Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumUC SANTA CRUZ STUDENT WARNED TO ABSTAIN FROM BDS VOTE OVER ‘JEWISH AGENDA’
A Jewish member of the student government at University of California, Santa Cruz was warned to abstain from voting on a pro-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) resolution because he is the president of the schools Jewish Student Union and was elected with a Jewish agenda.
The incident occurred prior to a vote by the UCSC student council to annul a veto an earlier Israel divestment bill. On Nov. 17, the UCSC voted 28 in favour and five against, with seven abstaining, to reinstate a divestment resolution that was vetoed in 2014.
In a text message sent to UC Santa Cruz Jewish Student Union (JSU) President Daniel Bernstein, the sender wrote, You will be abstaining, as the president of JSU that is the right thing.
There was also a comment tonight that you were elected by a..hmm Idk if these are the right words but lets say
a Jewish agenda, the text message added.
In response, Bernstein posted on Facebook, The implication that I, as a Jewish student and leader in the Jewish community, should not be allowed to vote on an issue that so deeply impacts the Jewish community, and that I should abstain because I cannot be trusted due to an alleged, Jewish agenda, echoes the racism Jews have faced all over the world throughout our history.
I am calling on the leadership at UC Santa Cruz, from the student level on up to start taking concrete action to get the anti-Semitism at this campus under control, Bernstein wrote.
http://www.cjnews.com/news/international/uc-santa-cruz-student-warned-to-abstain-from-bds-vote-over-jewish-agenda
King_David
(14,851 posts)Quelle surprise !!!
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)Free speech is taking a massive beating on campuses these days.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)Hopefully they find out who and expell that student pronto.
6chars
(3,967 posts)The BDS on campus aim is collective punishment of Jewish students in the US. My younger relative on a state campus now just closes her eyes, covers her ears and keeps her head low as she trudges by the quad to her STEM classes - she avoids humanities courses as much as possible for obvious reasons - and knows not to let on what her religion is. She knows that as a member of a second class people, this is how she has to suck it up and get her education and her chance in life. Of course, BDS would say it serves her right because Palestine.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)If it isn't against the Syrians, it's against Jewish people.
grossproffit
(5,591 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)But in fact many people in the Middle East, not just Jewish people, are Semitic.
In studies of linguistics and ethnology, the term Semitic (from the biblical "Shem", Hebrew: שם was first used to refer to a family of languages native to West Asia (the Middle East). The languages evolved and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Malta, and are now referred to cumulatively as the Semitic languages. The languages include the ancient and modern forms of Ahlamu; Akkadian (including Assyrian and Babylonian dialects); Amharic; Amalekite; Ammonite; Amorite; Arabic; Aramaic/Syriac; the Canaanite languages (Phoenician, Punic or Carthaginian and Hebrew); Assyrian; Chaldean; Eblaite; Edomite; Ge'ez; Old South Arabian; Modern South Arabian languages; Maltese; Mandaic; Moabite; Proto-Sinaitic; Sutean; Syriac; Tigre and Tigrinya; and Ugaritic, among others.
As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution.[1] Today, the word "Semite" may be used to refer to any member of any of a number of peoples of ancient Middle East including the Akkadians, Assyrians, Arameans, Phoenicians, Hebrews (Jews), Arabs, and their descendants.[2]
. . . .
The modern linguistic meaning of "Semitic" is derived from (though not identical to) biblical usage. In a linguistic context the Semitic languages are a subgroup of the larger Afroasiatic language family (according to Joseph Greenberg's widely accepted classification) and include, among others: Akkadian, the ancient language of Babylon and Assyria; Amorite, Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia; Tigrinya, a language spoken in Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia; Arabic; Aramaic, still spoken in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Armenia by Assyrian-Chaldean Christians and Mandaeans; Canaanite; Ge'ez, the ancient language of the Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox scriptures which originated in Yemen; Hebrew; Maltese; Phoenician or Punic; Syriac (a form of Aramaic); and South Arabian, the ancient language of Sheba, which today includes Mehri, spoken by only tiny minorities on the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula.
Wildly successful as second languages far beyond their numbers of contemporary first-language speakers, a few Semitic languages today are the base of the sacred literature of some of the world's great religions, including Islam (Arabic), Judaism (Hebrew and Aramaic), and Syriac and Ethiopian Christianity (Aramaic/Syriac and Ge'ez). Millions learn these as a second language (or an archaic version of their modern tongues): many Muslims learn to read and recite Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an, and many Jews all over the world outside of Israel with other first languages speak and study Hebrew, the language of the Torah, Midrash, and other Jewish scriptures. Ethnic Assyrian followers of The Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East and some Syriac Orthodox Christians, both speak Mesopotamian eastern Aramaic and use it also as a liturgical tongue. The language is also used liturgically by the primarily Arabic-speaking followers of the Maronite, Syriac Catholic Church and some Melkite Christians. Arabic itself is the main liturgical language of Byzantine-rite Orthodox Christians in the Middle East, who compose the patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria. Mandaic another dialect of Aramaic is both spoken and used as a liturgical language by followers of the Mandaean faith.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_people
I find it ironic that the term anti-semitic is used to refer to people who hate Jews because the people of the Middle East who are also speaking semitic languages are among those who hate Jews. What a small world.
And then in America there are people who hate both Jews and, for instance, Syrians and anyone from the Middle East. Hate is what the anti-semites have in common whether they focus their hatred on Jews or Syrians or whomever.
It just strikes me as so sad -- all that hate. Ruins a lot of lives.
branford
(4,462 posts)the commonly accepted definition of Antisemitism is the hatred of the Jewish people.
The term originated in late 19th Century Germany, and has a distinct and ugly meaning. Although clearly not your intent, polemics about how semites encompass both Jews and many other eccentricities, including a significant number with high proportions of hostility toward Jews, is a common tactic of actual anti-Semites used to defend or mask their bigotry, and diminish the uniqueness of the term, with all its terrible historical and modern implications.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-semitism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)But it is drawn out and held up and brandished about by lots of people in the world including in the Middle East. It's just tiring.
Thank God, I live in California. We don't put up with that racist nonsense in my neighborhood. [I'm sure it exists here, but we have people from all over the world and of all races and we just could care less.]
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)understanding of it.
Why is there so much hate in the world?
grossproffit
(5,591 posts)End of discussion.
King_David
(14,851 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)A Muslim student was told to abstain. Incessant and deafening. BDS once again showing their true disgusting colors.