Joe Biden’s Department of Education’s (ED) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating San Diego State University (SDSU) after the school shared a statement condemning the October 7th Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and offering support to impacted members of the campus community.
Jewish Chronicle Two days after the Oct. 7th Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, the president of San Diego State University did what many other college leaders were doing: She sent a campus-wide email supporting her students.
In the email, Adela de la Torre noted “the horrific reports of killings and kidnappings following the Hamas attacks on Israel during Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, a major Jewish holy day,” and said the university was “grieving for all those who are suffering in the wake of this outburst of violence.”
The president included tips on how students could seek support and counseling, and added a note of concern for all of the conflict’s victims: “We are deeply struck by the sheer scale of the loss of life – of innocent Israelis, Palestinians, and countless others. We also recognize that this follows a long history of loss of life of civilians in this region.”
The statement,signed by San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre, Ph.D. and Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Diversity Christy Samarkos, read:
Gateway Pundit (h/t Nita) A spokesman for the university said in a statement, “The email, which you can read in full online, does not promote hate or racism.” “Student Affairs and Campus Diversity team members have and continue to reach out to individual students, advisors and student organizations who have been impacted by the violence in Israel and Gaza.”
It has not been disclosed who made the complaint, but the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at SDSU released a statement on Instagram condemning the president’s statement.
Now that email, according to a university spokesperson, is at the center of a federal civil rights investigation into SDSU — tied to a complaint that the school “promoted hate and racism against Arabs and Muslims.”
Jewish Chronicle It’s a reversal of the complaints behind many of the 42 other civil rights investigations that the Department of Education has opened against universities and K-12 schools nationwide since Oct. 7. Instead of Jewish groups alleging that the school failed to protect Jewish students, as has been the case in at least a dozen open investigations, the probe into SDSU will determine if the university, 48 hours after the Hamas attacks, should have done more for its Muslim students.
On Oct. 13, days after the university president’s email went out, the campus SJP chapter said in a statement that the school “has failed to acknowledge the emotions and well-being of its Palestinian and Muslim students.”
That statement has been co-signed by more than a dozen groups, including SJP chapters at other universities. The group added that it is “DEMANDING” that de la Torre “reassess this hateful and divisive rhetoric being spewed all over campus.”
Among the group’s issues with the email: “The lack of acknowledgment and condemnation of the settler-colonial state of Israel that has inflicted apartheid, genocide, and ethnic cleansing upon the Palestinian people.” The group also pushed SDSU to divest from “corporations that are complicit in Israeli human rights violations.”
Nationwide, several colleges including Rutgers, Brandeis, Columbia and the Florida state university system have suspended their campus SJP chapters.
In their statement, SJP failed to address what should be done regarding the antisemitic behavior occurring on their campus.
A group of fundamentalist Muslim women at San Diego State University @SDSU were caught tearing down photos of missing civilians kidnapped by Hamas. One smiles for the camera: pic.twitter.com/GuW6vZ8XNr
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 10, 2023
Sick.
So if you denounce Hamas, you’re Islamophobic. If you are pro Hamas, you’re an anti Semite (true). This country is a mess. Which is it gonna be?
What happens when a Muslim bastard named Barack HUSSEIN Barry Soetoro Obama is ACTUALLY running and ruining your country!
Can we please go back to.. burn her she is a witch days… Now we have beyond proof than Islam is satans anal discharge.