SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — San Diego Jewish groups issued this statement after graduate students at University of California San Diego staged an illegal strike tied to the BDS movement and went on a “walking tour” purported to expose campus research being funded by “Zionists.”
The statement was issued by American Jewish Committee, Hillel San Diego, the Lawrence Family JCC and the Jewish Federation of San Diego.
“The illegal strike by UAW Local 4811 is tied to the antisemitic Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement, the goal of which is to demonize Israel, undermine its existence and ultimately seek the elimination of the only Jewish state. The strikers and other allied groups conducted a walking tour to show which research centers ‘get money from Zionists.’
In turn, they are trafficking in antisemitic tropes, which pose a threat to Jewish UCSD students who have felt under siege because of ongoing campus demonstrations. When the protestors claim on social media ‘Our comrades in Gaza call upon us, directly, to escalate our struggle…,’ they make UCSD an unsafe and unwelcoming environment for Jewish faculty and students.
We thank the UCSD administration for taking a firm stance against the strikers and not letting the university be governed by mob rule. We urge UCSD to ramp up its efforts to ensure Jewish students, faculty, and staff feel safe and protected from the hate Local 4811 and other groups have chosen to perpetrate. We also call on the national UAW leadership to disavow the strike. Such egregious hate should have no place in the union movement.”
More about the BDS movement can be found here.
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Preceding provided by the American Jewish Committee in concert with the aforementioned Jewish agencies.