A screenshot of former San Francisco State University student Mohammad Hammad brandishing a knife and threatening an Israeli soldier online in 2014
A screenshot of former San Francisco State University student Mohammad Hammad brandishing a knife and threatening an Israeli soldier online in 2014

One person cannot change the culture of an institution as large as San Francisco State.
— Leslie Wong, S.F. State University president

With these words, SFSU’s president absolved himself of any responsibility for the anti-Semitism that not only pervades his campus but has grown like a cancer during his administration.

Imagine if President Lyndon Johnson said to the nation that he could not change the climate of racism in America.

Of course, leftist thuggery and anti-Semitism at SFSU preceded by decades the appointment of Wong in 2012. He did not create this climate, but he has done little if anything to speak out or take any active measures against it.

SFSU’s administrations rarely have acknowledged the reality of what takes place on the campus. On the days before and after the 2004 presidential election, a mob of obscenity-screaming and violence-threatening students attacked an information table organized by the College Republicans. The incidents were documented by photos, eyewitness accounts and SFSU’s campus police reports. Spokesperson Ellen Griffin told the local media that this was nothing more than students having a robust intellectual exchange, failing to note the involvement of the General Union of Palestine Students.

GUPS continues to be among the best-organized and largest student groups at SFSU. It also has a history of fomenting mass demonstrations against any group whose political positions it disagrees with. Multiple SFSU administrations have failed to bring it into line.

a group of protesters shout and pump their fists in the air. there is a palestinian flag. some of them are wearing keffiyehs
Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down a talk by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat at San Francisco State University, April 6, 2016. (Photo/David A.M. Wilensky)

But it is Wong’s administration that has overlooked some of its most egregious behavior: the disruption of last year’s speech by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat by GUPS students and their leftist allies, who shouted him down with obscenities while campus police stood by (and a year after the episode, no one has been disciplined); and the intentional exclusion of Hillel students from a human rights fair in February.

Wong and his staff have mouthed banal platitudes about their concerns for Jewish students, but the reality is that Wong has been a supporter of GUPS and two years ago publicly lavished praise on the organization as “the very purpose of this great university.”

This is the same GUPS that in 2014 disrupted Hillel’s joyful Israel Independence Day celebration.

This is the same GUPS whose president at the time, Mohammad Hammad, took to social media in 2013, brandishing a knife and threatening an Israeli soldier.

This is the same GUPS whose faculty adviser, Rabab Abdulhadi, held an on-campus event in 2014 where murderers of Jews were praised as heroes, and some Jewish students left in tears. Wong’s administration did not condemn this activity.

In contrast, when the David Horowitz Freedom Center peppered the campus with posters in 2016 denouncing Abdulhadi’s links to terrorists — she is a champion of convicted terrorist Leila Khaled as a role model for Palestinian women — Wong issued a statement the same day, calling the attack on Abdulhadi “an attack on our whole campus community.”

Under Wong’s administration, SFSU has set up a relationship with An-Najah National University, which is under the Palestinian Authority. Known to have ties to the terrorist organization Hamas, the school holds on-campus celebrations of terrorist attacks and the killing of Jews.

It’s not the 1930s at SFSU and Jewish students are not being told they cannot attend the university. Yet, while Jewish community organizations have been working with Wong on the issue of anti-Semitism, this strategy has not yet resulted in making SFSU a place where Jewish students can safely celebrate their heritage.

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Abraham H. Miller is a distinguished fellow with the Haym Salomon Center and an emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati. He served on the faculty of UC Davis and the University of Illinois, Urbana.

62 replies on “SFSU president’s denial of anti-Semitism rings hollow”

  3. Last year, Abdulhadi was scheduled to come to UC Irvine with her GUPS pals and hold a panel discussion. When I showed up with my video camera, the Muslim Student Union tried to prevent me from videotaping. It took an asst vice chancellor to explain to them I had a right to do so. At that point, Abdulhadi and her little rascals never materialized. Instead they set up some Skype call with some Palestinian guy in Washington DC.

  4. At an Islamophobia event given by Hatem Bazian at UC Berkeley, Rabab Abdulhadi told those in attendance when she was being criticized for her support for Hamas that Leslie Wong told her personally that she would never have to worry about she does related ti her activism in support of the likes of Leila Khaled. Abdulhadi told her he would always protect her “academic freedom”, a fuuny description of her support for terrorist groups. Wong isn’t just an innocent bureaucrat overwhelmed by what happened during his predecessors’ terms. He in fact condones the pro-Palestinian climate on campus. This is best shown by his non-criticism and support to Abdulhadi for making a Hamas controlled campus and Al Quds, both known Hamas bastions as sister universities to SFSU including exchange of course work and faculty. Wong shouldn’t be sued. He should be fired.

