Friday, November 22, 2013

Request to condemn AMED-linked Facebook message‏

Dear Dean Monteiro,

As you know, last week AMCHA Iniaitive sent a letter to President Wong expressing our concern over an event sponsored by the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative in the College of Ethnic Studies, that occurred on November 7.  At that event, students were encouraged to engage in art projects which involved using a stencil bearing the image of a notorious terrorist and another stencil that stated "MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS KILLED COLONIZERS." 

It has come to our attention that following our letter to President Wong, which was copied to you and to AMED Senior Scholar Rabab Abdulhadi, a statement clearly linked to AMED was posted on Facebook (see below), bearing the header:

"Zionists: Hands off our San Francisco State University Students!"

"Support AMED and GUPS against a Zionist smear campaign/charges of Anti-Semitism"

We believe the Facebook statement was, at least in part, written by an AMED faculty member.

The Facebook statement, which makes clear that AMED and GUPS were responsible for the two stencils, is a defense of the stencils and an ad hominem attack on AMCHA Initiative for raising legitimate concerns about their antisemitic nature.

Please understand that this AMED-linked Facebook statement defends, justifies, and glorifies murder and those who commit it.

President Wong has unambiguously condemned this behavior. 

Therefore, we ask you to do the same:

Please issue a public condemnation of student and faculty groups and individuals affiliated with the College of Ethnic Studies, who use the name and resources of the University to defend, justify, and glorify murder and those who commit it.

We and the concerned Jewish community eagerly await your statement.

Sincerely,

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Co-founder, AMCHA Initiative

Leila Beckwith
Co-founder, AMCHA Initiative


Cc: SFSU President Leslie Wong
CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White  
CSU Board of Trustees 
CSU Interim General Counsel Andrew Jones  
Professor Rabab Abdulhadi, Senior Scholar, AMED 
Andrenike Hamilton, President SFSU Associated Students, Inc. 
Guy Dalpe, Managing Director Cesar Chavez Student Center
California State Senator Leland Y. Yee (San Francisco)
California State Senator Mark Leno  (San Francisco)
California Assembly Member Philip Y. Ting (San Francisco)
California Assembly Member Joan Buchanan, Chair of the Assembly Education Committee
California Jewish community leaders 

BCC: Wide circulation in the Jewish community

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