Recently, Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP) at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law promoted a bylaw that would create what critics have characterized as “no-go zones for Jews,” “LSJP is so excited to announce that multiple student affinity groups and clubs at Berkeley Law have adopted a pro-Palestine bylaw divesting all funds from institutions and companies complicit in the occupation of Palestine, and banning future use of funds towards such companies!” the group wrote in an Instagram post in August. “LSJP is calling ALL student organizations at Berkeley Law to take an anti-racist and anti-settler colonial stand and adopt the bylaw into their constitutions ASAP!”
In addition to urging student groups to support the ongoing BDS campaign against Israel, the bylaw also included troubling language to expunge any speech by individuals who might be considered pro-Israel or pro-Zionist, especially speech meant to correct the many factual and historical inaccuracies in the pro-Palestinian bylaw. “In the interest of protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus,” the suggested language read, groups who adopt this bylaw “will not invite speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views or host/sponsor/promote events in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”
And in language which is Orwellian in its attempt to paint bigotry as virtue, cooperating student groups, the bylaw read, will proclaim that they are “publicly stipulating the organization’s position of anti-racism and anti-settler colonialism to speakers, ensuring that proposals for speakers emphasize the organization’s desire for equality and inclusion,” all of this for the purpose of creating “a safe and inclusive space for Palestinian students and students that are in the support of the liberation of Palestine.”
The implementation of a litmus test of ideological allegiance — only targeted at Jews who support Israel — is part of a decades-old campaign to malign Israel and transform it into a pariah state. It excludes its supporters from progressive groups, by falsely alleging Israel is an apartheid, racist regime of white supremacy that continues to oppress innocent Arabs who were the actual indigenous residents of the land now called Israel.
Imagine if a student government yanked accommodations for halal food on campus because Islam can be linked to terrorism, the same spurious linkage these social justice cretins have created for “apartheid” Israel, Zionism and kosher food from pro-Israel companies. The campus-wide howling about Islamophobia and bigotry would be deafening.
The Berkeley situation is, of course, part of a broader effort to marginalize Jewish students, malign Israel and Zionism without debate or counter-argument, contort history and facts to elevate the Palestinian cause and denigrate the Jewish state, and promote hatred and hostility to any supporter of Israel. The real intention of pro-Palestinian radicals, now encompassing a large swathe of academia, is to exclude Israel and Zionism as reasonable topics of discussion and to prevent supporters of the Jewish state from even defending it or offering counterarguments. While Israel is not a perfect country and when they do make mistakes they should be called out on those mistakes. However, the immense hatred of the Jewish people that has arisen to almost pre-World War 2 levels is a sign that Satan is continuing his attacks.
Biblical Connection: In Revelation 12, the nation of Israel, depicted symbolically by a woman figure, is attacked by both Satan and the forces of the Antichrist.
PRAY: Pray that the Jewish people will be protected from these types of unjust attacks in the public square.