The Zionist Organization of America has a letter to USC administrators about a student who called for killing… Zionists. Which is to say Jews.
This student has personally threatened to murder Jews and anyone who supports the Jewish state of Israel. She has publicly praised the murder of Jews. And she has publicly praised Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction and the murder of every Jew. USC’s leadership admits that it has known about her life-endangering conduct since last summer, yet its response has been slow and virtually meaningless.
Examples include…
“I want to kill every mother f**king Zionist”;
“Zionists are going to f**king pay”;
“Death to Israel and its b**tch the US”;
“yel3an el yahood [curse the Jews]”;
“Palestinian youth set settlers on fire in Haifa.” This tweet reportedly included a video of the incident featuring superimposed Arab text that read: “A Jew’s head was set ablaze in Haifa a while Long live the heroes’ arms.”
“Yes I f**king love hamas now stfu [shut the f**k up].”
Yasmeen Mashayekh’s story made headlines because of her role as a “diversity, equity and inclusion senator” for the Viterbi Graduate Student Association.
We live in an era in which people have been fired from their jobs and had their lives destroyed over ambiguous interactions in their private lives that went viral on Twitter or Instagram.
USC is however insisting that it really can’t do much of anything even when there are actual death threats. The official statement fails to even name Yasmeen or describe what’s happening.
The antisemitic behavior we are witnessing is deeply troubling and runs contrary to the values and safe environment the President and Board of Trustees are sworn to uphold. The Board of Trustees, together with President Folt, unequivocally rejects antisemitism or religious discrimination in any form. We are committed to working with university leadership to address these challenges in our society. While we will always support free speech and expression, we must be steadfast in our commitment to ensure a campus that is safe for every individual, regardless of race, color, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, age, religion or religious creed, disability, sex or gender identity.
This was in response to a faculty letter asking USC leaders to “publicly and explicitly rebuke” Yasmeen and “to distance USC from her hateful statements.”
That meaningless statement doesn’t do that.
Now compare this to USC’s response to Ben Shapiro some time ago.
A University of Southern California administrator questioned why universities cannot reject speakers like conservative author and commentator Ben Shapiro, who gave a speech at USC on Thursday.
USC Vice President for Student Affairs Ainsley Carry said that his “gut instincts” question why a university “cannot simply deny” individuals from speaking on campus, in a letter to the editor published in The Daily Trojan.
Three months after a Ben Shapiro event, the undergraduate student government at the University of Southern California considered an amendment to the selection process for speakers.
USC student Sen. Meagan Lane and Senate Aide Adenike Makinde authored the amendment, which was proposed on Jan. 15 and discussed at USC’s Jan. 22 student government meeting. Shapiro, who is cited in the bill’s “justification” part, spoke at the university Oct. 4. The amendment “provides a process for petitioning to rescind USG funding for special guest(s), while defining criteria for those who are subject to scrutiny.”
One side can hurl death threats and racial slurs and it’s considered “speech”, while the other side’s speech is denounced as violence.
