Banning Israeli hummus and more anti-Semitic acts in 2020

SFSU professor invites known terrorist hijacker, blames ‘Israel lobby industry’ for backlash.

When students at San Francisco State University expressed concern over a professor’s decision to host a known terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled, the professor accused the students of being part of a “Jewish caucus” with “a Zionist agenda.” In the same video, the professor also stated that the opposition was manufactured by the “Israel Lobby Industry,” and that opponents of hosting a terrorist hijacker were “catering to donors, catering to the right-wing agenda and catering to Islamophobia.” She went even further to say the university president “only talked to Zionists, only talked to one brand.”

Dickinson College in Pennsylvania bans Sabra Hummus for supporting Israel.

The student senate at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania passed a resolution to cease the sale of Sabra Hummus as part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israeli products. 

The resolution stated, “Sabra Hummus is a brand partially owned by the Strauss Group, which is a company that financially and morally supports the Golani and Givati bridge of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).” 

”These brigades of the IDF commit human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza,” the resolution stated, adding that “the support of Sabra products helps the Strauss Group support the Israeli Defence Force brigade which maintains a cycle of oppression for Palestinian people in violation of international law.” 

Sabra Hummus was one of the only Kosher options offered in on-campus dining.

Harvard permits new anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian organization

At Harvard, a group of Jewish undergraduate students banded together to create the “Harvard Jewish Coalition for Peace.” 

But according to a public statement, the group is “an organized anti-Zionist organization outside of Hillel for Jewish students who support Palestinian liberation – the end to Israel’s settler-colonial project of occupation, colonization, dispossession, and apartheid in Palestine.” To accomplish its  goal, the group “work[s] in solidarity with others, on and off-campus, to fight against all forms and systems of oppression, including white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism, ableism, capitalism, settler-colonialism, and imperialism.”

The group’s first event was a “Teach-In”, entitled “The Jewish Case for BDS.”

FSU student senate president removed for expressing Catholic views, but is then replaced by ‘anti-Semitic’ student

The Florida State University Student Senate labeled its student senate president as “racist” and removed him from his position for expressing personal Catholic views in a group chat. 

Then, the student senate replaced him with a student born in Palestine, a student who has a record of making “anti-Semitic” posts on his Instagram account. The new president’s posts included language such as “stupid Jew” and “#fuckisrael.” According to a petition against the new president, he also “compares the Israeli government to Nazi Germany’s genocide on the jew.”

UIUC allows for anti-Semitic harassment to proliferate on campus.

Over the past five years, Jewish and pro-Israel students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have experienced an increasing number of attacks. 

On October 23, 2020, the Louis D. Brandeis Center listed 23 instances of alleged anti-Semitism since 2015 in a Title VI complaint summary. The 23 instances included the vandalization and theft of Jewish ritual items, destruction of Jewish fraternity windows, and offensive graphics, such as swastikas, drawn on campus property. 

In addition, the complaint called out the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter on campus for allegedly harassing Jewish and pro-Israel students by calling them “nazi” and “white supremacist.” Several students filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education for the “anti-Semitic hostile environment” at UIUC. 

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @ashleyecarnahan