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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/san-francisco-state-clears-students-israel-lobby-groups-charge">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/san-francisco-state-clears-students-israel-lobby-groups-charge</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">San Francisco State clears students of
Israel lobby group's charge</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/charlotte-silver">Charlotte
Silver</a></span> <span class="field field-blog"></span><span
class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2017-07-26T21:41:31+00:00">26 July 2017</span></span>
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<p>After a five-month investigation, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/san-francisco-state-university">San
Francisco State University</a> has <a
href="http://palestinelegal.org/news/2017/7/21/sfsu">cleared</a>
the organizers of a Know Your Rights fair of religious
discrimination.</p>
<p>Palestine solidarity and other campus activists had
been accused of religious discrimination for not
giving San Francisco Hillel, a Jewish campus group
that promotes Israel, a table at the event.</p>
<p>However, the investigation found that organizers of
the February 2017 fair were responsible for “viewpoint
discrimination” and “retaliation.”</p>
<p>Students were not told of the “retaliation” charge
until just four days before the investigation’s
decision was due. They were never informed that they
were being investigated for “viewpoint
discrimination.”</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestine-legal">Palestine
Legal</a> attorney <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/liz-jackson">Liz
Jackson</a> told The Electronic Intifada that she
believes the findings of the investigation were
politically motivated.</p>
<p>She said that the result was likely meant to appease
pro-Israel groups that are behind a lawsuit against
the university accusing it of discrimination against
Jews because of the activities of Palestine solidarity
activists on campus.</p>
<p>According to Jackson, the accused students were never
given any clear explanation of what “retaliation”
meant and thus were unable to properly defend
themselves against the charge.</p>
<p>The findings were announced in a letter to involved
parties over the weekend. The full report has yet to
be released.</p>
<h2>Pressure campaign</h2>
<p>Hillel’s exclusion from the Know Your Rights fair is
a principal claim in the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/lawyer-who-says-palestinians-dont-exist-sues-san-francisco-university">recent
lawsuit</a> against San Francisco State University
(SFSU), filed by The Lawfare Project, an Israel lobby
group whose director asserts that <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-lawfare-group-plans-massive-punishments-activists">there
is no such thing as a Palestinian</a>.</p>
<p>The lawsuit accuses the university of fostering a
hostile environment for Jewish students.</p>
<p>Palestine Legal’s Jackson believes the findings of
the investigation were an attempt to mollify such
groups in the wake of the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Hillel made a “false accusation of anti-Semitism,”
Jackson told The Electronic Intifada, reiterating that
the university cleared organizers of religious
discrimination.</p>
<p>“But there is a heavy pressure campaign in the courts
and in the media demanding that SFSU punish the
organizers,” Jackson added. “So it’s pretty clear that
SFSU went searching for a reason.”</p>
<p>Jackson says that the conclusion that the organizers
of the fair had “retaliated” against Hillel was a
“creative but erroneous allegation.”</p>
<h2>Defending vulnerable groups</h2>
<p>The Know Your Rights fair had been organized by
Muslim, Arab and Latino community groups on the campus
in response to US President Donald Trump’s slate of
executive orders targeting immigrants, refugees and
Muslims.</p>
<p>According to Palestine Legal, the organizers reached
out to groups that were supporting the targeted
communities.</p>
<p>They invited the American Civil Liberties Union, a
national organization that spearheaded litigation
against Trump’s executive order that <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/trump-furious-judge-suspends-muslim-ban">froze</a>
refugee arrivals and barred entry to people from seven
Muslim-majority countries.</p>
<p>They did not invite Hillel, but Hillel applied for a
table.</p>
<p>“The committee considered Hillel’s record of conduct
threatening students, and the fact that there were
already 25 organizations signed up for 22 tables, and
decided to decline Hillel’s request,” Palestine Legal
<a
href="http://palestinelegal.org/news/2017/7/21/sfsu">stated</a>
in a press release.</p>
<p>The university found that Hillel was denied a table
when there was still room available, according to the
letter announcing the investigation’s findings. The
evidence the university used is not disclosed in the
letter.</p>
<p>Jackson contests this finding. She told The
Electronic Intifada that tables were not assigned on a
first-come, first-served basis: “The organizers were
trying to reserve space for organizations most aligned
with the mission of the event, they were still trying
to bring groups that work with transgender people and
undocumented immigrants.”</p>
<p>“There are no facts that support the conclusion that
retaliation against Hillel occurred,” Jackson said.</p>
<p>“Hillel was not invited to table at the event because
of its demonstrated record of suppression of student
rights, including advocacy for justice in Palestine,”
Saliem Shehadeh, a student organizer who represented
SFSU’s General Union of Palestine Students on the
fair’s planning committee, said.</p>
<p>“In [San Francisco] and across the country, Hillel
International has attacked students and professors
with unfounded accusations of terrorism and
anti-Semitism, and called for law enforcement to
scrutinize our political speech,” Shehadeh added.
“They do this repeatedly, with university complicity.”</p>
<h2>Hillel’s history of repressing political speech</h2>
<p>In the fall of 2016, Hillel International, the
group’s national umbrella, <a
href="http://www.jweekly.com/2016/09/16/jewish-groups-commend-u-c-berkeley-for-canceling-student-led-palestine-cou/">helped</a>
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/uc-berkeley-reinstates-palestine-course-tried-change-content">pressure</a>
the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/uc-berkeley">University
of California, Berkeley</a> to cancel a student-led
course on Palestine, which was only reinstated after a
huge public outcry.</p>
<p>In May 2016, the Orange County Hillel chapter <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/uc-irvine-clears-students-pro-israel-groups-accusations">falsely
accused</a> student protesters at the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/uc-irvine">University
of California, Irvine</a> of physically threatening
Jewish students on campus – claims that were used in
an attempt to pressure the Orange County district
attorney to open a criminal investigation into the
students.</p>
<p>No criminal investigation was opened, and a school
investigation cleared the students of Hillel’s claims.</p>
<p>Shehadeh says that Hillel’s collaboration with law
enforcement “directly undermines the mission of the
fair.”</p>
<h2>Hillel breaking its own rules?</h2>
<p>It is also unclear why San Francisco Hillel wanted to
participate in an event with groups that support the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds">boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement</a> for
Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>Hillel International <a
href="http://www.hillel.org/jewish/hillel-israel/hillel-israel-guidelines">expressly
prohibits</a> cooperation with individuals or groups
who advocate for Palestinian rights using BDS.</p>
<p>Hillel chapters have strictly enforced these
guidelines. In March, Hillel at Ohio State University
<a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.778508">expelled</a>
a Jewish LGBTQ student group because it co-sponsored a
fundraiser for refugees with Jewish Voice for Peace,
which supports BDS.</p>
<p>The General Union of Palestinian Students at San
Francisco State University actively advocates for BDS
and was a principal organizer of the Know Your Rights
fair.</p>
<p>San Francisco Hillel did not respond to a request for
comment from The Electronic Intifada.</p>
<p>“The irony is painful. Students of color organized a
Know Your Rights fair because they are trying to
protect themselves from being maligned and
criminalized,” Palestine Legal’s Liz Jackson said.
“Hillel then wielded false accusations and a legal
complaint against the event organizers using the same
repression tactics that the organizers were trying to
protect themselves from in the first place.”</p>
<p>Palestine Legal intends to appeal the findings.</p>
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