Flagging Support

San Francisco State University (SFSU) has been the venue for some of the worst anti-semitic incidents on U.S. college campuses.

For instance, in 2002:

Students at San Francisco State University holding a pro-Israel rally were surrounded by pro-Palestine protesters screaming, "Go back to Russia" and "Hitler did not finish the job."

According to an e-mail account by Laurie Zoloth, the director of Jewish Studies at SFSU, "The police could do nothing more than surround the Jewish students and community members who were now trapped in a corner of the plaza, grouped under the flags of Israel, while an angry, out of control mob, literally chanting for our deaths, surrounded us. . . . This was neither free speech nor discourse, but raw, physical assault." For weeks the campus had been festooned with posters invoking the medieval blood libel by showing soup cans with pictures of dead babies on them and labels reading, "canned Palestinian children meat, slaughtered according to Jewish rites under American license."

SFSU is back in the news, but this time the dispute concerns the College Republicans, who staged a protest in support of the "war on terror" and trampled upon makeshift Hezbollah and Hamas flags. As it turns out, the flags were believed to contain the Arabic symbol for “Allah,” or God:

Leigh Wolf, a member of the College Republicans, said the group was unaware of what the Arabic symbols meant until some Muslim students brought it to their attention. The goal was to desecrate Hezbollah and Hamas, not Islam," Wolf said.

“It’s the equivalent of stepping on the cross. How would Christians feel?” said Ali Algarmi, 21, an SF State Muslim student studying sociology. “We see that as being spit on the face.”

After learning of the religious symbols the College Republicans let some Muslim students alter the flags to be less inflammatory before walking on them in protest of terrorists.

“That’s something very holy, and stepping on it, it’s disgracing Islam,” Brian Gallagher said, an SF State student and General Union of Palestinian Students, or GUPS, member.

At one point, Wolf and Ramsey El-Qare, president of GUPS, confronted and pointed fingers at each other in front of the cement stage. El-Qare accused Wolf of spreading false and derogatory information about Muslims to students.

“They are just being intolerant of other people’s religion,” said Naser Halteh, 22, an SF State student and GUPS member.

SFSU students have just filed a formal complaint and are demanding an apology. I sympathize--I'm not a fan of desecrating religious symbols, even on flags. I wonder though, if SFSU students appreciate the irony, given this incident a few years back:

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Students for Justice in Palestine held a raucous rally in remembrance of the April 9, 1948, "Deir Yassin massacre," when "Zionist militias" killed 100 civilians. "I saw signs that said ‘Sharon = Hitler' and ‘Magen David = Swastika,'" says Jesse Gabriel, 21, a Berkeley junior and student body president.

Dennis Dubinsky, 23, an AIPAC-trained senior at San Francisco State had set up a table nearby in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Jewish students lit yahrzeit candles and handed out information as pro-Palestinian demonstrators waved Israeli flags bearing swastikas instead of stars of David.

"The police came and stood next to us to protect us, and when the rally came they formed a barrier in front of us ... We had to be escorted by police to Hillel on Holocaust Remembrance Day."