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The Zionist Organization of America’s Effort to Criminalize Campus Activism through Federal Civil Rights LegislationBy Eyal MazorUnder the leadership of Mort Klein, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)is celebrating its success in its efforts to expand federal anti-bullying guidelinesstipulated under the US Civil Rights Act of 1964. So why in the world would MortKlein and his pro-occupation and pro-settlement ZOA be interested in federal civilrights and anti-bullying policy in the first place? Perhaps a new-found interest inprotecting religious practice and reigning in on all instances of discrimination?Of course not. Read on and prepare yourself to be outraged.In a policy statement released this week, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncanhas adopted new guidelines that include protections against religious groups with“shared ethnic characteristics.” Appearing alongside indisputably positive policychanges that increase protections for LGBT and disabled students facing bullyingand discrimination, it may seem totally inappropriate to cast doubt on this particularaspect of the policy, no matter who has brought it to the table. After all, expandingcategories of protection is a good thing. However, once we understand the ZOA’smotives, it becomes clear that this development should be cause for alarm for anybodywanting to preserve students’ rights to organize on American campuses for peace andjustice in Palestine and Israel!Indeed, the ZOA took up this effort specifically as a way to clamp down on studentactivism that has pushed universities to hold Israel accountable to international law.How? Title VI of the Civil Rights Act says that colleges and universities that don’taddress issues of discrimination can lose their federal funding.This is part of a strategy to scare public universities into putting a stop to entirelylegal and non-discriminatory activism that the ZOA and others just don’t like.Klein is shamelessly trafficking in the language of bigotry and anti-discriminationin an effort to criminalize campus human rights activism in favor of justice andpeace in Palestine and Israel. It’s hard to imagine a more reprehensible manip-ulation of the legacy of civil rights struggle.The story actually begins in October 2004 when the first complaint to USOffice of Civil Rights (OCR) in 2004 on the behalf of Jewish students at theUniversity of California at Irvine. These claims, which form the centerpieceof the ZOA’s whole case to OCR, seem at best to be an extreme misrepres-entation of actual goings-on, and at worst totally lack substance–and that’scoming from their subjects: UC Irvine students themselves. In response tothe initial complaint the ZOA filed with OCR on behalf of Jewish students atthe University of California at Irvine in October 2004, the most prominentleaders of the campus Jewish community actually came out and publiclyrefuted the ZOA’s claims that UCI is a hostile environment for Jewish students.In March 2008, prominent Jewish student leaders of UCI (including the presidentsof the campus Hillel, the self-described pro-Israel group Anteaters for Israel, andthe Jewish Fraternity and Sorority) issued a public statement clearly and directlycontradicting the ZOA’s claims about their campus, stating instead that “Jewishstudent life thrives on campus, despite misinformation from outside organizations.”In a story published in May 2008 issue of New Voices (since expunged from theirwebsite, but available below), student leaders from UCI’s Jewish community testifyto being ignored, silenced, and even publicly discredited by ZOA and associatedactivists for speaking the truth of their experience on campus. One student, thenPresident of Anteaters for Israel, even lost his position with the Israel advocacytraining group StandWithUs over a statement he made that the threat of anti-Semitismon his campus has been exaggerated by community activists and organizations.Who Speaks for Jewish Students?In another case cited in a recent op-ed, Klein also cites a battery case filed by afemale pro-Israel activist at the University of California at Berkeley against aPalestinian student activist. In fact, all charges have been dropped against thePalestinian student, Husam Zakharia, who said from the very beginning that helost control of a shopping cart overflowing with donated toys bound for Gaza whenit accidentally hit the female student.Klein’s campaign seemed to really take off earlier this year when 13 Jewishorganizations endorsed a March 16 letter to the Education Minister urgingthe Office of Civil Rights to investigate incidents of anti-Semitism. Amongthe endorsing groups are Abe Foxman’s ADL, American Jewish Congress (AJC),and Hillel– all of which have a track record of manipulating charges of anti-Semitismto silence critics of Israeli policy.More recently, Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Senator Arlen Specter (D-CA)have been championing in Congress Mort Klein and the ZOA’s proposal to amend theCivil Rights Act. In September, Sherman and Specter introduced legislation that wouldinscribe into federal law what the Department of Education has just changed infederal policy. Shortly after the new guidelines were announced, CongressmanSherman released a statement naming only Jewish students who face “severe andpersistent anti-Semitic hostility on their campuses” among groups who will enjoynew protections under the policy.Making no mention of any other communities facing religion-based discrimination, such as Muslims, Sikhs and other groups most impacted by the up-swell of Islamophobic discrimination, the political motives of the ZOA’s appeal is perfectly transparent. The ZOA is not and has never claimed to be an organization that fights bigotry or discrimination, nor do they purport to hold a message of universal tolerance. It is an organization set up to promote a pro-settlement, pro-occupation, right-wing Zionist agenda.In addition to using federal anti-discrimination legislation to pursue a highly politicized agenda, one of the most troubling aspects of this campaign is that it has considerable de-amplifying effects for when authentic instances of anti-Semitism do arise. This type of action will not make Jews, or anyone else, any safeMore Recent Articles
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