By Deepa Bharath, The Ontario Daily Bulletin
Pitzer College, a small yet prestigious liberal arts college in Claremont, has become part of a national debate over the line between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel speech and boycotts on college campuses.
President Trump, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, signed an executive order during a Hanukkah celebration at the White House, extending civil rights protections to Jews and specifically targeting the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel movement on many of the nation’s elite college campuses, including Pitzer and other larger Southern California campuses such as UCLA, UC Riverside and UC Irvine. …
Simply talking about a political issue does not amount to anti-Semitism, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles chapter (CAIR-LA), headquartered in Anaheim.
“Whether it’s criticizing the Israeli government’s actions or the actions of governments in Iran or Saudi Arabia — it’s political criticism — not hatred against Jews or Muslims as a religious group,” he said.