Williams College Student Leaders Deny Recognition to ‘Pro-Israel’ Group, Prompting Calls for Inquiry

Out and out Jew hatred. Plain and simple. Terror-tied groups run amok on campuses. There is a plague afoot.

Williams College Student Leaders Deny Recognition to ‘Pro-Israel’ Group, Prompting Calls for Inquiry

by Shiri Moshe, Algemeiner May 3, 2019:

Student leaders at Williams College in Massachusetts denied official recognition to the Williams Initiative for Israel (WIFI) campus group last week, following protests from students opposed to the Jewish state’s policies.

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During an April 23rd meeting, members of the College Council (CC) anonymously voted 13-8 with one abstention against allowing WIFI to become a registered student organization (RSO), The Williams Record reported on Wednesday. It is believed to be the first time in over a decade that the CC voted against recognizing a club that complied with its bylaws.

According to its constitution, WIFI seeks “to support Israel and the pro-Israel campus community, as well as to educate the College on issues concerning Israel and the Middle East.” With RSO status, it would be eligible to receive funding and administrative support, among other benefits.

Yet critics took aim at the club for failing to express a stance on certain issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among them the blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the occupation of lands claimed by Palestinians.

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein — who was wounded in last Saturday’s deadly shooting attack at synagogue near San Diego — spoke…

Public opposition was first raised at an April 16th CC meeting, which was partially aired on social media before the recording was halted to protect student privacy. Students opposing WIFI could be seen distributing handouts, condemning various Israeli policies, and asking the club’s leadership, led by sophomore Molly Berenbaum, about its political positions.

“Why do you feel the need to ally yourself with the state of Israel as opposed to taking a human rights oriented approach?” one student asked.

Another student challenged the idea of a club “that’s built on the assumption that Israel has a right to exist, in the sense that it has a right to enact its policies, which [are] oftentimes drowning out the voices of Palestinians.”

Berenbaum, in turn, emphasized that WIFI did not seek to “take a particular stance on any policies or governments or leaders in Israel.”

“It’s specifically just a group that thinks Israel should exist,” she explained. ‘That’s really as specific as it gets.”

She said the club would invite an ideologically diverse array of speakers to campus, as well as commemorate national holidays such as Yom HaZikaron, which honors fallen Israeli soldiers and victims of terrorism, and Israel’s Independence Day. It would also engage in political activism by hosting forums and putting up posters, but not endorse a particular Israeli political movement.

While Williams College has a “very well attended” Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, for students coming with a view “that Israel should exist as a nation, it’s difficult if not impossible to get your voice heard,” Berenbaum said.

The SJP chapter, as well as a nonpartisan Students for Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue (SIPD) group that Berenbaum helped establish, both have RSO status.

The discussion was ultimately tabled and resumed at last week’s CC meeting. While the CC did not share a live recording of the proceedings and anonymized the minutes, which are only available to members of the campus community, the Record reported that it too included a “heated debate.”

“The goal throughout both of the meetings was to make, on evidentiary grounds, cases as to why the Israeli government is engaging in colonialism and why that should preclude certain discursive support for them,” junior Joseph Moore told the Record.

He criticized WIFI’s constitution for including “no reference to Palestine, no reference to human rights abuses, no elaboration of how their support for Israel would not be support for many problematic actions that the Israeli government is involved in right now.”

WIFI members said in a Wednesday op-ed that they were “vilified by multiple speakers” during the April 23rd meeting, who accused Israel’s government of enacting “genocidal” policies against Palestinians — a controversial charge that has been strongly condemned by Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League. Several also expressed concern “that the guests opposing their club were trivializing past Jewish oppression and concerns about anti-Semitism in their statements,” the Record reported.

The votes of individual council members were not disclosed, with some opponents of WIFI arguing that a public ballot and public minutes would be tantamount to voter suppression, as some students were afraid to make their positions known due to privacy or safety concerns.