      1. 55% of Israeli Jews are indigenous to the Middle East (Mizrah or Sephardic) Askkenazic Jews are from Europe, descended from Roman slaves brought to the Empire from Israel. There never was a “Palestinian” country nor ethnicity until Arafat and Fatah began to create one in 1964 under the sponsorship of Nasser. Israel as a Jewish state was created by the UN that also created an Arab state in 1948. The Arabs rejected the UN plan and attacked the Jews. The Jews won that war. The areas the propagandists say was part of Palestine was Egypt and Jordan.Your statistics are nonsense. Most of World Jewry are from the Middle East and even those from Europe today are
        of Middle East origin going back 2,000 years. Repeating Arab lies of Jewish ancestry and the religion cannot change facts. As for you, if you are Yemeni, did you know there is a sizeable community of Yemenite Jews in Israel today, who, while Jewish also practice Yemenite customs. Helen, repeating stupid shibboleths does not make them true. The Palestinians today claim all of Israel is “occupied”–a myth. If you read the Arab press the Palestinians insist no Jews can live in a Palestinian state. That’s the real apartheid since 21% of Israeli citizens are Arabs with the same civil right as Jews by law.

        1. “There never was a “Palestinian” country nor ethnicity until Arafat and Fatah began to create one in 1964 under the sponsorship of Nasser.”
          . . .

          Jabotinsky – The Iron Wall – 1923: “If it were possible (and I doubt this) to discuss Palestine with the Arabs of Baghdad and Mecca as if it were some kind of small, immaterial borderland, then Palestine would still remain for the Palestinians not a borderland, but their birthplace, the center and basis of their own national existence. Therefore it would be necessary to carry on colonization against the will of the Palestinian Arabs, which is the same condition that exists now.”

          1. There are many such quotes out there that were never said. Your movement tries to say Albert Einstein was against a Jewish state. He was, in fact, a Zionist, friend of Ben Gurion and helped found Hebrew University. He opposed any type of nationalistic behavior but did beleive the Jewish refugees needed a state. Before the Holocaust not all Jews were in favor of a Jewish state. The Holocaust changed all that.

          1. Not disputing accuracy of DNA, but not everyone who is Jewish has your findings Even if they do, so what? People should be able to live where they want. the “Palestinians” insist no Jews in a Palestinian state and no Jews in Israel either. They, like Helen deny any Jewish history to the land.

          2. “Not disputing accuracy of DNA, but not everyone who is Jewish has your findings ”
            . . .
            True! The Yemeni Jew has Middle East DNA and the African Jew African DNA and the European Jew European DNA and the Chinese Jew Asian DNA. The logic is very straightforward.

          5. The Palestinians are behaving just like the Kenyans towards the British and the Algerians towards the French. The colonizers of Palestine could have been the Sudanese or Yemenis, it would not matter. The Yemenis and the Sudanese are foreign to Palestine and so are the European, African, Asian, Arab Jews now in Palestine. The only Jews who are entitled to Palestine would have been the native Jews but they do not exist. Therefore, Palestine belongs to the Palestinian Muslims, Christians, atheists … only natives … and nobody else.

          7. “Judea” and “Jew” are English words, are they not?
            There is no “J” in Hebrew.

        3. “The Arabs rejected the UN plan and attacked the Jews.”

          . . .

          There are no native Jews in Palestine or anywhere else on the Planet. The Jews in Palestine are 100% foreign from Lithuania, Ethiopia, Yemen and so on. Palestine is not your grandmother’s land, is it? Palestine was colonized by force just like Kenya was by the British.

          1. Again, another falsehood from a Jew hater. Yes, there are native Jews in Israel, some goback 5,000 years. The Palestine mandate was not colonized by force unless you mean during WW1. The Jewish Legion was given leeway with the Zionist movement for fighting on the allied side in WW1. Ever see lawrence of Arabia> The Saudis Hashemites, former King of Iraq were given mandates for Saudia Arabia, Jordan , and Iraq by the Brits. Syria and Lebanon were given by the French. You are woefully ignorant on history of the region. Have you ever visited Israel? I doubt this.

