May 6, 2016

In a speech May 5 on the San Diego State University campus, conservative author and activist David Horowitz defended fliers posted by his organization, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, at SDSU.

The posters listed the names of seven students, all of them members of Students for Justice in Palestine, who support the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement on the SDSU campus and demand the university boycott Israel and not invest in companies that do business there.

By supporting BDS, the students “have allied themselves with Palestinian terrorists” and are perpetuating “Jew hatred on this campus,” the fliers posted last month announced in advance of Horowitz’s scheduled speech on campus.

The fliers had brought complaints from the Muslim Student Association, which asserted that the students, in effect, were being called terrorists and that the fliers displayed Islamophobia.

In response, San Diego State President Elliot Hirshman declared some aspects of the fliers abhorrent, but stopped short of calling them hate speech or taking as strong a verbal condemnation as had administrators at UCLA, for example, where Horowitz’s group posted similar fliers naming 16 students.

SDSU students on April 27 sought to confront Hirshman. As he left an unrelated gathering, students surrounded a campus police car in which he was a passenger. After an hour-long standoff, Hirshman emerged to make a brief apology to anyone upset by his stance.

There were no protests outside Horowitz’s May 5 speech. Two-dozen campus police were at the ready, but had nothing to do. Horowitz was accompanied by a bodyguard.

The question-and-answer session after Horowitz’s speech did not involve any sense of confrontation or views different than his, according to people in attendance. Members of the press were not allowed to attend the speech.

Horowitz, 77, is the founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center based in Sherman Oaks and has long asserted in books and speeches that free speech on college campuses is imperiled by political correctness and a liberal tilt among professors.

The only sign at the SDSU speech of a contrary view about Israel came from a non-student who mingled briefly among reporters waiting outside. She quietly handed out pamphlets supporting the boycott and criticizing U.S. financial support of Israel.

Although mild by comparison with other controversial issues on other campuses, the weeklong contretemps about the fliers was an unusual moment on the sunny campus of 34,000 students known for its basketball and football teams and growing reputation for academics and research.

Hirshman’s attempt to find a middle ground did not satisfy either side. And the media images of him sitting in a police car immobilized by a group of students may linger — fairly or unfairly — as a sign of weak leadership.

Hirshman met May 2 with several students to discuss the fliers and the issue of free speech, but he did not change his decision.

By May 4, students whose names were on the fliers were demanding his resignation, backed by representatives of the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

Fayaz Nawabi, a leader of the Muslim Student Association at SDSU, said the fliers could have “horrendous effects” on the students’ future when they apply for jobs or graduate school.

Rachel Beck, whose name was listed, said she no longer feels safe on campus.

“We are very peaceful activists,” Beck said as her voice quavered.

Meeting with reporters before his speech, Horowitz blasted Hirshman for not seeking to punish the students who had surrounded the police car. Hirshman “was held hostage for two hours before he apologized,” Horowitz said.

Horowitz accused Hirshman of being afraid to confront the anti-Israel movement and said this is true of other campus administrators, as well.

“He’s intimidated,” Horowitz said. “He’s scared.”

Horowitz noted that the fliers did not call the students terrorists or use the word Muslim. The students, he said “support a movement to strangle Israel” that is backed by groups determined by the U.S. State Department to be sponsors of terrorism.

After Hirshman’s May 2 meeting with the students, he issued a statement announcing that students, faculty and administrators will “undertake a review of university policies to ensure we are balancing freedom of expression and protection from harassment.” He declined all interview requests.

Horowitz was invited to campus by the SDSU College Republicans group, which had said the speech would be open to reporters. But as the speech was set to begin, a university official announced that the room was at capacity – about 70 people – and there was no space, standing or sitting, for a trio of reporters.

Horowitz responded that reporters should be allowed to attend his speech.

“Mr. Horowitz does not determine the fire codes,” the campus official said loudly.

Reporters were kept in an outdoor area of tables and chairs where students, who were uninvolved – and seemingly uninterested – continued studying for finals.