Melanie Arougueti/ Staff Writer
There were 3,500 Jewish students at FIU in 2015, according to the Miami Herald.
They are a minority in FIU’s grand student population.
They are not being represented.
The school year is drawing to an end, but as many prepare for Summer, many Jewish students are preparing for Passover, a Jewish holiday in April.
Many universities around the country hold Fraternities, Sororities, programs, clubs, or more that cater for the Jewish student population.
While Florida International University has many programs and activities for student life, it has been long seen that they have forgotten about the Jewish students.
An organization called Shalom is seen as the “Jewish org” at the university.
According to the FIU Engage website, it is a student led Israel group.
Shalom does it’s job about promoting Israel news and facts.
This is about Zionism, I, however, am writing about Judaism and how have we let some of those in our student population confuse antisemitism with anti-Zionism.
On March 5, 2019, a stand up poster was put on the GC lawns.
This poster combined racism, the Mexican border, and Israel.
Relating Israel to Racism is not only unjust, but a big stretch.
Not only is it plain wrong, but it is anti-Semitic. It did not educate students on the political problems of the Middle East, but instead made a connection between a political problem to hatred and racism.
“The apartheid wall made me feel extremely uncomfortable on FIU’s campus, the organization bent and distorted historical facts in order to make my peers see me as an enemy. They accused Israelis of racism against Blacks without any evidence.I support free speech, but SJP uses free speech to incite antisemitism. As an FIU Jew, I feel as if my voice and my presence at the school is unaccounted for when a group like SJP can continue to push hatred against my people,” said Jacob Covas, an FIU student, on this issue.
Doesn’t FIU Policy ensure the safety of all students?
Luckily, I was not walking on campus that day and didn’t have to endure the discomfort that any Jewish student would while walking by that poster.
Hopefully, FIU will promote more peace and equality for the Jewish minority here on campus.
Can we count on FIU to make the right changes for their students?
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
Photo courtesy of Shalom FIU
Very important and insightful article by Melanie Arougueti. Even though this has become the trend, to demonize Israel on campuses and label this as ‘freedom of speech’, as non antisemitic, it is clearly antisemitic. It’s actually freedom of hate. Unfortunately, unless anyone witnesses and attends the university, many would not be aware of this issue, yet when it hits close to home, it’s more of a reality which has to be intercepted and aborted asap.
How could the heads of Florida International University allow a poster analogizing Israel as apartheid to be on display??
It is sickening that this is being allowed and that heads of the university are not pouncing on it immediately in order to crush this threat against Jews on campus. This is not only a distraction to the well being and success of Jewish students and anyone who supports them, it leads to global antisemitism. When you mislead an ignorant student by fueling them with lies and hate, it will in turn make him or her one of them. This is not a question of someone’s ‘personal’ opinion, this is a question of distorting facts and history, and grooming vulnerable kids into becoming haters. It’s a shame that even these haters, the students who placed the poster, are the results of grooming by a generation of haters, who will never know the truth, how valuable Israel really is not just to the entire world, but to them as well. It’s the only democracy in the middle east that welcomes all religions, including Muslims already living there, working there, including Muslim women, offers them UNIVERSITY first before Jewish students, because the Jewish students to be, are obligated to serve in the army first, unlike the Muslims. Israel offers voting rights, seats in the Knesset, jobs and the list goes on and on, and furthermore doesn’t kill them for having different views, sexual or political beliefs where if expressed in front of their own, they would be tortured and/or killed.
This is what Israel offers and does, and the ignorant antisemitic students on your campus are accusing Israel of apartheid. If they really knew the meaning of apartheid they would be posting ads in their own backyard!
It is outrageous that Israeli or Jewish students are being exposed
to what is downright, blatant antisemitism. The Nazis did the same thing 70 years ago with their ads and posters in stores, in offices, in schools, etc, which lead to marches, krystallnacht and we know what happened in the end, the murder of close to 7 million Jews. What is going on here starts the same way. The only comfort now is that the State of Israel exists and she is powerful and will protect Jews all over the world ensuring that a Holocaust will NEVER happen again. These students should be investigated and banned from the university along with any professors who are involved in the support and fabrications that fuel these rallies, posters and speeches.
As long as the heads of FIU wait, they are as guilty as these promoters of hate.
Please act promptly and appropriately.