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3 Jewish Students Forced Out of USC Student Government for Pro-Israel Views
frontpage magazine ^ | Mon Aug 17, 2020 | Daniel Greenfield

Posted on 08/17/2020 9:29:42 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell

3 Jewish Students Forced Out of USC Student Government for Pro-Israel Views Students for Justice in Palestine purges Jews from USC student government.

Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Truman Fritz and Rose Ritch won the most votes in the race for president and vice president of the USC Undergraduate Student Government. Isabel Washington scored the most votes in the Senate race. Six months later, all three USC students were harassed into resigning.

The story of how that happened exposes the ugliness of campus bullying and anti-semitism.

Of the three USC student government leaders and one student who was next in the line of succession who were forced out, three were Jewish, one of them gay, and one was African-American. The cancel culture campaigns against them were led by Islamic students.

Three of the four students were targeted for supporting Israel.

Isabel Washington, a Jewish African-American student senator, was the first to be forced out after false accusations of “anti-black racism”, of holding “white supremacist ideologies”, and, of “Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian statements”.

Shaden Awad, an RA at USC, and apparently a supporter of American Muslism for Palestine, attacked Washington for her role at Hillel, a Jewish campus organization where Washington serves as the Jews of Color Co-Chair, writing “Even if all the orgs on campus that r Jewish r also Zionist That’s not an excuse For you to join That’s still blood on ur hands.”

"I didn't join them bc they're zionist. I joined them because I'm Jewish," Washington replied.

A petition calling for her expulsion, with over 1,200 signatures, declares that "a woman with years of internalized racism, classism, and Zionism behind her should not be given the luxury of being a USC student".

The same petition also went after Nathaniel Manor, who would have been next in line to succeed Washington,, because he “openly identifies as a Zionist” and had communicated, "in texts that Palestinians are dying because they refuse to 'let Israel exist', blaming Palestinian people for their own displacement and genocide."

Some of the petition signatories had been involved with Students for Justice in Palestine.

After outrage at the antisemitism scandal at USC went viral, the anonymous creator updated the petition to argue that, “being anti-Zionist and being anti-Semitic are not the same.”

"USC SJP calls for the immediate resignation of Isabel Washington as a USG senator and the prevention of Netanel Manor from succeeding Senator Washington and demands that the University hold Mr. Manor accountable for his display of Islamophobia and anti-Arab/Palestinian rhetoric," the USC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, an antisemitic hate group with a long history of harassing Jewish students, posted.

Manor had been targeted by Muhammad Yusuf Tarr, the former president of USC SJP and a Muslim Student Association leader, an organization with its own history of antisemitism, who had celebrated a call by Marwan Barghouti to free convicted terrorists.

Barghouti was convicted of responsibility for 5 murders, including that of a Greek monk. But at USC being someone who, “openly identifies as a Zionist” is a serious offense, but not supporting the murder of Jews and anyone else living in Israel who doesn’t support terrorists.

When David Horowitz came to USC to speak about Islamic antisemitism, Muhammad had protested against his talk. And that’s still a topic that can’t be discussed at USC.

While Jewish student leaders have been purged, SJP is free to operate on campus.

That's despite the fact that Students for Justice in Palestine is a racist hate group whose various chapters have a long history of harassing and even physically assaulting Jewish students.

“I was physically assaulted in an elevator in 2013. I heard my friend get called a ‘Zionist kike’ by SJP. Today I was called a ‘kike’ on campus by SJP. My two female friends and I were shoved to the ground and physically assaulted at our own Israel event in 2014,” a University of California student related.

Rawan Eid, USC SJP's former president, had expressed support for Hezbollah and other terrorists responsible for killing Jews.

But at USC, being a member of SJP allows you to demand the heads of Jewish students.

In addition to targeting Isabel Washington, SJP had also demanded the "the immediate resignation of Truman Fritz and Rose Ritch from their positions as President and Vice President of the Undergraduate Student Government."

Rose had been one of the reasons why Isabel was targeted.

“Seeing people want to impeach Rose bc she’s a Zionist, but they don’t know I’d be the new VP, and I’m also a Zionist,” Isabel had posted.

The antisemitism crisis at USC finally went viral when Rose stepped down from her role as vice president with a resignation letter that described being "harassed and pressured for weeks".

"I have been told that my support for Israel has made me complicit in racism, and that, by association, I am racist. Students launched an aggressive social media campaign to 'impeach [my] Zionist a**’,”' she wrote.

Another letter to President Carol Folt of USC by the Brandeis Center, a Jewish civil rights organization, documented part of the sustained pattern of antisemitic harassment of Ritch.

