Wiesenthal Center Urges Stanford University President To Remove Student RA Following Threats Of Violence Towards Pro-Israel Students

July 23, 2018

Center official says, “Such an individual so filled with hatred should be immediately removed from those duties.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today expressed outrage over threats of violence towards pro-Israel students made by Stanford University junior, Hamzeh Daoud. On Friday, Daoud, a former Student Senate member and an active member of Students for Justice in Palestine, posted in Facebook [at right, since removed], “I’m gonna physically fight Zionists on campus next year if someone comes at me with their ‘Israel is a democracy’ bullsh*t. And after I abolish you’re a** I’ll go ahead and work every day for the rest of my life to abolish your petty a** ethno-supremacist, settler-colonial state.” The Center noted that Daoud is currently a Resident Advisor (RA) at a Stanford dormitory. “Such an individual so filled with hatred should be immediately removed from those duties,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Wiesenthal Center’s Associate Dean and  Director of its Global Social Action.

In a letter to Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the President of Stanford University, Rabbi Cooper, wrote that, “such an overt threat made by a student, who knows full well the code of conduct your University has established, demands direct action from your office denouncing his verbal thuggery and threat along with a warning to him and other members of Students For Palestine that any further threats, verbal or physical made against Jewish students or other supporters of Israel, will lead to immediate expulsion and removal from campus.”

Cooper also noted to Dr. Tessier-Lavigne, that despite Stanford’s longstanding and positive relationship with Israeli academia, “Jewish students and other supporters of Israel have been subject to intimidation, harassment, and virulent campaigns demonizing the Jewish state on many of America’s finest campuses.”

“We hope you will take all necessary steps to denounce and counter this threat,” Rabbi Cooper concluded.

For more information, please contact the Center's Communications Department, 310-553-9036. Join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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