Students forced to attend “re-education” program designed by Israel lobby group

Nora Barrows-Friedman Activism and BDS Beat 13 August 2013

Students who walked out of a speech given by an Israeli soldier at Florida Atlantic University earlier this year are being forced by the administration to attend a chilling “re-education” program designed by an Israel lobby group.

This mandatory “training” program is based on curriculum designed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a lobby organization which has been instrumental in pressuring university administrations to curb Palestine solidarity activism across the US.

As The Electronic Intifada recently reported, the ADL has a lengthy history of spying on Palestine solidarity activists and academics, including Noam Chomsky.

Two of the three Florida Atlantic University (FAU) students being forced to attend this program have also been put on indefinite probation by the administration “for the remainder of our undergraduate careers,” they say in a recent statement.

About the ADL, they add: “this self-described advocate of anti-bias trainings promotes an exclusivist Jewish state that keeps Palestinians out of their ancestral homeland, and irresponsibly mislabels advocacy on behalf of Palestinians as ‘anti-Semitic.’ Yet we are expected to learn about ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ from them?”

“Motivated by outside pressures”

Activists involved with Students for Justice in Palestine at Florida Atlantic University have faced extreme scrutiny and simmering administrative retaliation over the past year in particular.

As we reported, in April 2012 students at FAU were subjected to administrative pressure and death threats after they engaged in a nonviolent direct action calling attention to the demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli forces. In a creative effort to raise awareness of Israel’s rampant home demolition practices, students posted 200 fake eviction notices on dorm room doors.

The Center for Constitutional Rights said that:

The students learned that the University was willing to bow to pressure from the campus Hillel chapter and outside organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Zionist Organization of America, by opening an investigation into their peaceful action, which had been officially authorized and accompanied by University housing authorities. And some news media were willing to report falsely that the notices were posted only on the doors of Jewish students, without independently investigating the matter. Legal and administrative action was threatened, and death threats were made against some of the student activists.

After weeks of turmoil, the University rightly announced that it would not take action against the students and confirmed that there was no evidence that Jewish students were targeted by the notices.

However, it seems that Israel-aligned groups kept up the pressure on the university since that incident. And after the walk-out action this past April, just one in a years-long series of similar protest actions against visiting Israeli officials and military personnel, the administration went full-throttle against the students.

This week, civil rights groups including the National Lawyers Guild, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Center for Constitutional Rights have admonished FAU administration’s outrageous actions.

In a letter dated 12 August, the groups say that:

This disciplinary action against these students has the appearance of being motivated by FAU’s evident desire to respond to outside pressures. This is not an acceptable motivation to impose disciplinary measures, and it heightens the appearance that the University acted in an arbitrary, discriminatory and capricious manner, based on the students’ political views.

The groups add that they will monitor the university’s actions “to ensure that FAU does not continue to unfairly punish these students and other FAU campus activists for their outspoken views on an important human rights issue.”

I reported earlier this week on attempts by Canada’s York University to curb Palestine solidarity activism, including stripping Students Against Israeli Apartheid of their official status and barring an alumnus from setting foot on campus. It is clear that parallel draconian, anti-free speech measures are being undertaken by US administrations as well.

But, as York students and FAU students point out, the more university administrations try to stifle free speech and student activism on Palestine, the more determined students become to continue to speak out against Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights.

“Rights trampled”

The full statement by FAU students Nadine Aly, Noor Fawzy, and Renata Glebocki is below. It was published on 11 August in the campus newspaper, the University Press.

In April of this year, Israeli Col. Bentzi Gruber spoke at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). His speech was propaganda, touting the ethics of the Israeli military. He offered a defense of his own actions in Operation Cast Lead, an Israeli military operation that resulted in the killing of over 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, and at least 300 minors. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented evidence that Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 2008-2009 attacks.

As FAU students and Palestinian human rights activists, we could not stand idly by as this member of a foreign military that is guilty of committing serious war crimes used student tuitionpaid public space to spread falsehoods about what happened in Gaza. Two days before the event, we addressed two university officials. We expressed our concerns and disapproval of an event of this nature. We reminded the officials that some students on campus had family members killed by the Israeli military during Operation Cast Lead. We received no response, and it became clear to us that the university administration was apathetic to human rights when it comes to those of Palestinians.

Out of a resolute commitment to human rights, we attended the event and peacefully walked out in protest. After the speaker’s opening remarks, one of us stood up and read a few facts concerning the war crimes committed in Operation Cast Lead. This very brief commentary was met by derogatory slurs from non-student members of the audience, who accused us of being “spies,” “terrorists,” and other offensive names. We raised a banner that read “War Criminal” as we walked out. The duration of the entire incident was no more than one or two minutes. The event continued afterward, for about an hour and a half. We peacefully protested outside for about half an hour.

The university administration started investigating five of us that walked out, initially trying to obtain the names of other human rights activists who participated in the protest. After a four-month university effort to discipline us, all five of us — two of whom wish to remain anonymous out of fear of further retaliation — decided to sign agreements that keep the incident off of our records and confirm that we have not been found responsible for the charges brought against us. But the agreements place harsh conditions on those of us who remain at FAU this year.