          2. After the Mandate, Iraq went back to its native people, so did Lebanon and Syria. Palestine fell into the hands of foreign Europeans.

          3. At the end of hostilities in 1948 there were 110,000 Arabs left in Israel who became Israeli citizens. Today they number 1.2 million. 140,00 were quietly repatriated back to their homes inside Israel 1952-82. There always was a Jewish majority in Jewish areas of the mandate..

          1. Judaism is an idea, not a race. You apparently are a racist. Judaic law says any convert is to be accepted as one of “tribe.” This is why Israel has Ethiopian Jews who are Negroes, Mizrahi Jews who are same as Arabs, etc. Your so preoccupied with racism because you are a racist.

          2. Yes, as one of the “tribe” like Muslims accept other Muslims and Christians accept other Christians as “members” of their faith.
            “Negroes”? People do not use the “N” word anymore … I thought!

        6. “The Palestinians today claim all of Israel is “occupied”–a myth.”

          When the British left Iraq, it went back to its people 100%.
          When the French left Syria, the land went back to its people 100%.
          Palestine was handed over by one white man to another white man –
          the European Ashkenazi. The Ashkenazi is 100% European and his state belongs in native land of Europe and not on Arab land.

          1. Really silly, Helen. First off, the Zionist movement, while led by European Jews purchased ter land priorto 1948 legally and set up communities like Kibbutzim. Tel Aviv was always a Jewish city. You’ve shown yourself to be a Jew-hater, because you seem to think there’s some racial connection to land–not so. You cleally buy into the “white privilege” nonsense. The Turks owned the region first as part of the Caliphate.they lost to the Britsh in WW1

        7. “If you read the Arab press the Palestinians insist no Jews can live in a Palestinian state.”
          . . .
          Jews should live in Palestine just like any other people if they are allowed by the indigenous people of the land. The Jews now in Palestine are colonial settlers like the French in Algeria.

          1. Absolutely wrong and stupid. There has been a Jewish community in Israel for 5,000 years
            even with the Roman diaspora. Jerusalem and Hebron were the Jewish capitals. Jews in Israel are not colonizers. That’s a myth. One of victims of the Mike’s Place bombing came from a Jewish family that lived in Israel since the 1850’s. They were nothing like the Pieds Noir. Again you have no idea what you’re talking about.

          2. Do you realize that in the last hour you haven’t said anything already refuted in this commentary?

          3. Palestine population

            Year – Muslim — Christian – Jews
            1851 – 300,000 – 27,000 – 13,000
            1861 – 325,000 – 31,000 – 13,000
            1878 – 386,320 – 40,588 – 13,942
            1879 – 390,597 – 41,331 – 14,197
            1880 – 394,935 – 41,089 – 14,460
            1881 – 399,334 – 42,864 – 14,731
            1882 – 403,795 – 43,659 – 15,011

            When Zionists arrived in 1881-82, they found 15,000 Jews,
            all of them Yiddish-speaking Europeans who were recent
            arrivals. The Zionists did not find any natives Jews on that
            land and if I am wrong, please provide credible sources that
            show that there were natives Palestinian Jews. Can you do
            it.

          4. Jewish Virtual Library for correct info you seek. Available on the Web. There were Jews in Israel who were from the region, not Europe. Jews in Israel today would be insulted if they were called Arab Jews or Palestinian Jews. Before 1948 Jewish residents of Israel were called Palestinians and the Arabs were not.

          5. “Before 1948 Jewish residents of Israel were called Palestinians and the Arabs were not.”

            https://static01.nyt.com/images/2012/05/01/sports/Netanyahu3/Netanyahu3-jumbo.jpg

            You mean to say Natanyahu’s father Mr. Mileikowsy was no longer a Lithuanian Jew but a Palestinian Jew after he arrived on Arab land? And who were referring to Mr. Mileikowsky as “Palestinian”? This is the last stupid comment I am going to accept from you. The next time you write a comment that is totally devoid of truth and reality, I will block you.

          6. OOOOOOOHHH. You’re going to block me? Listen, you ditz, research newspapers from 1946-48. Jews were called Palestinians. The PLO adopted the name to try and lay laim to what was not theirs. This happened in the early 1970’s. Your hatred of Jes blinds you to all truth. You are a fool.

        8. “55% of Israeli Jews are indigenous to the Middle East (Mizrah or Sephardic)”

          a) There are no more “Sephardic Jews” since they became other people my mixing with the locals where they migrated to in the 600 years since they left Spain-Portugal.

          b) The Arab Jews in Palestine are only 18% of total Jews.

