A petition is calling on USC to condemn professors who equated Zionism with terrorism.
By: JNS.org and United with Israel Staff
An online petition is challenging a University of Southern California (USC) professor for equating North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il, China’s Mao Zedong, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and Israeli Zionists.
During an October lecture in front of 200 students taking an international relations class, Prof. David Kang displayed a PowerPoint presentation with a slide entitled “Who are terrorists?” featuring a list of organizations that included “Israeli Zionists.” The slide did not list any recognized Islamic terror organizations.
Other slides in the presentation offered quotes from Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden indicating that US foreign policy is to blame for terror attacks.
Further slides compare the number of terror-related deaths in the US on and before Sept. 11, 2001, to the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents as well as by lightning.
“By creating an equation between ‘Israeli Zionists’ and terrorist groups, Professor Kang has abused his authority – teaching a mandatory class – and has created a hostile environment for pro-Israel and Jewish students at USC,” the petition read.
The university has refused to condemn Kang or take any action on the matter.
In a recent article by the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs—a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about Israel and combating anti-Semitism—stated that Kang’s “generalization that ‘Israeli Zionists’ are terrorists is simply hate speech.” Rothstein added, “USC should condemn Kang and adopt a policy similar to the UC (University of California) Regents Principles Against Intolerance, to make clear that anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry have no place on campus.”
Over 6,300 have signed the petition.
California universities — including the University of California (UC) system, the University of Southern California and the Claremont Colleges — were listed by the AMCHA Initiative’s annual report as among the top 15 schools based on: the highest incidence of overall anti-Semitic activity in 2016; targeting of Jews; anti-Semitic expression; and anti-Israel BDS activity. Chicago-area schools featured prominently, as well, based on those four markers.
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