by James C. Sherlock
Israel was attacked by Hamas on October 7.
On October 8, this letter was issued in Charlottesville.
“Events” were “a step towards a free Palestine.”
On October 11, President James Ryan issued a strong message condemning the savage Hamas massacre in Israel. He deserves credit for that, but has not gotten it on the grounds of the University.
Also on October 11, Jewish students at the University felt it necessary to address the University community in the Cavalier Daily.
“We have noticed classmates, friends and prominent student groups sharing messages that go so far as to celebrate the deaths of our family members, friends and loved ones. Some of these messages claim to be in the name of “decolonization” or “resistance.”
We ask that, for a moment, you take a step back to recognize the profound inhumanity that has taken place — that for a moment, instead of prioritizing ideology or politics, you consider the lives that have been taken and will continue to be taken. Will you consider rape to be an acceptable method of resistance? Will you consider the torture of civilians an acceptable step towards justice? Will you celebrate women and children being paraded through the streets as hostages with dancing and music? We hear the cries of children calling for their parents, we hear Hamas mocking them — must we hear your voices joining terrorists in celebration? …
We do not ask for agreement — we ask for dignity. We desperately seek peace and humanity.
With prayers of peace for all,
On October 12, The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UVa , as if to prove the point made a day earlier by the Jewish students, chanted “From the River to the Sea” at the steps of the Rotunda at UVa.
As background for those unaware of the reference, the Jordan River is the eastern boundary of Israel and the sea its western boundary. Look above at the poster carried in another demonstration.
No Israel. By which they mean no Jews.
Look at the cartoon of the man on a hang glider. Look at the smile on the woman. You tell me what they mean.
On October 13, a Cavalier Daily article was overwhelmingly sympathetic to SJP and provided its talking points at length. The headline called the Oct 12 demonstration a “teach-in.”
Yesterday the 18th, the Cavalier Daily wrote that the Student Council will be meeting with President Ryan tomorrow (Friday) to demand more money through an independent endowment. They took the opportunity to condemn his statement on the Israel-Hamas war.
Bottom line. UVa reaps the oppressed/oppressor racial narrative it has so aggressively taught. It cannot be surprised that some of its students have learned it.
Never having been taught humanity, students have absorbed hatred to fill the void.
The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UVa and that University’s student council are populated by, at best, wretchedly miseducated people.
The University of Virginia, my alma mater, has become an asylum for Jew haters. The inmates have taken it over.
Their words and actions are “likely to incite imminent lawless action”. Consider “from the river to the sea”. Ask Jewish students at UVa what they take those words to mean. Kill Jews.
That is the common understanding of that phrase.
See the founding principles of Hamas, which these students and professors proudly support. Kill Jews.
Those exhortations are not protected by the First Amendment.
See Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969) for the controlling case.
The Board of Visitors must act aggressively to take it back.
- Many faculty and staff, self-identified, have forfeited their places at any university. Fire everyone, faculty, staff or student, that has encouraged or abided hatred of Jews.
- Start teaching Enlightenment values again: reason, science, liberty, toleration, constitutional government, personal agency, ethics, capitalism, democracy, classic liberalism and natural rights among them.
It was the Enlightenment that was the birthplace of the modern university. It must be centered in its re-birth.
The alternative is anarchy, a perpetual state of disorder.
Look around. Civil society is breaking down.
Look once more at the smile on that woman’s face.
Updated Oct 20 at 3:44 to provide the reference to Brandenburg v. Ohio.
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