cheka.
24th March 2016, 01:59 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/higher-education/university-of-california-approves-anti-semitism-statement/2016/03/24/a25d5cda-f181-11e5-a2a3-d4e9697917d1_story.html
SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California’s governing board is set to sign off Thursday on a statement condemning anti-Semitic behavior and a companion report urging campus leaders to confront “anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism.”
A committee of the university’s Board of Regents voted unanimously on Wednesday to send what is being called a “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance” and a report summarizing the context for it to the full board for consideration.
A year in the making, the documents were prepared at the urging of some Jewish groups that argued the 10-campus UC system needed to affirm its opposition to anti-Semitism amid growing student activism on behalf of Palestinian rights.
“There is absolutely no doubt that anti-Zionism is the driving force behind the alarming rise in anti-Semitism at UC and at schools across the country,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a Hebrew lecturer at the university’s Santa Cruz campus who led the campaign, said.
When a draft of the statement was released last week, critics expressed alarm over language in the accompanying report that cited both anti-Semitism and “anti-Zionism” — the rejection of Israel’s right to exist — as types of discrimination that don’t belong at the university.
Faculty and student groups said the report, if endorsed along with the principles themselves, could be used to stifle free speech and scholarship. The regents’ Educational Policy Committee softened the disputed wording slightly on Wednesday.
“Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California,” it now reads.
Regent Norman Pattiz, who served on the task force that drafted the statement and report, said it was appropriate for the university to link disapproval of Israel with prejudice toward Jewish people and that the issue was a personal one for him.
SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California’s governing board is set to sign off Thursday on a statement condemning anti-Semitic behavior and a companion report urging campus leaders to confront “anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism.”
A committee of the university’s Board of Regents voted unanimously on Wednesday to send what is being called a “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance” and a report summarizing the context for it to the full board for consideration.
A year in the making, the documents were prepared at the urging of some Jewish groups that argued the 10-campus UC system needed to affirm its opposition to anti-Semitism amid growing student activism on behalf of Palestinian rights.
“There is absolutely no doubt that anti-Zionism is the driving force behind the alarming rise in anti-Semitism at UC and at schools across the country,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a Hebrew lecturer at the university’s Santa Cruz campus who led the campaign, said.
When a draft of the statement was released last week, critics expressed alarm over language in the accompanying report that cited both anti-Semitism and “anti-Zionism” — the rejection of Israel’s right to exist — as types of discrimination that don’t belong at the university.
Faculty and student groups said the report, if endorsed along with the principles themselves, could be used to stifle free speech and scholarship. The regents’ Educational Policy Committee softened the disputed wording slightly on Wednesday.
“Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California,” it now reads.
Regent Norman Pattiz, who served on the task force that drafted the statement and report, said it was appropriate for the university to link disapproval of Israel with prejudice toward Jewish people and that the issue was a personal one for him.