San Jose State community members differed in their feelings surrounding some speaker events held at the MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center in the past two weeks.
Students for Justice in Palestine held a guest speaker event and exhibit in the center Wednesday night, discussing how Palestinians and Muslims are perceived in the West.
Students for Justice in Palestine is the SJSU chapter of the national campus-based organization that advocates for the human rights of Palestinians, according to its Instagram page.
More than 30 students attended the event, which was promoted and supported by several Arab student organizations including the Muslim Student Association, the Arab Student Union, the Pakistani student association, the Persian Student Association and the Afghan Student Association.
The guest speaker Amir Abdel Malik Ali spoke on the changing perception of Islam in America and what Zionism means to Muslims and Palestinians. Amir Abdel Malik Ali is the Amir of the Oakland Islamic Community Center.
Amir is an Islamic title of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat or a high-ranking political or military official. It is also used to refer to a leader of an Islamic or Arabic organization, according to FairObserver.com, an independent nonprofit media organization.
Zionism is a Jewish nationalist movement with the goal of creation of a Jewish national state in Palestine, citing it as the ancient homeland of the Jews, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica Zionism Definition and History webpage.
“They're saying that [Palestinians], who are impoverished, these people don't even have a standing army. [Palestinians], who live in a state of just complete degradation,” Amir Ali said. “They're supposed to be Goliath and then the people with the M1 tanks, the helicopter gunships, the F16 fighter jets, the nuclear weapons, they're supposed to be David?”
A portion of the speaker event also covered the common conflation from between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
“If I were to voice my support to the Palestinians and voice my outrage against how the Israelis are treating the Palestinians, I'm called an antisemitic,” Amir Ali said. “But I'm supporting the Palestinians who are semetic people, right? So if I'm supporting the Palestinians, who are Semites, how can I be antisemitic? What the Israelis are saying is that they are the only Semitic people.”
Merriam-Webster defines a Semitic individual as an obsolete term to describe any of a number of people of ancient Southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews and Arabs.
The Students for Justice in Palestine event comes a week after Egyptian-born Jew Albert Bivas was hosted by Hillel of Silicon Valley and the Jewish Student Union to celebrate North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage Month on Nov. 9.
Hillel of Silicon Valley is the SJSU campus chapter of Hillel International, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world that aims to bring thousands of college students together, according to its website.
There were more than 25 people in attendance for the Nov. 9 speaker event including Matan Zamir, the deputy consul general of Israel to the Pacific Northwest.
Several students in the days leading up to and after the Hillel event alleged tense verbal exchanges occurred in the space, specifically regarding topics about Palestine and Israel.
Some students, who wished to remain anonymous for security concerns, but were present at the time of verbal exchanges in the week leading up to and after the Hillel event said the environment in the MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center was abnormal.
“MOSAIC is all about keeping an open space, you know, it’s a friendly, welcoming space for students and all of last week, it was the exact opposite of that,” said an anonymous student. “There was tension in the air. Students were uncomfortable, you know, little mini fights were going on, not physical, but ideological battles were fought.”
Interactions of differing opinions reportedly started with one student erasing a written message saying “Free Palestine” and then replacing it with “Peace for all.”
Mechanical engineering senior Sana Saleem and several people who left the MOSAIC just before the Nov. 9 speaker event said they felt the space, for the duration of the event, was no longer theirs, especially with UPD officers present at the door.
“I mean, you're having this exhibition, I think, for a Zionist,” Saleem said. “I mean, I have nothing against them. You know, I do believe in ‘Peace for all’, you know, but I just don't like the idea of them having cops there because we're Muslims.”
MOSAIC director Christopher Yang said the center is a “content neutral space” and has hosted and worked with Hillel and Jewish Student Union several times in previous years.
Yang said police were only there on request of Hillel and Jewish Student Union as a precautionary measure for Matan Zamir. Sarita Bronstein, the Hillel Silicon Valley executive director, said that UPD was also present because of “rumors” leading up to the event but declined to comment further on the matter.
Max Martin, materials engineer junior and MOSAIC employee said that Mosaic, at its best, is a place for discussion, inclusion and a difference of opinion.
“This space is super welcoming. You want to join these, you know, in depth conversations, we have the rooms if you want to study a little with a little bit more privacy, a little bit more focus,”Martin said. “That's the beautiful thing about MOSAIC is I think it's not just one specific identity coming in to study it's or hangout. It's everybody. And I think that this is a positive space for that.”
