ANTISEMITISM AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
http://thejewishvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SSI-Memo-final.pdf
When members of Columbia’s Students Supporting Israel campus group set up a memorial booth on April 11th, for Holocaust Remembrance Day, honoring the 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis, the memorial was disrupted by the screaming chants of anti-Israel protesters.
The table for the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day had testimonials from Holocaust survivors as well as memorial candles laid out. After an hour in which Jewish students shared the stories of holocaust survivors, a large group of anti-Israel protests gathered across the plaza from the SSI table.
INCIDENT REPORT
Students Supporting Israel at Columbia University
Incident Report on Harassment and Violations of University
Policies and State and Federal Rules by the Students for
Justice in Palestine (SJP)
As one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher
education, Columbia University has an obligation both to its
students, and faculty constituency as well as the broader American
academic community to foster and protect nuanced and
constructive dialogue on complicated issues affecting New York, America and the world.
Unfortunately, groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP)
and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) have monopolized the conversation on
campus relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict and have systematically maligned, harassed and
silenced groups like Students Supporting Israel (SSI) and other pro-Israel voices on campus, who
provide alternative — and critically important — views on these issues, in clear violation of their
rights under both Columbia rules and regulations, and U.S. law.
Columbia’s Student Governing Board (SGB) makes clear its goal: “Since its founding, SGB has
traditionally served as the guardian of free speech and students’ rights on campus, and remains the
only governing board comprising students from all four undergraduate schools.” Among SGB’s
responsibilities is its mandate to “[a]djudicate disputes between groups, review complaints
received in writing, and take disciplinary action when required.”1
In interrupting, silencing, harassing and intimidating Jewish and pro-Israel students at Columbia,
the behavior of SJP, JVP and CUAD contributes to an unacceptably hostile environment for those
who wish to exercise their constitutionally protected rights in ways that differ from the narratives
of these groups. Although their right to protest is unequivocal, and we have no desire to suppress
their protected expression, one individual’s right to protest does not supersede another individual’s
right to lawfully assemble, speak and listen. “The right to demonstrate, for example, cannot come
at the expense of the right of others to counter demonstrate, to teach, or to engage in academic
pursuits requiring uninterrupted attention. As is true of the larger community in which the
University sits, the University must protect the rights of all to engage in their callings and express
their own views.”2
Since SSI has started its activities on campus, SJP has continuously attacked SSI’s right to freedom
of speech, expression and association in different ways and using a variety of inappropriate
methods, as outlined below. For these reasons, we hereby request that the SGB adjudicate the
dispute between SSI and these groups, review the complaints as described below, and take the
required disciplinary action to effectuate the Rules of University Conduct and “protect the rights
of all to engage in their callings and express their own views.These are the violations:
I. Rules of University Conduct §440. Affirmative Statement: The University may restrict
expression that constitutes a genuine threat of harassment, that unjustifiably invades an
individual’s privacy, or that falsely defames a specific individual.
• Physically threatening behavior demonizing Jewish students walking on campus:
During the fall semester of 2017, outside of an event that was entirely unrelated to the
supposed mission of SJP (and certainly of SSI), SJP members started a hostile, anti-Israel
and anti-Semitic chant simply because they recognized SSI members walking by. Video of
this event shows a small handful of horrified and terrified Jewish students standing huddled
together while surrounded by a raging mob of around 50 angry activists encroaching on
them in a physically threatening and intimidating way.3 Such behavior should be taken
seriously and warrants action to protect those students who were simply walking on campus
as Jews and supporters of the Jewish state.
II. Rules of University Conduct §440. Affirmative Statement: The University has an
obligation to assure members of its community that they can continue in their academic
pursuits without fear for their personal security or other serious intrusions on their ability
to teach and to study.
• For all the reasons described in this incident report, it is abundantly clear that Jewish and
pro-Israel students have unfortunately not been the beneficiaries of this declaration in the
Affirmative Statement.
III. Rules of University Conduct §443(a)(4): A person is in violation of these Rules when
such person individually or with a group, incident to a demonstration, including a rally or
picketing: uses words in a situation of clear and present danger that actually incite others
to behavior that would violate Sections 443a (2) or (6)
• Publicly recruiting activists to disrupt and shut down our protected speech and
assembly. SJP as part of CUAD openly and unabashedly call on other members of the
Columbia community (and beyond) to join them in disrupting the speech of SSI events.
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