Updated 16/11/08 to include statement from Dina Omar
Dina Omar’s Statement:
My name is Dina Omar and I am one of the three Palestinian Students on campus who were assaulted by John Moghtader, Gabe Weiner and Yeduda De. (Yes, I am Palestinian, I realize that may be offensive to some students on campus, but please excuse my audacious existence)
I would just like to contextualize some things. Conveniently, Dalia and I are not mentioned in this article—the two females who were hit, shoved, and manhandled by three men. I have bruises that I did not feel at the time but have shown on my skin and I also cannot walk on my right foot.
The comments that were made about and toward us (the Palestinian Students) are also omitted. For example, the mob of men who assaulted us yelled “I will kick your Arab ass,” and “Arab pigs” They also said very derogatory comments in Arabic. This article, the dean of students, and the students who are commenting on this article such as Ariel are attempting to equate and compare two unequal parties. This incident was by no means a “fight.” Husam and I were also given citations, Although, there were three men on the balcony, all of whom attacked us physically, and only one was issued a citation. Despite the fact that we were only defending ourselves, meaning I pushed the men off of me and Husam was attempting to do the same thing.
I was less upset about the violence than I was with the response. Not one police officer asked me to identify the man who hit me in the back, although Dalia, Husam, and myself (the three people that were attacked) were subjected to an impromptu lineup in front of a crowd of people. We were told to line up against a wall while Gabe, escorted by a police officer, pointed us out as alleged aggressors. We were never given an opportunity to identify the 3 men who attacked us from a line up, possibly because 2 of the men were neither apprehended, nor even pursued tonight. The dean of Students made me feel as if I did something wrong, as if it was my fault for being assaulted. He spent more time criticizing our initial nonviolent protest than he did assessing our take on the situation. He never once asked me what happened. Instead, he immediately began to lecture us about how we “should have known better” than to protest the event. He began to equate our nonviolent protest with their violent response. He did not even mention the fact that 3 of us were physically assaulted.
The level of humiliation and lack of dignity students of color on campus are subject to is so insidiously allowed that the University is complacent in not only permitting such events to happen but also in mopping up and covering up the evidence of their happenings. The university places blame on the recipients of the violence and on the people who are being systematically erased. And when we (three Palestinian students) symbolically hang a flag at a concert that is celebrating our erasure we are interrogated for it. And when we then get assaulted we are treated as if we are equal—equal in blame and in violence but not equal in rights and as humans. Mahmoud Darwish writes, “From them the sin, and from them the forgiveness. From them the killing, and the tears. From them the massacres, and the justice of the courts.” How can we possibly be equal? What does it say about this university when we the students and faculty cannot see through such power dynamics? What happens when you conflate the words assault and fight on the front page of the newspaper?
Original post follows:
For Immediate Release
Please Forward Widely
SJP statement on violent anti-Palestinian attack on campus
November 14, 2008– (Berkeley, CA)
Contact: admin [at] calsjp.org
Student organization “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) is extremely concerned about a violent attack on three Arab Palestinian students on the evening of November 13, 2008 around 6:00PM, and calls upon campus administrators and authorities to immediately investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice.
According to dozens of witnesses on the scene, three organizers for the “Zionist Freedom Alliance” attacked one male and two female Arab students who stood nearby the event holding a Palestinian flag. The assailants were identified by the Daily Californian to include current ASUC student senator John Moghtader, Cal alumnus Gabe Weiner, and performer Yehuda De sa. The paper also reported that all three had been cited by the UC Police Department on several counts of battery.
The three Arab students had decided to display the flag as a silent statement after hearing offensive anti-Arab remarks at the concert. They did not attempt to interfere with the event. Shortly after they put their flags on display, the assailants were seen angrily rushing into Eshleman Hall and disturbing several meetings to reach the protestors who were located on the 2nd floor balcony. Students on the scene report that the men were yelling racial epithets directed at Arabs and Palestinians.
When the assailants arrived at the balcony, they attempted to push the protestors aside and take their flags away. Witnesses claim that the assailants eventually knocked one protestor against the balcony railing, with a scuffle ensuing where two Arab students, one male and one female, were hit several times. Within a few minutes the assailants began to rush away, though a small group of their supporters had followed them upstairs. Throughout the process the assailants and their supporters were also overheard making remarks like, “we’re about to take care of some f***ing Palestinians,” and “you Arab dogs, we will kill you.”
The group of assailants was eventually pushed away by a crowd of students who were waiting for the police to arrive and collect statements. One of the assailants accused his victims of assaulting him, causing citations to be issued on the victims despite the testimony of several witnesses on the scene refuting the claim. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt during the ordeal.
SJP is concerned by the willful and concerted escalation to violence by these individuals, who are members of student organization Tikvah. SJP disagrees with the Daily Californian’s characterization of the event as the result of “tensions between Palestinian and Jewish students.” In fact, the incident was isolated, and the assailants are not representative of the Jewish community at Cal. After a series of similar threatening encounters with a handful of individuals this semester, SJP members began to document these incidents. Two of the attackers, John Moghtader and Gabe Weiner, were involved in another outburst at a campus lecture last month that led the Jewish Student Union to place Tikvah on probation [1, 2].
SJP calls upon campus administrators to pursue the incident immediately, and for students to remain committed to resolving their political differences through peaceful dialogue and discussion.
References
[1] (Video) Tikvah members disrupt Berkeley event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNkFwb4MS6Q
[2] Jewish SF: Friction among Jewish students at Cal (http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/36441/format/html/displaystory.html)
Online Version
http://calsjp.org/2008/11/14/blog/sjp-statement-on-violent-anti-palestinian-attack-on-campus/