A pro-Palestinian group’s symbolic “eviction” notices on the dorm room doors of a Florida college have Jewish activists fuming and university police probing possible death threats against the group’s leader.
Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian group at Florida Atlantic University, came under fire by Jewish activists after it posted the notices on the dorm room doors of about 200 students at the school’s Boca Raton campus March 30.
“They are creating an environment of hostility that will affect those students who are pro-Israel and marginalize them,” Yael Hershfield, Florida associate director of the Anti-Defamation League, told FoxNews.com.
Students for Justice in Palestine claims the mock notices did not target Jewish students and were meant as a demonstration against what it considers the eviction of Palestinians from their homes by the Israeli government.
In a Thursday statement, the university said the fliers should not have been distributed, but added there is “no evidence that the postings were intended to target or intimidate individuals of any particular religion, national origin or faith.”
“All available evidence indicates that the postings were distributed randomly, without regard to the identity of any person who may have received or viewed them,” Senior Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Charles Brown, said in a statement obtained by FoxNews.com.
Hershfield said it doesn’t make a difference whether the fliers were distributed only to Jewish students or posted at random.
“Let’s be clear, pro-Israel students are not necessarily Jewish,” Hershfield said. “The idea is to intimidate those who stand for the rights of Israel and their Democratic values,” she said, calling the fliers “repulsive and problematic on many levels.”
Noor Fawzy, the pro-Palestinian group’s chapter president, told campus police she received threats in the wake of the controversy. FAU Deputy Police Chief Keith Totten told FoxNews.com Thursday that officials are investigating the origin of two emails sent to Fawzy that were threatening in nature.
“They were just very vile, with language that was above and beyond anything normal,” Totten said, noting that he believes the messages were sent in response to the fake eviction notices posted by Fawzy’s group.
(Source: Fox News)
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3 Responses
THE jEWISH students should take legal action against the university for allowing the creation of a hostile atmosphere in violation of the Civil Rights laws. Given that the local state government can be expected to be sympathetic it should not be a problem.
you forgot about the school expelling the Pro-Pal students
I don’t see how there is any case against these antisemites. If they distributed the fliers at random, then their only purpose was to spread awareness of and sympathy with their cause. Their cause is evil, but the university can’t get into that; it must be content-neutral. Suppose they had been campaigning for the tenants some local building that were being evicted; the exact same fliers would make sense in that context, and there would be no reason for anyone to feel a hostile atmosphere (unless the landlord’s relatives were there). And it would certainly be legal, and the university would have no right to stop it (even if the landlord himself was a student). From their evil lying point of view, that’s exactly what’s happening in Eretz Yisroel, and they have the first amendment right to campaign for this view in a public university.