Setting The Record Straight

Campus Watch corrects false allegations made against it.

Campus Watch Responds:

In a semi-literate rant meant to defend San Francisco State University professor Rabab Abdulhadi's role in reaching a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between her school and terrorist-friendly An-Najah U. in the West Bank, GUPS (General Union of Palestine Students), for which Abdulhadi serves as faculty "mentor and advisor," smears CW even as it demonstrates its own need for remedial education.

CW is mentioned three times along with some other organizations (emphasis added):

We the General Union of Palestine Students at San Francisco State University write to affirm our support of the Memorandum Of Understanding and partnership between SF State and Al-Najah University in Palestine, the Arab Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas (AMED) program at SF State, and our mentor and advisor Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi in the face of attack, harrasement [sic], suppression and slander by the Zionist organizations Canary Mission, Campus Watch, and AMCHA. These are outside organizations to the university that foster Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism. As justice conscious students at SF State we pride ourselves as fighting for social justice on our campus, our communities and in our society; we vehemently challenge all forms of hatemongering, including the hatemongering that Canary Mission, Campus Watch and AMCHA promote. Last year we faced firsthand the hate brought onto our campuses when students engaged in peaceful and impactful protest against colonization of Palestinian, Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities were targeted by Canary Mission. Canary Mission runs an online smear campaign that creates profiles filled with inaccurate, racist, and Islamophobic rhetoric against students and faculty and adds links to their social media accounts leading to threats of violence against students on campus and at their places of work. Canary Mission, Campus Watch and AMCHA have no place on our campus to spread their hate.

Where to begin in responding to such absurdities? First, this screed extends the precious protests of profs who take criticism of their deeds as "harrasement [sic], suppression and slander." In the real world, it's called offering critiques of taxpayer-financed state employees, but reality's role in the daily lives of the likes of Abdulhadi and her (even more immature) student supporters is slim to none. CW offers not hate, not harassment, and certainly not slander, but reasoned, rigorously researched critiques. Since these are far more dangerous to the enterprises of propagandists like Abdulhadi than any mere slander, they elicit the hysterical reactions typified above.

Moreover, CW is not a Zionist organization, not part of a conspiracy, and not allied with other organizations, including those named. We don't foster any of the vices listed--and one is particularly amused, in a sad, resigned sort of way--that an organization like GUPS, writing in defense of a Hamas-loving university, would accuse CW of anti-Semitism. And no, as anyone familiar with CW already knows, we aren't "Islamophobic," racist, or xenophobic--all terms used in desperation to silence opponents and end debate rather than answer criticism.

As for being an outside organization, well, yes, we have First Amendment rights and intend to exercise them. Again we see on-campus organizations whining that others comment on their nefarious deeds--in this case, legitimizing terrorism. Of course, we're not "on their campus" to spread hate (actually, we're not there at all), but these snowflakes who call for the obliteration of Israel and refer elsewhere on their site to "occupied Jerusalem"--you know, by those Israelis who are descended from the city's founders--melt under the heat of a watchful, critical eye.

Finally, but perhaps most notable, nowhere does GUP refute a single one of CW's carefully documented charges against Abdulhadi, An-Najah, or the hate-filled, biased nature of the MOU. Instead, it resorts to name-calling, lying, and jargon. It's not that we expected more from such an organization, mind you. We just tire of repeating ourselves in light of the worn, cliché-ridden charges emanating endlessly from these activists masquerading as students. Here's to hoping that one day they'll grow up.

(Posted by Winfield Myers)