8 February 7 • 2019
jn

E

very year, extremism takes a 
deadly toll around the world. 
No region is immune — not the 
Middle East, not Europe and not the 
United States. In 2018, there were at least 
50 Americans killed by 
extremists from different 
movements.
Many of the victims 
were Jews. Eleven 
members of the Tree 
of Life synagogue in 
Pittsburgh lost their 
lives in October at the 
hands of a vicious white 
supremacist convinced that Jews were 
engineering mass immigration of non-
whites into the U.S. Blaze Bernstein, a 
young gay Jewish man, was murdered in 
California last January by a former class-
mate who allegedly was a member of a 
violent neo-Nazi group. And five of the 
17 victims of Parkland school shooter 
Nikolas Cruz, a budding white suprema-
cist, were Jewish.
But Jews were hardly the only victims 
of deadly extremist violence in 2018.
A white supremacist at a Veterans 
Affairs home in Tennessee allegedly set 
his African-American roommate on fire, 
then boasted about it to a white suprem-
acist group.
Just months before the Tree of Life 
shooting, another Pittsburgh white 
supremacist was charged with stabbing 
an African-American man to death 
while on a quest to visit bars and repeat 
the “n-word” until being kicked out. In 
November, Scott Beierle opened fire at 
a Florida yoga studio, killing two and 
wounding four others in an apparent 
spree of misogynistic violence.
In 17 different incidents across the 
country last year, people lost their lives 
to extremists. Some attacks were ideo-
logical in nature, others personal; for 
a few, the motivation remains murky. 
The 50 deaths topped the 37 individuals 
killed by extremists in 2017 and made 
2018 the fourth-deadliest year on record 
for domestic extremist-related killings 
since 1970.
Largely absent from this list of killers 
were extremists motivated by radical 
interpretations of Islam. Only one of 
the 50 murders had any connection 

A

t the University of Michigan, 
there has been a series of 
“Blue Ribbon Panels” to 
discuss “the intersection between 
faculty responsibility and political 
thought.” The panels came about in 
the wake of the con-
troversy surrounding 
U-M Professor John 
Cheney-Lippold’
s 
refusal to write a letter 
of recommendation 
for a Jewish student to 
study in Israel because 
it would have conflict-
ed with his anti-Israel 
bias.
The panel’
s Jan. 11 meeting was 
hijacked by members of a group 
calling themselves Direct Action for 
Palestine (DAP). According to an 
article in the Jan. 13 Michigan Daily, 
“Before the panel commenced the 
meeting, the DAP leader, who asked 
to be referred to by the pseudonym 
Rami Abdullah, took the microphone 
and turned his back on the panel, 
announcing to the audience that DAP 
was taking over the event.”
DAP members listed their 
demands, such as dissolution of the 
panel, no consequences for Cheney-
Lippold, public apologies from uni-
versity leaders, divestment from com-
panies doing business with Israel and 
the end of partnerships with Israeli 
academic institutions. They were also 
upset that two panel members were 
engaged with Israeli academic institu-
tions. They seemed to have a serious 
problem with Israel.
One DAP speaker said, “It is difficult 

to imagine this panel building room for 
dissenting views…
” This was said while 
bullying dissenting views and trying to 
censor university officials in their offi-
cial capacity.
Another complained that, 
“Palestinian students feel alienated in 
an academic system that stubbornly 
resists integration” while demanding 
the academic alienation of Jewish 
pro-Israel students.
While some non-DAP members 
were allowed to speak, the overwhelm-
ing majority of voices were for allowing 
Cheney-Lippold to shirk his academic 
responsibilities because — Israel. 
A Hillel member spoke for Jewish 
students on campus, saying he felt 
“hurt and angered” by Cheney-
Lippold’
s actions.
One telling comment came from 
Samer Madhy Ali, director of the 
Center for Middle Eastern and North 
African Studies, who said, “I think 
many of us realize that we would not 
be in the situation if it was a protest 
of Saudi Arabia, if it was a protest of 
China …” 
Both Saudi Arabia and China engage 
in real, documented, outrageous 
human rights abuses, yet there are no 
campus protests against either regime. 
The reason is obvious as to why.
During this two-hour protest, ques-
tions from member of the Blue Ribbon 
Panel and president emeritus James 
Duderstadt were ignored. In fact, “… 
the panel member listened without 
comment as DAP speakers presented 
their views and led the discussion,
” the 
Daily reports.
Duderstadt was finally allowed to 

speak at the discussion’
s end. He was 
very appreciative. “Thank you very 
much,” he said, “because I think by 
taking over our meeting you actually 
triggered a dialogue which has taught 
us a great deal … This is an institu-
tion based on academic freedom and 
the freedom of speech.”
Duderstadt seems to have missed a 
couple of relevant issues. There is no 
freedom of speech when a group like 
DAP is allowed to decide who is free 
to speak and who isn’
t. 
It has been clear for years that voic-
es raised in support of Jews and Israel 
are not welcome at U-M, and now 
Duderstadt and the rest of this panel 
have given DAP members even more 
power to silence Jews.
Duderstadt and the rest of the 
panel abdicated their professional 
responsibilities when they failed to 
retain control of their panel and be 
the “adults in the room.” Instead, they 
cowered to the mob. Now that DAP 
members have learned that they’
re 
in charge, we can expect things to 
get worse for Jewish students, espe-
cially if they support Israel. Lies will 
continue to be spread and the truth 
will continue to be shouted down. 
Our children’
s access to a university 
education will continue to be based 
on the political whims of university 
professors.
And remember, today’
s Israel-hating 
campus mob is made up of tomorrow’
s 
leaders. Our children will be facing 
their hatred, lies and discrimination. ■

Harry Onickel is a retired teacher and freelance 

writer from Ferndale.

commentary
Blue Ribbon Panel Takeover

commentary
Numbers 
Don’t Lie

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Harry Onickel

vote to shut down his school’
s study-
abroad program in Israel, Pitzer 
College President Melvin Oliver 
forthrightly stated: “To deny Pitzer 
students who want to study at Haifa 
University the opportunity to study 
abroad and to enter into dialogue and 
promote intercultural understanding 
at the altar of political considerations 
is anathema to Pitzer’
s core values.”
• Last month, all 10 University of 
California chancellors issued a state-
ment declaring that the academic 
boycott of Israel “poses a direct and 
serious threat to the academic free-

dom of our students and faculty, as 
well as the unfettered exchange of 
ideas and perspectives on our cam-
puses, including debate and discourse 
regarding conflicts in the Middle 
East.”
University leaders across the coun-
try must follow suit by loudly con-
demning faculty at their own schools 
who would implement an academic 
boycott of Israel that deprives stu-
dents of educational opportunities 
and academic rights in the name of 
personal politics. State and feder-
al legislators should also consider 

withholding taxpayer monies from 
schools that allow faculty to imple-
ment a boycott that directly hurts 
students, undermines their school’
s 
academic mission and erodes public 
trust in our nation’
s institutions of 
higher education. ■

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin is the founder and 
director of AMCHA Initiative, a nonpartisan, 
nonprofit organization dedicated to combating 
anti-Semitism at colleges and universities in 
the United States. She was a faculty member 
at the University of California for 20 years. 
This was originally published by JNS.org.

commentary

Jonathan A. 
Greenblatt

