By Asaf Romirowsky
Students at Emory University awoke earlier this month to find flyers posted in their dorm rooms informing them they would be evicted in the coming days. Intended to intimidate Jewish students on college campuses, these mock eviction notices are a common tactic of Students for Justice in Palestine, an antisemitic group with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
What distinguished this year’s annual week of harassment of Jewish students on Emory’s campus from other SJP events was that the eviction notices were officially sanctioned by the Emory Office of Campus Life, replete with a stamp of approval indicating that a faculty member or administrator had approved of the notice.
After being forced to start a website with “FAQs” to set the record straight, Emory recognized that the official stamp might have been “confusing” and said the practice would be discontinued. Alas, that is as good as it gets in terms of an adequate response to blatant antisemitism and intimidation of Emory’s Jewish students.
Emory interim vice president and vice provost Paul Marthers issued the initial statement. In justifying the posting of the flyers, Marthers stated they were “posted as part of a communication campaign by a student organization concerned with human rights in the Middle East.”
Where does one begin to address the basic ignorance and dishonesty in this statement? Is it really possible that Emory administrators, entrusted with the safety of all students on campus, are not aware that SJP is an antisemitic organization with funding sources tied to terrorist organizations, including Hamas? Does Marthers not know that one of his campus groups’ mission, through incitement of hatred and violence against Jewish students, is the isolation, demonization and ultimate destruction of the only Jewish country in the world?
If human rights are worthy of attention by Emory administrators, why were they not focused on the rights of Jewish students who no longer feel safe walking on campus – the exact intent of the SJP haters.
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(Asaf Romirowsky is a fellow of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research)