Fighting back the wave of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment on campus can be a daunting task.  The “Unholy Alliance” of the Muslim student groups and campus leftists works tirelessly to demonize Israel and marginalize those of us who battle on her behalf.  In addition, University administrators, professors, and the “progressive” Jewish campus organizations consistently hinder the efforts of pro-Israel students to fight back. With the cards seemingly stacked against us, it is vital to understand and promote examples of successful efforts to turn back the Jihadist movement. Here is one such example.

Finally, after years of frustration, something effective is being done about the anti-Semitic climate at UC Irvine, but I’m not referring to the recent decision by UC Irvine to suspend the MSU for a year.  As significant as the suspension may seem it’s only temporary and the MSU members will remain on campus with the ability to continue to harass Jewish students.  In the past there have been some admirable student warriors fighting to push back the rampant MSU (Reut Cohen and Jonathan Constantine, to name a couple), but they have constantly faced an uphill battle due to lack of numbers and the impotence of the major Jewish organizations on campus.  Recently, a sizeable force of concerned community members has mobilized and is now providing students with support and desperately needed numbers on the campus during events.

Amir Abdel Malik-Ali has been a regular guest of the MSU at UC Irvine, widely considered to be the most overtly radical Islamist campus group in America.  An outspoken supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, Ali is always present during the MSU’s hate-filled week in May to commemorate the “Nakba,” and to call for the destruction of the state of Israel.  Ali’s events at UC Irvine always conclude with long sessions of loud anti-Israel chanting in the center of campus, as MSU students shout rounds of “Judaism Yes, Zionism No!” and “Anti-Apartheid! Anti-Israel!” Despite the activism of many off-campus pro-Israel and conservative organizations (such as the Freedom Center, ZOA, and Stand With Us) the MSU has been able to hide behind a complicit administration and has continued their Islamo-Fascist activities at will, and the prominent Jewish organizations on campus have done little to help the cause.  These groups, lead by Hillel and the Jewish Federation, have typically countered this virulent Islamic Jew-hatred with cultural events such as I-Fest, which usually consists of falafel stands, hookah lounges, and Israeli music.   At UC Irvine in particular, there have been few students and community members who have been willing to truly stand up to the MSU, save for people like adjunct UCI teacher Gary Fouse and groups such as the OC Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism.

Dee Sterling, a former board member of the Irvine Hillel, attended a David Horowitz event in protest of the MSU’s Apartheid Week in May of 2008.  Horowitz was scheduled to speak in the main student center but was mysteriously moved to a much smaller and inconvenient classroom.  She decided to attend some of the MSU’s events that week and was exposed to their violent intimidation tactics at the conclusion of another Malik-Ali speech.  After the speech had ended, Dee came across several male members of the MSU surrounding a young female videographer in the parking lot.  This videographer had been present at Horowitz’s speech and had been on campus that whole week to document the MSU’s Nakba events.  It was in the evening and she was alone, and Dee could have just kept walking to her car.  However, she decided to call over to ask if the young woman was all right.  What happened next would change Dee’s life.  The MSU members quickly approached her car and started to harass her, wrote down her license plate number, and verbally threatened her.  One of them even jumped on top of her car.  To Dee, what was even more shocking than the MSU members acting this way was the fact that the several police officers present in the area ignored the students’ intimidation tactics.

Dee decided to further investigate the MSU’s presence on campus and attended more of their events.  What she saw was Jew-hatred promoted on a college campus and sanctioned by the administration.  This came to a boiling point when the MSU loudly disrupted Ambassador Michael Oren’s speech this past February that resulted in the arrest of 11 MSU members.  After once again hearing multiple Jewish groups in the area stating that there was no problem with anti-Semitism on campus, Dee had finally had enough.  She decided to hold meetings at her house to inform other community members of the hostile climate on campus.  In addition to Orange County residents, Sterling invited some of the UCI students to her home for breakfast and to meet concerned community members.  The students that attended these meetings found the community support to be a tremendous moral boost for them.  After replicating these parlor meetings many times, she managed to wake up a large number of people to the UCI problem and inspire them into action.

Her hard work came to fruition this past May when Malik-Ali once again spoke on campus.  The MSU, gathered in the outdoor speaking area and eager to listen to Malik-Ali’s blasphemy, were shocked when suddenly 300 community members and students marched over the bridge to surround the event with signs and t-shirts that read “United Against Terror.”  Instead of the typical anti-Israel chants that follow his speeches, Malik-Ali and the MSU students left the area immediately after his talk.  The area was soon filled with the sounds of pro-Israel songs and slogans.  Dee’s grassroots group was able to circumvent the feeble Jewish establishment on campus and show the MSU that there were more than just a few people who would stand up to their campus Jihad.

For all the complications of organizing events and crafting effective arguments to combat the anti-Semitic propaganda, winning the battle against the Jew-hating pro-Palestinian movement on campus might simply come down to numbers.  It worked at Rutgers University in 2003 and it seems to be working at UC Irvine.  My hope is that other students and community members around the country can replicate the progress illustrated here.  There are tremendous amounts of pro-Israel grassroots activists in many college areas, from ACT for America groups to Tea Party members, and students would be wise to enlist their help to provide support and numbers on their campuses.  Moreover, these community members should be aware that their presence and support is desperately needed in this campus battle.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 25th, 2010 at 7:42 amand is filed under Director's Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.