uci intifadda

Things were very tense. The 25-foot grey wall with bloody images. Masses of women in hijabs and men in Islamic dress, or t-shirts reading “Intifada” and “Free Palestine.” They handed out flyers claiming Israel is committing genocide and using the holocaust to justify it. They starred in anger at the Jews. I went around offering pie and a smile, and was rebuffed by each and every one. It was good pie, boysenberry, and everyone who tried it loved it. But I couldn’t get any of the Muslims to try the pie. They said they would ask “their” Rabbi if it was kosher.

We also handed out balloons. We made lots of friends with the pie and cokes. People were stopping by the tent and bringing friends for the pie. I served E-dud Olmert’s brother Yossi some pie, and he asked if it was kosher. He told some jokes about coalitions. He loved the pie. Yossi was there for a counter speech sponsored by Hillel and Stand With Us. They maxed out the room, and the police closed it off for fire regulations.
not kosher
The police presence kept everything “civil”. Twenty uniformed and another dozen plainclothes policeman were on hand to maintain the “peace” yesterday for Neturei Karta. They showed up fashionably late by half an hour, and proceeded with their mantra that Zionism has hijacked Judaism, that every major Rabbi supports them, that Israel should be abolished and the land controlled by the Muslims. The audience of some 150 people applauded him. Protestors with signs such as “Suicide Bombing is Mass Murder” from StandWithUs stood in a line across from the speakers.

At one point during the afternoon after the speech, as the NK guys walked around campus, a Muslim woman shouted at the them “go back to your country”, and then was told to be quiet, “they are on our side,” their co-patriots responded.

Its clear from the Talmud that we can learn a lot about people from the company they keep. WHo was NK hanging out with, chillin with? Guys with Hamas arm-bands, Intifada t-shirts, seriously off-the-charts Jew hatred, and NK were having a great time with them, smiling and laughing. They were walking all around having a great time.

The NK guy kept trying to insult me with stupid put downs. I was asking how were the Jews in Iran and did he visit them on his recent trip? The second NK guy wouldn’t tell me his name only that he was from Williamsburg. He chained smoked his Marlboros down to the filter. I nicknamed him Mr. Thank-gut.

baloons
We handed out two cases of pies and hundreds of baloons in two hours. Even after the event, couldn’t get any of the administration or the police or the Muslims to try any of the kosher pie we were serving. One woman came by and asked if there was “Palestinian blood in the pie.”

“No,” I replied, “we were all out so we used Christian blood [sic.]” She sneered, “you would use anything you could wouldn’t you Zionists.” Then marched off.

About the author

Rabbi Yonah

13 Comments

  • The UCI administrators a bunch of cowards, hiding behind a “free speech” mantra while the most far-left lunatic fringe spews this racist hatred on campus. Thanks for the sane commentary, Rabbi Yonah. As a Southern California resident, I also notice that the mainstream media has been mostly silent on this week’s events at UCI.

  • Why is the administration hiding behind a ‘free speech’ mantra rather than simply endorsing a free speech hard line?

  • It’s amazing how much patience you have. I wouldn’t be able to stand the anti-Semitism for long.

  • The practice of free speech means that even people and views you abhor have the right to be heard. If everyone agreed on everything and didn´t ever have conlicting (even abhorent) views then the right to free speech wouldn´t even be a concept. If you can´t accept the practice of people with completely (even idiotic)opposite views than yourselves airing them on a college campus (don´t you people learn anything about debate, critical thinking and the presentation of your own ideas at school?) then just where do you think that this argument is best dealt with, in the cockpit of a hijacked jet or the driving cab of a bulldozer?

  • Do you have a link to news about this event? I was searching on google news and couldn’t find anything

  • i’m with sandy…where was the news media during all this? i’m surprised no one from hillel or AFI called the news channels. and while i support free speech, it is undeniable that there is a huge problem with the UCI administration allowing this to go on. it happens all the time at UCI, it just happens to be this week that they brought in more high-profile speakers. also, i’m sure the UCI jews were less likely to incite a riot or anything of the sort, because from what i was told recently, muslim students outnumber the jewish students 2 to 1. there are 2000 muslims at UCI and only 1000 jews. add that to physical threats and strong, well-publicized anti-semitic statements and it doesn’t create a very strong case for the jews to want to cause a stir. it’s really tragic. understandable, but tragic. and we get to sit there and watch it go on in the name of civil rights and free speech.

  • These things are usually announced ahead of time.

    We should have 2-3 bombed-out buses from Israel that follow the “artificial wall” demonstrations around, from campus to campus. A large, life-size photo banner would probably have as much impact.

    Also “bomb-ins” like Middle suggested – Hillel members acting out the aftermath of a bus bomb.

  • Whoa– what’s this? B-D has something nice to say about Middle? “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid . . .”

    First Ahmadinejad, now this. Truly, the End of Days is upon us.

  • I still vote to bring Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Zvi Mazel to UCI and unleash him. Now there’s a Mensch!