The meeting’s outcome was condemned by WIFI leaders, who maintained in their op-ed that the club “was denied official status on purely political grounds, as CC members and guests fought to silence us and effectively turned the meeting into a referendum on Israeli-Palestinian politics.”

“There are multiple valid perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, yet CC has made it clear that only students holding one opinion are allowed to organize and be recognized by the College,” the students added.

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, head of the campus antisemitism monitor AMCHA Initiative, called the incident “a case of blatant discrimination and shameless intolerance.”

Groups that support the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against, such as SJP, “attempt to suppress all pro-Israel views and voices, and ostracize and marginalize those that hold them. This is exactly what is happening here,” she told The Algemeiner on Thursday.

“This shameless and reprehensible attempt must be called out and reversed by the university immediately,” Rossman-Benjamin said. “If it is not, we stand ready to jump in and take action to ensure Jewish and pro-Israel students’ rights are adequately and fairly protected.”

Yael Lerman, legal director at the Israel education and advocacy organization StandWithUs, likewise called on the university to investigate the CC’s vote.

“If the facts as reported are true, this appears to be a clear case of silencing students due to their political opinions and Jewish and/or Israeli identities,” she said. “This is an especially alarming decision in the context of a college campus, which is supposed to be a marketplace for ideas and open dialogue.”

“The College must promptly inquire into what transpired and if the facts are accurate, immediately reverse the decision and denounce this act of bias in the strongest possible terms,” Lerman added.

Representatives for CC and Williams College did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

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Kropotkin

4 years ago

dumbass idiots

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Rocinante44

4 years ago

the morons at williams are all democrats with democrat parents….of course they hate jeeews

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felix1999

4 years ago

When colleges and universities deny pro life clubs, yes believe it on not even babies conceived by rape are human beings, Christian Clubs that deny LBGTQ as participants because it violates Biblical teachings why should this be a surprise? Jews are still God’s chosen people. We are becoming a godless country that endorses evil and totally rebels against God. If a cause rejects God in some form, people love it! People don’t want to hear that things will get worse. Sure fight back but understand it is mindset you are fighting against not an isolated social issue. Evil fascism is alive and thriving and vile Islam is being openly promoted.

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John Acord

4 years ago

The vote was 13-8 with one abstention meaning that just 4 student council members need to be lobbied to change their votes or for that matter simply abstain. This should not be an insurmountable obstacle for the pro-free speech advocates. This vote will not be looked on kindly by the alumni and donors. At one time this college was well known for its Great Books Program. I suppose that has been abandoned as well. Too many white and Jewish authored books to read.

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MrLogical

4 years ago

Reply to  John Acord

As opposed to the abundance of Islamic books that advocate liberty, freedom, individual expression?
(Sarc’ off.)

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MrLogical

4 years ago

Reply to  John Acord

Rest assured, many alumni and donors have already put their checkbooks away. This is also true of many other alum’s of spineless colleges and universities that have kowtowed to the fascist demands and dictates of today’s SJWs and “Justice Democrats” bent on turning America into a Socialist utopia.

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Gene Kinney

4 years ago

Jeremiah 2:13…” For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”…

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MrLogical

4 years ago

The Cultural Marxists – frustrated Marxist spawn from the Frankfurt School – have been working their plan of quiet insurrection in America for the better part of 80 years have now joined hands with Islam – a ‘political’ scourge more venal, violent and dangerous than Communism – to spread fascist, revolutionary violence and oppression throughout the world. Viz., a violent political ideology that artfully and disingenuously masquerades as a religion; the putative “religion of peace,” no less.

The Williams administration needs to wake up and take a stand against this clear attempt to squelch freedom of association and free speech lest it becomes identified as a veritable ‘co-conspirator’ in this star-chamber insurrection against founding principles enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Is Williams a college that unreservedly champions and defends freedom of inquiry, thought, speech and religion as envisioned by the Founders? Presumably, this was once true.

However, with silence from the adults presumably still in charge of the school, that appears to be an open and unanswered question.

How long before the administration answers?

The world is watching… waiting.
.

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