          Morocco………………………….484,500 …….. 7.72%
          Algeria and Tunisia………….133,500 …….. 2.13%
          Libya……………………………….66,800 …….. 1.06%
          Egypt………………………………54,600 …….. 0.87%
          Iraq……………………………….225,800 …….. 3.60%
          Yemen…………………………..134,100 …….. 2.14%
          Syria and Lebanon……………34,500 ……. 0.55%
          http://cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_08x&CYear=2016

          2. DO THE MATH:

            “By origin, approximately 50 percent of the Israeli Jewish population identify themselves as “Edot HaMizrah”

            1) Ashkenazi Jewry = 90% to 95% of world Jewry.
            2) World Jewry 2016 = 14,410,700
            3) Total Jews in Palestine = 6,336,400
            4) Total Ashkenazi Jews = 90% x 14,410,700 = 12,969,630
            5) Total non-Ashkenazi Jews = 1,441,070
            6) Assuming all non-Ashkenazi are in in Palestine
            1,441,070/ 6,336,400 = 22.7%
            That is counting all the African, Asian, Arab Jews inside
            and outside of Palestine. Therefore, the Arab Jews are
            much fewer than 10%.
            http://cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/templ_shnaton_e.html?num_tab=st02_08x&CYear=2016

          1. The majority of Jews are Sephardic. There ae Spehardic symagogues around the world Sephardic Jews pronounce words like shabat with a t on the end, Ashkenazis with an s.
            shabas. Their Hebrew is the type used in England. You don’t care about DNA or even rights tp the land involved. Where do you live now, Helen, in the US? Your logic means you have no right to live here or any place other than Yemen. You’re silly…

        10. “Israel as a Jewish state was created by the UN that also created an Arab state in 1948.”

          I do not know which “Arab” state you are talking about.
          You have extreme and excessive fear to say the word
          “Palestinian”, don’t you, you know that vacant land sitting
          idle waiting for snow-white Europoean with no farming
          experience to make it bloom?

          1. The word Palestinian up until 1964 meant a Jew. Arafat and the PLO adopted it to rationalize taking “back” the land. The state in question was where the West Bank is today but the Arabs rejected it. The actual British mandate in the beginning included everything from the Mediterranean all the way to Iraq. The British gave the land that became Jordan to the Hashemites to end a civil was between them and the Saudis. By the way, my DNA shows traces from the Middle East besides Poland and Russia. The Arabs who migrated to Israel did so because the Zionist movement created new job prospects for them. They did come from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt Sudan, Iraq, you name it, as did most of the Jews.

          2. “The actual British mandate in the beginning included everything from the Mediterranean all the way to Iraq. ”

            You are thinking of “Greater Israel”?

        11. ” The Jews won that war. The areas the propagandists say was part of Palestine was Egypt and Jordan.”

          Year …… Muslim …… Christian …… Jews
          1851 …… 300,000 …… 27,000 …… 13,000
          1861 …… 325,000 …… 31,000 …… 13,000
          1878 …… 386,320 …… 40,588 …… 13,942
          1879 …… 390,597 …… 41,331 …… 14,197
          1880 …… 394,935 …… 41,089 …… 14,460
          1881 …… 399,334 …… 42,864 …… 14,731
          1882 …… 403,795 …… 43,659 …… 15,011 Ashkenazi arrived
          1883 …… 408,318 …… 44,471 …… 15,300
          1884 …… 412,906 …… 45,302 …… 15,599
          1885 …… 417,560 …… 46,152 …… 15,908
          1922 …… 598,177 …… 71,464 …… 83,790 British Mandate
          1924 …… 627,660 …… 74,094 …… 94,945
          1926 …… 663,613 …… 76,764 …… 149,500
          1928 …… 695,280 …… 79,812 …… 151,656
          1930 …… 733,149 …… 84,986 …… 164,796
          1932 …… 771,174 …… 90,624 …… 180,793
          1934 …… 807,180 …… 99,532 …… 253,700
          1935 …… 826,457 …… 103,371 …… 320,358
          1936 …… 848,342 …… 106,474 …… 370,483
          1937 …… 875,947 …… 109,764 …… 386,074

          What are you trying to say? That there were no people on that land that the snow-white REuropeans have renamed it “Israel”? I do not understand what you are trying to say? By 1937, there were 875.947 Muslims. Are you saying they were not on that land but they were in Jordan and Egypt?

