In 2009, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, Lecturer in Hebrew at the University of Santa Cruz (UCSC) and a member of the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) Board of Directors, submitted a complaint to the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. The complaint alleged that faculty and administration at UCSC had discriminated against Jewish students. The complaint languished until a recent change in policy at the U.S. Office of Civil Rights(OCR) affirmed that Jewish students were protected under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Law. On Tuesday, March 7, the OCR announced that it would investigate Rossman-Benjamin’s complaint, the first such investigation under the new policy.
According to Rossman-Benjamin’s complaint:
Professors, academic departments and residential colleges at UCSC promote and encourage anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti- Jewish views and behavior, much of which is based on either misleading information or outright falsehoods. Rhetoric heard in UCSC classrooms and at numerous events sponsored and funded by academic and administrative units on campus goes beyond legitimate criticism of Israel. The rhetoric -which demonizes Israel, compares contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, calls for the dismantling of the Jewish State, and holds Israel to an impossible double standard- crosses the line into anti-Semitism according to the standards employed by our own government…The impact of the academic and university-sponsored Israel-bashing on students has been enormous. There are students who have felt emotionally and intellectually harassed and intimidated, to the point that they are reluctant or afraid to express a view that is not anti-Israel. Some students have stayed away from courses that they would otherwise be interested in taking, because they know that the courses will be biased against Israel and intolerant of another legitimate point of view… Since at least 2001, faculty members and students have brought these and similar problems to the attention of numerous UCSC administrators and faculty. To date, the administration and faculty have largely ignored the problems. In some cases, administrators and faculty have publicly denied that there are problems and even repudiated those who have had the courage to raise them.
Rossman-Benjamin added that “no other … group on campus has been subjected … to such hostile and demonizing criticism. “
In a paper entitled “Anti-Zionism and the Abuse of Academic Freedom: A Case Study at the University of California, Santa Cruz,” published in 2009 by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Rossman-Benjamin cited as an example a conference on “Alternative Histories within and beyond Zionism,” held in 2007, in which several speakers called Zionism an illegitimate ideology and advocated the elimination of Israel. She wrote:
Although the recently revised University of California rules do not specify the limits of academic freedom, they do presume that faculty and administrative agencies will define those limits and impose sanctions on faculty who violate them.
However, despite a system of shared governance in which faculty are responsible for ensuring the scholarly integrity of academic programming and administrators for making sure all programming accords with university regulations, abuses of academic freedom have been allowed to flourish at UCSC.
Peter J. Haas, Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies and Chair of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University, and SPME’s President, commented:
” vital function of institutions of higher education in the West is to offer a space for rational, civil and informed discussion of a diversity of points of view. Those who harass, bully and attempt to silence those with whom they disagree are violating the very principles of Western higher education. Those who preach the destruction of Israel are advocating genocide. To let this kind of behavior go unchallenged is to open up a path that will undermine the university as a home for the free exchange of ideas.”
Kenneth L. Marcus, Executive Vice President and Director of anti-Semitism Initiative at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research head of the SPME Task Force on Legal Issues, and past director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, explained:
This case is extremely significant for four reasons. First, it is opened just as International Apartheid Week activities are being held around the world and illustrates the potential ramifications of extremist protest activities. Second, it follows right on the heels of a federal lawsuit alleging similar problems at the University of California Berkeley just a few days before and may illustrate a broad trend. Third, it is only the second major systemic anti-Semitism case that OCR has opened and may have important precedential value. Fourth, it is the first major case to follow OCR’s new campus anti-Semitism policy and may demonstrate whether OCR means what it says about its commitment to addressing hate and bias in federally funded higher education programs…
Richard Cravatts, Director of the Program in Publishing at Boston University and member of the SPME Board, remarked:
“For years, various well funded anti-Israel student, faculty and community groups have sought to demonize and delegitimize the state of Israel, holding Israel to a double standard and calling for its genocidal destruction.” Cravatts pointed out that the FBI has launched an investigation of whether the UC-Irvine Muslim Student Union had used funds raised at a 2009 anti-Israel event to support Hamas. “
Edward S. Beck, Contributing Faculty in the Mental Health Counseling Program at Walden University and SPME President Emeritus, added:
“Criticism of Israel and of the Zionist movement is certainly fair game in an intellectual community; however, anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation violate laws and codes established by many institutions, states and the federal government guaranteeing intimidation-free campuses. If the charges against UCSC are substantiated, the OCR’s investigation could signal the beginning of many new initiatives to legally define and to protect faculty and students from anti-Semitic discrimination. “
Edward Beck, Richard Cravatts, Judith Jacobson, Peter Haas and Kenneth Marcus contributed to this article.
