By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey, on a Zoomcast from Hancock Park in Los Angeles, said on Thursday, April 25, that federal funds should be stripped from those colleges and universities that refuse to protect their students from the wave of antisemitic, anti-Israel demonstrations now taking place on college campuses across the nation.
The former infielder for the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers called upon Congress to hold more hearings with university presidents to learn why they are not living up to their universities’ mission statements of “providing an education for the future and protecting our students.”
Furthermore, Garvey said, “Take away tenure from professors who are joining these encampments and joining these terrorists.”
He also appealed to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon “to apply the full letter of the law to these terrorists. Set an example in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, the state and the rest of the country.”
“We cannot fund colleges and universities that aren’t protecting the students,” he said. “This is an attack on a religious class, on individuals who are simply trying to get an education. But it has spilled over to the streets of Los Angeles to the freeways that are being blocked. It is unconscionable that the flow of America is being stopped by these small groups of organized terrorists.”
The backdrop of Garvey’s press conference was a lawn filled with Israeli flags, each representing Israelis killed or taken hostage on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas forces attacked southern Israel, murdering nearly 1,200 people and taking about 240 others hostage.
Preceding him to the microphone were Aaron Cohen, a private instructor in counter-terrorism who lectures to various law enforcement agencies, and Rabbi Chaim Mentz of Chabad of Bel Air.
Cohen warned that violent rhetoric at the university encampments can lead to actual violence and mass casualty incidents. He said Jewish students are in fear for their lives on some campuses, and asked, as Garvey did later, what are the sources of funds paying for these pro-Hamas demonstrations.
Mentz said Jews have faced antisemitism before. He told of growing up in New York City and going to a New York Yankees game at which Mickey Mantle hit a home run. As he and his 6-foot-tall father stood up to cheer, they were reviled by antisemites sitting behind them. His father said to him that he should be proud because they recognized him as a Jew.
From the standpoint of Jewish history, he said, “Don’t worry. Hold strong. This too shall pass.”
In a related development, the Anti-Defamation League identified the national organization of the Students for Justice in Palestine as playing a key role in organizing the campus demonstrations. It quoted an SJP “mission statement” that said “…We as students will reclaim our power on campus—there will be no classes or compliance with our institutions so long as their shameless profiteering off of our genocide persists. Through the student movement for a popular university, we will transform our mass mobilization into sustained, tangible power…We will seize control of our institutions, campus by campus, until Palestine is free.”
From its New York offices, the ADL reported: “In addition to SJP, numerous other campus and community anti-Zionist groups — many of which have played key roles in organizing anti-Israel protests since October 7 — have supported calls for college encampments. These groups include the national bodies and/or local chapters of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Dissenters, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Palestine Action, Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Samidoun, Students for Democratic Society (SDS), Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and others. Individual influencers, such as Mohammed el-Kurd and Jenan Matari, are also supporting this call to action.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via sdheritage@cox.net
I actually agree with this. We should stop seeing a BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) rules only bounded to money. Anti bds laws are about discrimination. So if universities discriminate Jewish students they should be a subject to government actions.