          1. In 1948, the area designated to be Israel by the UN and Brits had a majority Jewish population as exists in the West Bank today. Your statistics do accurately show the population facts on the ground at that time and are baed on the deceptive arguments of Jew-haters who want to look rational. absurd..

          2. Did the UN and the Brits own Arab land to pass it over to European Jewry?

            Letter from President Nasser to President Kennedy 1961 “He who does not own has made a promise to he who does not deserve. Then both he ” who does not own” and “he who does not deserve” were able, through force and deceit, to usurp the right of the legitimate owner and take away from him what he owned and deserved. This is the true picture of the Balfour declaration: Britain’s pledge, promising in a land she does not own, but is owned by the Arab people of Palestine – a Jewish home in Palestine. On the individual basis, Mr. President, not to speak of the international basis, the picture as such shows a clear case of larceny in which any ordinary court can convict those responsible.”

          1. There are no “Jew” only roads. There are roads for ISRAELIS, many of whom are Christian, Ba hai and Muslim. Arabs use these roads Imost notably cab drives) if the obtain a security permit after given security clearance. The Israelis when they drove on the roads earllier were stoned and murdered by the Arabs. You ignore terrorism which is a true concern. Did you know the Hamas Charter calls for extermination of Jews all over the world, that NAsrallh of Hezbollah does the same? Your ideas are pitiful

          2. You call yourself and investigative journalist, but you need help.

            Jewish American Activist Beaten by IDF & Police
            ->https://www.youtube.COM/watch?v=VfMAFkgpRVg

            Israeli Apartheid in Action
            ->https://youtu.BE/qlKgVtgrYw4

            Israelis torturing non-Jewish children. Australian documentary film. Viewer discretion.
            ->https://www.youtube.COM/watch?v=iqL048x4msM

            Israel kills Palestinians , Courage here هنا الشجاعه
            ->https://www.youtube.COM/watch?v=3G0P2QBkT6w

            Occupation 101- Palestine VS Israel
            ->https://www.youtube.COM/watch?v=1gTQZVfH16M

            Israeli Checkpoint Cruelty
            ->https://youtu.BE/QorJMPtz1Fw

            Officer Points Loaded Weapon into Face of Palestinian
            ->https://youtu.BE/xEmQVxfgIzw

            The daily humiliation of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoint
            ->https://youtu.BE/_nQB7LbXjAM

            This is why Palestinians hate Israel : you won’t see this on Zionist owned media
            ->https://www.youtube.COM/watch?v=E23jXF_Naf4

            European Jew assaulting a Palestinian
            ->https://youtu.BE/p4FiizZirN4
            ——————————————————————————————————————–
            Israeli Occupation Spraying waste water on citizens houses at Al-Nabi Saleh village
            ->https://www.youtube.COM/watch?v=jR_SN3Jcg3g

            Crap Cannon: Israel sprays putrid liquid to control West Bank crowd
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCkFgmK1-dY

            An honest Israeli Jew tells the Real Truth about Israel
            ->https://www.youtube.COM/watch?v=ecQp1JLQMDc

            ->https://www.popularresistance.ORG/video-death-to-the-arabs-march-through-occupied-jerusalem/

            Just holler if you want more.

          5. Where did the “Arabs” come from? Sudan? Yemen? Iraq?
            They are Palestinians and you are petrified to use that name
            after telling the world that you were only going to invade
            an empty land that belonged to Abram of Ur, Iraq, right?

        13. “Helen, repeating stupid shibboleths does not make them true.”

          Are you referring to the DNA results? Then please post one DNA report for any Ashkenazi who has even 1% Middle East ancestry. There are none . . . or else prove me wrong and post one.

        14. Jabotinsky – The Iron Wall – 1923: “Colonization itself has its own explanation, integral and inescapable, and understood by every Arab and every Jew with his wits about him. Colonization can have only one goal. For the Palestinian Arabs this goal is inadmissible. This is in the nature of things. To change that nature is impossible.”

  5. “GUPS continues to be among the best-organized and largest student groups at SFSU.” Maybe SFSU needs more Mexicans, more Chinese, more Indians, and fewer Palestinians? The pretense that the admissions process is based on objective criteria is so obviously a lie that no one even pretends to believe it any more. Maybe the admissions process, already politicized and dishonest, could be directed away from groups with a predilection for aggression and hostility to other groups on campus. And toward others who just want an education.

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