Oh, those silly, silly Bay area anti-Zionists. Their "NOTICE ME!, NOTICE ME" temper tantrums are getting more and more elaborate. At first, they were content to simply interrupt free speech, to muzzle any dissenting voices, because after all, only their side deserves to be heard. But that wasn't enough to get noticed. So they decided to vandalize kosher food products in Bay area grocery stores. But in spite of their congratulatory self promotion in the local independent media, still no one seemed to care. Their latest misadventure involves inserting mock ads into local bus shelters. This one, in a UC Berkeley bus shelter lasted mere hours before it was removed.
Why did the shelter "ad" stand out so clearly as fraud and theft of service? Well, there is the small matter of everything on it being false.
In particular, the "ad " asks that the University of California's partnership with the study abroad program at Hebrew University, one of the top universities in the world be rescinded.
The First Board of Governors of this prestigious school included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and Chaim Weizmann. Albert Einstein bequeathed his papers to the university, which has hosted many Nobel Laureates.
Why would the vandals want to prevent UC students from having the opportunity to study at this prestigious school? Could they fear for the students safety? After all, the university was attacked on July 31, 2002, when a Palestinian exploded a bomb in the university's crowded cafeteria during lunch time. Nine people, including UC Berkeley's own Marla Bennett, were killed in the attack. Hamas claimed responsibility. No- ensuring student safety is not their motivation.
Thought bubbles on the poster say "I believe that governments must be held accountable for their action", ignoring the fact that Israel's academic communities function independent of the government.
The vandals also ignore the fact that more dialog- academic, cultural and personal - is the key to peaceful co-existence. Their motivation for this, and all their actions is the immoral and hypocritical demonization of the only nation in the region that shares our values of liberal democracy, with freedom and civil rights for all its citizens.
Marla Bennett before her murder at age 24, wrote "There is nowhere else in the world I would rather be right now. I have a front-row seat for the history of the Jewish people. I am a part of the struggle for Israel's survival." It is that spirit the anti-zionists seek to smother with their vandalism, and with their proposed boycott
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