ZOA: Columbia U. Bans Pro-Israel Display, Allows Anti-Israel Display

ZOA: Columbia Bans Pro-Israel Display, Allows Anti-Israel Display
Columbia Univ. Alumni Must Take Action
By: ZOA Staff March 3, 2016
http://zoa.org/2016/03/10316393-zoa-columbia-bans-pro-israel-display-allows-anti-israel-display/

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton Klein issued the
following statement:

The ZOA criticized Columbia University and the Columbia University Student
Government for violating pro-Israel students’ First Amendment rights and
civil rights by banning and forcing the removal of a pro-Israel Pinocchio
balloon display – just 90 minutes after the display was erected by Artists 4
Israel – despite the fact that the pro-Israel students had obtained the
necessary permits for the display. The Chair of Columbia’s student
government, Mariam Elnozahy, who is also a member of the anti-Semitic,
anti-Israel Hamas-affiliated hate group, Students for Justice in Palestine
(“SJP”), ordered the removal of the pro-Israel display while wearing an
Israel Apartheid Week T-shirt calling for Boycotts, Sanctions, and
Divestment (BDS) against Israel. The Vice-Chair of Columbia’s student
government, Karim Nader, accompanied Elnozahy while wearing a Palestinian
keffiyeh. (Source)

The pro-Israel display was also a response to a large, defamatory,
anti-Semitic, anti-Israel “Apartheid wall” display, erected by SJP at
Columbia University’s most prominent location.

The pro-Israel Pinocchio (with a large nose) had held up a sign saying
““Apartheid” Week Compassion Abuse” to dramatize the fact that the
“Apartheid” charges leveled at Israel during Columbia University’s ongoing
“Apartheid week” are a lie. The pro-Israel display was also a response to a
large, defamatory, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel “Apartheid wall” display,
erected by SJP at Columbia University’s most prominent location – at the top
of the steps in front of Columbia University’s famous main library. The
anti-Israel display has been permitted to remain there, and continues to
incite hatred against Jews and Israel. The “Apartheid wall” is covered with
anti-Israel slogans and symbols (including what looks like a pig, supposedly
representing Jews, with an X over it).

It is an outrage that anti-Semites such as SJP are permitted to freely
exhibit their enormous, venomous, defamatory anti-Semitic, anti-Israel
displays on the Columbia University campus – while Jewish and pro-Israel
students are banned from exhibiting displays that challenge SJP’s
anti-Israel lies.

Last year, the David Horowitz Freedom Center listed the once-great Columbia
University as the university having the worst anti-Semitic activity in the
country, and explained that Columbia University is home to the “most
well-known antisemitic professors in the nation such as Rashid Khalidi and
Joseph Massad, who has been accused of harassing Jewish students on multiple
occasions. In addition, it is home to a highly active SJP chapter that has
recently brought BDS founder Omar Barghouti and disgraced anti-Semitic
professor Steven Salaita to campus.”

Actions You Can Take:

ZOA urges Columbia University alumni to get involved and to demand that
Columbia University put an end to the blatant, hateful, dangerous
anti-Semitism and violations of Jewish students’ rights on the Columbia
University campus. Please contact Columbia University President Lee C.
Bollinger, Phone: (212) 854-9970; Fax: (212) 854-9973; Email:
[email protected] and other administration officials
(listed here) and trustees (listed here). Please copy ZOA on your
communications ([email protected]).

Alumni should also seriously consider whether they wish to continue to
support a university that permits anti-Semitic displays in the most
prominent University location while banning a pro-Israel display.