The Middle East Forum posted a petition entitled, End SFSU cooperation with An-Najah. Universities should not support glorifying terrorism.
I could hardly agree more and would very much encourage you guys to click through the link above and sign this petition which, when the period of the petition is concluded, will find itself on the desk of San Francisco State University President, Leslie Wong.
The Petition reads as follows:
We, the undersigned, petition San Francisco State University (SFSU) President Leslie Wong to take immediate action to end SFSU’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with An-Najah University in the West Bank. Described by Hamas as a “greenhouse for martyrs,” Najah is a Palestinian university where incitement to violence, anti-Semitism, and the glorification of terrorism against Israelis is routine:oMatthew Levitt, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, notes that Najah is known for “terrorist recruitment, indoctrination and radicalization of students.” oAccording to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Najah’s student council “glorifies suicide bombings and propagandizes for jihad against Israel.” oAt least two events were held on campus to honor “martyred” terrorists in 2016. oIn 2015, Najah student Maram Hassoneh was killed attempting her second knife attack on IDF soldiers.oNajah suspended its 2015 student elections indefinitely for fear of a Hamas victory.oAt Najah’s June 2014 graduation ceremony, students held up three fingers to represent Hamas’s kidnapping of three Israeli teens.oIn 2013, an entire Najah graduating class was named after Abu Jihad, the founder of Fatah and mastermind of countless terror attacks.oThe names of 19 “shaheeds” (deceased terrorists), all Najah students, appeared on the back cover of a 2004 “information kit.”oNajah students constructed a gruesome replica of the 2001 Sbarro pizzeria Jerusalem suicide bombing.Professor Rabab Abdulhadi, director of SFSU’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diaspora Initiative (AMED), is the architect of the MOU with Najah. Abdulhadi has a record as an anti-Israel activist and an apologist for Palestinian terrorism: oAbdulhadi is a founding member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.oShe consorted with individuals affiliated with State Department-designated terrorist organizations during a 2014 “Academic and Labor Delegation to Palestine” to meet with Najah representatives and was accused of improper use of university funds for the trip.oAbdulhadi’s service as faculty advisor for SFSU’s General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) included the display of stencils adorned with the disturbing motto, “My Heroes Have Always Killed Colonizers” and an FBI investigation into former GUPS president Mohammad G. Hammad for making violent online threats against Israelis and Jews.o·Her Academia.edu profile page features a graphic calling for a “Third Palestinian Intifada” (a threat that has metastasized into the current “stabbing intifada”) and a raised fist.Abdulhadi has pledged to set up a student exchange program with Najah, posing a significant security risk to SFSU students, faculty, and the wider community.We, the undersigned, call on President Wong to terminate this relationship with Najah now, and to ensure that no SFSU personnel enter into or support relationships with Najah or similar entities that support Hamas or other terrorist organizations in the future.Furthermore, we, the undersigned, strongly urge the California State University (CSU) system to investigate this infamous MOU and make public its terms. We also call on the California state legislature to conduct hearings into this matter.Tell them what you think!
I have followed this story more or less since it became public knowledge and wrote about it in a piece from April, 2015, entitled, San Francisco State Partners with Violently Anti-Jewish Arab University and one published at Campus Watch entitled, Cinnamon Stillwell Calls Out San Francisco State University Anti-Semitism.
Dusty, of Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers alerted me to the story in a piece that she wrote entitled, San Francisco State University proud of new relationship with An-Najah University, the "greenhouse for martyrs."
Journalist Cinnamon Stillwell of the Middle East Forum has written a number of pieces on this particular SFSU fiasco including:State-Funded University Promoting Alliances with Hamas-dominated Palestinian Universities? (May 9, 2015)
SFSU's Deafening Silence on Partnership with Palestinian University (Februrary 26, 2016)
And a piece from about two months ago entitled, Why Is A San Francisco University Secretly Partnering With An Arab College That Promotes Jihad?
I would very much encourage you guys to sign that petition.
The reason that university administrations feel free to allow or encourage the poisonous defamation of the Jewish State of Israel and, thereby inevitably, the Jewish people more generally, is because western Jews are too cowed to put up a fight.
If Jewish leadership around the country would stand up and say "no" now again it would make a significant difference.
Academia, much like the Democratic Party, tends to take its Jewish donors for granted.
I say that we teach them not to.
