Israeli and Jewish students have sometimes been singled out with vicious language and publications by activists determined to divest and politically alienate UC campuses from the State of Israel.
At a recent forum of Jewish community members in Orange County, University of California President Mark Yudof, who is also Jewish, reminded the assembly that he is legally powerless to prevent such speech on his campuses. "Censorship won't work in terms of the legalities of the situation," he explained. "Censorship is not the way of the Jewish people. That's what many people are asking me to do, and I cannot do that."
President Yudof got it right. The answer to really opposing and defeating radical elements on college campuses, after all, has never been to clamp down on student expression. You're going to need those freedoms if you're hoping to take your campus community in a new, more enlightened direction on the Middle East issue.
Freedom itself makes no guarantees, of course, and that is why you owe it to your principles to learn how to win against some very well-organized liberal movements. For students who are interested in defending Israel and other free socities on campus, you have organizations like StandWithUs to stand with you through their newest, exclusive resource: a website dedicated to helping students defeat anti-Israel divestment efforts.