Based on the agreements, two of the three of us still at FAU are on indefinite probation for the remainder of our undergraduate careers, two of us are barred from holding any leadership positions in official student organizations, and three of us are required to take part in a mandatory University Campus of Difference training program based on a curriculum created by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the fall. One of us, in addition to the mandatory training, is required to complete 25 hours of community service. Two of us who already graduated will also be subject to similar sanctions if we ever decide to come back to FAU to study.

It is important to emphasize that the mandatory training program is nothing short of officially sanctioned re-education, and it implies that we are prejudiced for standing up against war crimes and human rights abuses carried out by the Israeli military against Palestinians. The injustice of it is magnified because the co-sponsoring organization, the ADL, has been vocal in attempts to malign us for our Palestinian rights activism and has pressured the University to take action against us, has a history of spying on advocates for Palestinian rights, and is a staunch opponent of the internationally recognized legal right of Palestinians to return to homes from which they were expelled 65 years ago during Israel’s creation.

In other words, this self-described advocate of anti-bias trainings promotes an exclusivist Jewish state that keeps Palestinians out of their ancestral homeland, and irresponsibly mislabels advocacy on behalf of Palestinians as “anti-Semitic.” Yet we are expected to learn about “diversity” and “tolerance” from them?

We were well aware that the university’s goal was to impede our activism. But by signing these agreements we were able to avoid even greater scrutiny and harsher sanctions through a disciplinary proceeding and an extended legal battle with university administrators. Our goal is to instead focus on our education and activism.

We believe this is an opportunity to shed light on the miscarriage of justice at FAU and the clear violation of our First Amendment rights. The buckling of the administration to the demands of the ADL and several other external Zionist organizations – in this instance and multiple times in the past, is disturbing and at odds with free inquiry and the right of students to express their opposition to human rights abuses and war crimes. Although the university intends to silence our activism and stifle our right to free speech, this has only created unity among us and determination within us.

We believe that free speech advocates as well as civil rights and human rights advocates will be appalled at the actions FAU administrators have taken against us. The right of students to stand up for Palestinian freedom and human rights should not be trampled as has occurred at FAU. And certainly we should not be subject to the sort of re-education program the administration has in store for us in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that has been at the forefront of nationwide efforts to stifle student activism that criticizes Israeli policies and advocates for Palestinian human rights.

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Comments

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Artemis replied on

That is the best way to create stronger anti-Israeli sentiments, not only amongst the targeted students, but also any students who believe in justice, free speech and open debate. So stupid.

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xuexia replied on

I agree. This does not help foster sympathy for the Jewish cause. Totally counterproductive. And not a good advertisement for FAU.

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Andor replied on

My granddaughter was at the time an honor college student at the U.of South Florida. She decided to take an easy class to lighten her load, "Current Events". Suddenly the family got almost hysterical call from her. She kept receiving extremely low grades from her instructor, and her grants were in jeopardy. When asked what happened she said there was a discussion in class regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and their instructor was rather hostile toward the speakers who were advocating the Palestinian cause. Asked if he were Jewish she answered, "I don't think so, he is an American, but he was a pilot during the Six-day war in Israel". It shows how little attention she paid to the nationalities in general. It was too late for her to withdraw.. We ended up suggesting that she writes a glowing tribute to the Masada defenders as her final paper, starting with , "Israel, the country of milk and honey, the country of heroes and prophets..." and proceeds in the same manner, which she did. Ended up with a "B" as for "Bitter taste of reality". She is an MD now, compassionate and active in shaping the policies for the future, seeing the Obama health reform as something positive. During her years in medical school she worked for free clinic in Tampa as an interpreter, and organized student group flying every summer to the DR, when they were offering basic medical help and free medical supplies.
It is not the "academic freedom" to discriminate and persecute students for their political views! It is not right to introduce young and idealistic to the hypocrisy of a few. It is not right to use Maoist "re-education camps" in the US. What's next? Little red books with the Great Leader's quotes?!

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Jim replied on

Students of conscience at that university should indeed transfer, but more importantly, BDS activists should work to publicize the university's shameful actions, which deserve widespread attention and opposition from Americans who care about free speech.

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Jordan replied on

FSU and the ADL's behaviour is a fabulous way to help young people intuitively conflate Israel, Israeli policy, right-wing Zionist lobbying, Zionists, Jews and conspiracy thinking. Doing their part to keep simple minded anti Semitism alive and well. Kol haKavod ADL and FSU, kol hakavod.

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xuexia replied on

I could not agree more. Maybe we are all fooled by them. Maybe their real agenda is fostering antisemitism.

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Gerald replied on

I wonder if such incidents at Florida Atlantic University, York University, Columbia University, Concordia University (Montréal), and other such institutions in recent years should inspire an effort to have these institutions' accreditation called into question. Turning secular institutions of higher learning into Zionist-oriented propaganda mills taints their status as universities. I suppose that the accreditation agencies themselves would be too nerveless to carry out freedom initiatives like that, but, if so, their own complicity with injustice, should they not take action, would be revealed for all the world to see!

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Rammstein replied on

I think it is not totally OK to force someone to the core to get education on the course like that. It is up to one's free will to consider taking education if they want and not be compelled or forced to take it by being forced.

Nora Barrows-Friedman

Nora Barrows-Friedman's picture

Nora Barrows-Friedman is a staff writer and associate editor at The Electronic Intifada, and is the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine (Just World Books, 2014).