You Can Say "Thank You" to Kent State for Refusing to Cave to Anti-Semitic Activists

Lea Speyer/The Algemeiner : Nov 22, 2016
United With Israel

The quote that caused the ire of anti-Semitic students: "Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement." -Golda Meir

[United With Israel] Kent State University is refusing to cave to pressure from anti-Israel student activists to dismantle a display featuring a photo of, and quotation by, the late Prime Minister Golda Meir—which they claim is a daily reminder of racism on campus. Contact them to say thanks! (Photo: via Facebook/Kent State)

The decision to reject pressure to remove a photo of deceased Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir comes after University President Beverly Warren initially said that outrage expressed by the head of Kent State's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), as well as by the Spanish and Latino Student Association (SALSA), Ohio Student Association and Muslim Students Association—would be taken into consideration while weighing whether to remove the exhibit.

On Thursday, however, according to a school spokesperson, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Todd Diacon sent a letter to SJP President Yousof Mousa informing him of the school's decision to leave the display intact.

The letter was addressed to Mousa, as it was he who had sparked the whole controversy in the first place, by publishing an op-ed in the independent student website Kent Wired, accusing the late leader of the Jewish state of the "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians." (Photo: via Cleveland.com)

He claimed that her quote—"Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement"—was causing Palestinian and black students discomfort and was "contribut[ing] to a climate that makes us feel like we do not belong here."

"While I honor your concerns," Diacon wrote to Mousa, "removing the quote from Golda Meir, which is nonsectarian and which reasonably could be read by many as inspirational, would be counter to our core institutional value of supporting a diversity of cultures, beliefs, identities and thought."

Click here to thank Kent State for preventing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activism on campus!