i promise i can't help you

plum-soup:

daloy-politsey:

A civil rights group has filed a legal complaint against George Washington University in Washington, DC, after college officials banned campus mental health services from serving Palestinian students following Israel’s attack on Gaza.

The university could shut down the entire office dedicated to supporting students’ emotional well-being over complaints from Israel advocates.

In a June Instagram post expressing solidarity and support for Palestinian rights, George Washington University’s Office of Advocacy and Support (OAS) offered trauma support services to Palestinian students affected by Israel’s attacks on Gaza the month prior.

During its 11-day bombardment of Gaza in May, Israel attacked residential buildings killing entire Palestinian families, sometimes wiping out several generations.

But those services were quickly canceled by the university administration after the campus chapter of Hillel, which is affiliated with Hillel International, a Zionist institution, claimed that the OAS offer was harmful to Jewish students.

A top administrator contacted the director of OAS and “​​implied an ultimatum” to the office, civil rights group Palestine Legal asserts in the complaint.

OAS could either take down the Instagram posts offering support to Palestinian students at the university, or the director would be fired, according to the complaint. OAS leadership “considered this threat credible,” Palestine Legal states.

OAS was pushed by the administration to publish a statement saying that the post “did not create a safe space for all members of our community” and to revoke the services for Palestinian students.

A student-run group, Students Against Sexual Assault, had also posted to Instagram offering peer trauma support for Palestinian students. The administration ordered the group to remove their post as well, under the same pretext that it was “harmful and exclusionary.”

George Washington University then launched an “audit” of OAS. Members of the office are no longer allowed to publish on social media or communicate with professors on behalf of students experiencing trauma, Palestine Legal says.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the entire office and its support services could be closed to all students.

Dear Jewish people entering college: DO NOT JOIN HILLEL, I repeat, DO NOT JOIN HILLEL

I DONT CARE IF THEYRE THE ONLY JEWISH GROUP ON CAMPUS

I DONT CARE IF YOURE LOOKING FOR COMMUNITY

HILLEL IS AN EXPLICITLY POLITICAL ZIONIST GROUP, AND ONE OF THEIR MAIN FOCUSES IS TO MAKE THE LIVES OF PALESTINIANS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS AT COLLEGE MISERABLE

They are not a Jewish community group, they simply dress themselves in that outfit to attract more membership. EVERY time anyone says anything positive about Palestine, Hillel immediately goes for the throat, perverting social justice language in an effort to make it seem like Jews are being directly harmed by the mere fact that some people support/offer services to Palestinian and ally students. Even my sister, the least political person in my nuclear family probably, refused to join Hillel after going for a couple of Shabbat services because they were, quote, “weird”. Also the Hillel at her school had been involved in a very controversial incident where they where posting extremely antisemitic flyers on campus and pretending they had been posted by Students for Justice in Palestine. Like there is nothing redeeming about Hillel. It’s a club for people who had “life changing” experiences on their birthright trip and now won’t shut up talking about how hot Israeli guys are, and more importantly it’s a club for people who believe it is of the utmost importance that jews only socialize and breed with other Jews, so as to stop the supposed “mongrelization” and “destruction of the Jewish race” through intermarriage, which has become incredibly common among American Jews.

Hillel has no redeeming qualities. I understand some of you may be going to college in places where there aren’t many Jews or synagogues. But the sad fact is that the only community you will find in Hillel is a bunch of rabidly Zionist Arab-haters and people who believe community is preserved by rejecting miscegenation. They are a racist organization to their core and schools should honestly start thinking about banning Hillel and introducing a new jewish group that isn’t a explicitly political organization. It is only fair to the majority of students (especially the campuses Jewish population) that Jews are given a place to gather for community and prayer free of Zionism and ethnonationalist race politics.

(via lesbianchemicalplant)