as the “cofounder” of the ISM. Moreover, although
Fruchtman in his letter claimed that George S. “was no longer
involved” with the group, it is not as if organizations like the ISM
offer membership cards or any other formal recognition of association.
What it means to say that one has “cut ties” or dropped affiliation
with the group is extremely ambiguous and practically impossible to
verify.
But in fact, such verification is not even necessary. OTI itineraries
from 2008-2010 identify two George Rishmawis giving talks and tours to
students on OTI trips to Israel and the disputed territories
(including Hillel members). These two individuals are clearly
differentiated on the 2008, 2009, and 2010 itineraries as “George S.
Rishmawi (Siraj Center)” and “George Rishmawi (cofounder ISM).”
Clearly, both Rishmawis are involved in the program, unless, for some
strange reason, George S. Rishmawi — the “good” ISM cofounder
according to UCI Hillel — was identified two different ways on the
same itinerary.
The Tale of Two Rishmawis remains unresolved in Orange County,
California. The OC Hillel president has not issued a public apology
for his organization’s proven association with a group infiltrated by
high-ranking ISM activists (again, this a group that endorses and
abets Palestinian terrorism). This may, in fact, have much to do with
the OC Hillel President Jordan Fruchtman’s personal affinity for the
OTI himself. According to a 2010 OTI booklet titled “The Olive Tree
Initiative: Expressions/Impressions” obtained by the Orange County
Independent Taskforce on Anti-Semitism, Fruchtman is listed as an
“individual supporter” of the OTI. It is no mystery why UCI Hillel
will not publicly condemn this program or disassociate from it, after
being given every opportunity.
Furthermore, it is difficult to believe that investigating the
controversy did not at the very least bring to the attention of OC
Hillel leadership (Fruchtman among them) the fact that the campus
chapter was committing an egregious error by associating with the
event as initially publicized. Instead of accepting an iota of
responsibility for this disgrace, offering an apology, or ensuring
that misled students were corrected for wrongfully endorsing the
event, Fruchtman was moved only to personally discredit the messenger.
To further besmirch and cow the opposition, Fruchtman publicized a
petition “signed” by Hillel students. The problem was, many of the
signatories were exposed to be fraudulent. Pajamas Media discovered
that numerous individuals alleged to have signed the petition never,
in fact, did nor did they have knowledge of the petition. A UCI PhD
candidate Joe Wolf reported, “The student president of Hillel at UCI
publicly admitted to a group of students and community members on
Monday, November 22, that the majority of students who were listed
were never shown the letter before it was sent out the afternoon of
Friday, November 19.”
The president, Matan Lurey, claimed that the seemingly fraudulent
petition was the result of a mailing list error: “Using both the
contact lists in my phone, and my friends, who run two other large
Jewish groups at UC Irvine, we compiled a list of students we would
contact to get their approval for the response letter. Unfortunately,
due to the frenzied environment … the letter was accidentally sent out
to the mailing list, where it was copied to a blog and forwarded along
several other sources.”
As if this saga weren’t enough of a betrayal of the OC Jewish
community, the coup de grace is only now just being uncovered. What is
also printed in the 2010 Expressions/Impressions booklet is the 2009
OTI itinerary, which lists Aziz Duwaik, a high-ranking Hamas
politician, among the scheduled speakers. The timing of the Duwaik
talk was mere months after Duwaik had been released from an Israeli
prison after being arrested in 2006. It should be common-knowledge to
most FrontPage readers that Hamas is a US-classified terrorist
organization which is expressly devoted to exterminating Jews.
A recently publicized letter written in 2009 to the Chancellor of UCI,
Michael Drake, from Shalom Elcott of the JFOC and two co-chairs of the
federation’s Rose Project (The federation identifies itself as the
“largest funder” of the OTI) expressed distress over the Duwaik
meeting. They claim that students were told — it is unclear by whom,
as the name was redacted — to keep the meeting secret in order to
avoid detainment crossing borders, problems traveling to and from the
US, and backlash from the OC Jewish community. Nonetheless, all of
these parties — the federation, UCI, Fruchtman — all continued to
support the OTI. Many of them claim the Duwaik meeting was impromptu,
saying that a canceled meeting was replaced extemporaneously with
Duwaik by a leading graduate student in the field. However, no one
seems concerned how it is possible that OTI leadership could possibly
arrange a spontaneous meeting with a leader of a genocidal terrorist
organization.
The Hillel-entwined OTI has not only been infiltrated by the likes of
terrorist sympathizers and leaders, but the program itself shares the
modus operandi of the same skillful anti-Israel propaganda
technicians, like Rishmawi and Duwaik, who posture as moderate
“peace-seekers” in order to seduce erstwhile pro-Israel students to
their deadly cause. It was the OTI’s George N. Rishmawi himself who
opined in a 2004 interview: “When Palestinians get shot by Israeli
soldiers, no one is interested anymore, but if some of these foreign
volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will
sit up and take notice.” How long before it is a student at UC Irvine?
Unfortunately, the only voices who seem capable of calling this
insanity what it is and warning students of the significant danger it
poses are the ones that are routinely opposed by Hillel chapters on
college campuses. “Why would they [Jewish students] be going over to
meet with people who want to kill them except to be deceived into
thinking they’re civilized?” remarked David Horowitz, who has recently
launched a campus campaign, the Palestinian Wall of Lies, which is
designed to refute the patently false assertions of the Israel
Apartheid Week movement (chief among them, of course, that Israel has
an apartheid system). The degree of opposition from Hillel chapters
throughout this campaign has been most disturbing, and typically
accuse the campaign of spreading hate.
“The alleged ‘hate’ in our [Wall of Lies] ads is that we call lies,
lies. When we ask what is offensive about them, our detractors don’t
have a response except to issue insults,” Horowitz said. The
Palestinian Wall of Lies campaign is strictly factually-based,
refuting point-by-point the predominant falsehoods promulgated by the
Israeli apartheid fiction. Instead of joining with the Freedom Center
in this cause, “Hillel members are willing to join coalitions with
groups like MSA which is a Muslim Brotherhood front group and is
sponsoring anti-Israel hate weeks.”
And in some cases, as with UCI, Hillel members are willing to hear out
a terrorist group leader and give him his say. At the same time, it is
those who speak loudest against radical anti-Israel hatred who are
quickly castigated from the dialogue. “They’ll dialogue with Hamas,
whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, rather than have an
open community dialogue with those of us who support Israel as a
Jewish State and oppose Jewish funding of OTI,” explained Dee
Sterling, who has been prevented from speaking publicly due to her
grassroots activism against the UCI Hillel and other Jewish groups’
continued association with the OTI. Unfortunately, it is a travesty
that is becoming more ubiquitous, not less.
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