Abeer Tijani, a Muslim USC student, had led the impeachment campaign, claiming that Ritch, "has been outspoken on issues that alienate Palestinian Trojans". While Tijani later went on to deny that she meant that being pro-Israel was impeachable, her words speak for themselves.

More attacks on the Jewish VP came from Emad Askar, the Director of Health and Wellness of USC's Interfraternity Council and a member of the Students for Justice in Palestine hate group.

Emad falsely claimed that "Zionism is not Judaism", defending his attacks on Ritch by insisting that the, "occupation of Palestine represents a larger struggle of oppression for numerous groups in the United States and throughout the world.”

When Isabel Washington was forced to resign, Emad whined that the student government hadn’t condemned her as a “zionist”.

Even during the election, Ritch was attacked for her role in Trojans for Israel.

“There never was an explicit like, ‘dirty Jew,’ like anyone ever invoking even the word ‘Jew.’ It was all under that kind of cloak of anti-Zionism,” she said.

President Carol Folt of USC responded to Ritch’s resignation letter by calling it “heartbreaking”

and touted the USC Shoah Foundation's Stronger Than Hate program as the answer. But the Stronger Than Hate program praises the Black@USC instagram account which played a key role in inciting attacks on Jewish students and its only mention of the antisemitism crisis, among its rants about George Floyd and ICE, is to put the blame on the Jewish students.

"Several members of the USC USG government resigned amidst accusations and revelations of microaggressions, racist memes and expressions of antisemitism," its mission paper notes.

It fails to mention that the students were Jewish and the victims of antisemitic harassment.

The word "Jewish" only appears 3 times in a 19 page program from the Shoah Foundation which had been created to record the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, but now touts Black Lives Matter while dismissing antisemitic harassment at USC. Israel isn’t mentioned at all.

Stronger Than Hate is not the solution to what happened at USC: it’s a symptom of the problem.

Folt’s letter failed to note the role that campus hate groups like Students for Justice in Palestine have played and continue to play in the harassment of Jewish students. She did not address the fact that multiple Jewish student leaders, not just one, had been forced out by the harassment. And she did not condemn any specific acts, including the petition, or any of the harassers.

That’s a far cry from USC’s response when a Trojans booster had tweeted that BLM was a terrorist group. That woman was quickly banned from buying tickets or attending USC games.

The double standard is blatantly grotesque.

Criticising BLM will get you banned from USC, but harassing Jewish students will not only result in your demands being met, but will earn you a spot of honor at the USC Shoah Foundation.

“This is antisemitism, and cannot be tolerated at a University that proclaims to 'nurture an environment of mutual respect and tolerance,'” Ritch wrote in her letter of resignation.

USC is in violation of its own codes and those of the Department of Education.

President Folt stated that, "what happened to Rose Ritch is unacceptable, and we must all take up her challenge to do better.”

That should begin with confronting campus hate groups like Students for Justice in Palestine.

Two of the three Jewish students targeted by SJP and its campus allies had impeccable progressive credentials. One was black and the other was gay. That did not save them. They were not harassed because they were insufficiently politically correct on any issue. Except one.

Rose Ritch and Isabel Washington’s work with Hillel made them targets. As did Ritch’s role at Trojans for Israel. It was their Jewish affiliations that led to the harassment. Their tormentors had made it their goal to ban any pro-Israel Jewish students from holding student government offices. This is not a new tactic. It was innovated by Hatem Bazian: SJP’s founding father.

“Hatem Bazian was more responsible than any other student on campus for trying to make life miserable for Jewish students,” Rabbi Doug Kahn, who led Jewish outreach in San Francisco, had charged.

Bazian’s tactics included blocking a Jewish student from sitting on the Student Judicial Council at SFSU because he “supported the state of Israel and was therefore, by definition, a racist."

More recently, SJP had targeted student government leaders at UCLA for taking trips to Israel. And a student was asked if being Jewish would be a “conflict of interest” when sitting on the student judicial board. At UC Santa Cruz, a Jewish member of the student government was warned to abstain from a BDS vote because he had been “elected with a Jewish agenda.”

This is swiftly becoming the new normal. And there are no sanctions for this strategic harassment of Jewish students on campuses where wearing the wrong Halloween costume or posting something dumb as a 15-year-old can end a college career before it even gets started.

College presidents issue letters claiming to be troubled or concerned. And then do nothing.

As long as Students for Justice in Palestine is free to target and harass Jewish students for supporting the existence of a Jewish State, USC and other campuses are safe spaces for hate.

Photo: Daily News


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; danielgreenfield; israel; jewish; sjp
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1 posted on 08/17/2020 9:29:42 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell
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To: daisy mae for the usa; AdvisorB; wizardoz; free-in-nyc; Vendome; Georgia Girl 2; blaveda; ...

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.

To get on or off the Greenfield ping list please FReepmail me.

Front Page mag - A Project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center

Daniel Greenfield Ping List Notification of new articles.

I am posting Greenfield’s articles from FrontPage and the Sultan Knish blog. FReepmail to get on or off the Greenfield ping list.

I highly recommend an occasional look at the Sultan Knish blog. It is a rich source of materials, links and more from one of the preeminent writers of our age.

FrontPage is a basic resource for conservative thought. Lou


2 posted on 08/17/2020 9:32:03 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (A deep and terrible ignorance born of abject corruption is required to hate our president.)
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To: Louis Foxwell

[[USC and other campuses are safe spaces for hate.

3 Jewish Students Forced Out of USC Student Government]]

Sue for religious discrimination- supposedly that is against the law-


3 posted on 08/17/2020 9:34:18 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: Bob434

For a while................


4 posted on 08/17/2020 9:35:56 AM PDT by Red Badger (Jesus said "There is no marriage in Heaven." ... That's why they call it Heaven............)
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To: Red Badger

Fine. They’re probably Democrats.


5 posted on 08/17/2020 9:43:04 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Bump


6 posted on 08/17/2020 9:43:26 AM PDT by lowbridge
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

7 posted on 08/17/2020 9:45:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Louis Foxwell

It is very clear absolutely clear that the universities are afraid of the truth they try to suppress it try to expel people who speak it but they cannot stop it


8 posted on 08/17/2020 9:55:19 AM PDT by Truthoverpower (The guv-mint you get is the Trump winning express ! Yea haw ! Trump pence II!)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Are the students Democrats or decent people?


9 posted on 08/17/2020 10:10:54 AM PDT by rrrod (6)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Bookmark


10 posted on 08/17/2020 10:20:07 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: Louis Foxwell

Were they “forced out”? Or did they resign? NEVER f**king resign!


11 posted on 08/17/2020 10:24:42 AM PDT by montag813 (Nonsenze)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Why should there be student governments anywhere, esp. if they are taxpayer funded?


12 posted on 08/17/2020 10:26:36 AM PDT by Socon-Econ (adical Islam,)
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To: Socon-Econ

Why financially support higher education?


13 posted on 08/17/2020 10:35:29 AM PDT by ActresponsiblyinVA
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To: Louis Foxwell

The administration and much of the faculty are the real enemy.

The Palestinians are just doing what they are wont to do, as they have a tribal beef with Israel. Everybody has a beef with someone. The Tamils hate the Sinhalese with about the same justification, and the Chinese hate the Japanese with much more reason.

But it is the administration that gives them the power to put their resentments into effect.

If the Jews want a fix for this, they should organize and use their own power to dismiss that crocodile-tear spewing “heartbroken” university president, and that entire tier of management. Pour encourager les autres.


14 posted on 08/17/2020 10:37:15 AM PDT by buwaya
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To: Louis Foxwell

On a happier note:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3875149/posts

President Trump’s Successes in the Middle East Are Historic: ISIS Is Destroyed, Iranian Regime Is Contained and First Peace Treaty in Region in 25 Years

(WE ARE WINNING ... WE JUST NEED TO KEEP FIGHTING...)


15 posted on 08/17/2020 10:41:48 AM PDT by GOPJ (Want to live in a 3rd world hellhole? MOVE to one. DO NOT ELECT DEMOCRATS TO CREATE ONE HERE)
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To: Louis Foxwell
bouncing American students for pro-America views has prolly already been done
16 posted on 08/17/2020 10:45:08 AM PDT by Chode (Send bachelors and come heavily armed.)
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To: Louis Foxwell

Does the student government know the reason Jewish students cannot support Israel?

Is this hand me down dumb, or can they give a reason.. one that make sense!!


17 posted on 08/17/2020 10:50:16 AM PDT by frnewsjunkie
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To: Louis Foxwell

An athletic supporter doesn’t support BLM and says so, and she is banned from attending USC football games, or buying tickets for same? I have some news for the USC administration, the vast majority of USC athletic supporters I know ( and I know MANY), are conservative Republicans who, were I to venture a guess, believe that Black lives matter, but to do support the organization BLM.

Who does the administration at USC will be in the stands, once athletic events again commence?


18 posted on 08/17/2020 11:01:00 AM PDT by theoilpainter
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To: Louis Foxwell

Maybe the student government gestapo will paint stars of david on the dorm windows of those student too?


19 posted on 08/17/2020 11:42:25 AM PDT by Midwesterner53
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To: Louis Foxwell

A Jewish Democrat is a battered wife who won’t leave the house.


20 posted on 08/17/2020 11:44:01 AM PDT by dead (Trump puts crazy glue on their grenades and they never know it until after they pull the pin.)
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