A Stanford student who is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) wrote on Facebook that he wanted to “physically fight” Zionists.
The student, Hamzeh Daoud, wrote in a July 20 Facebook post in reaction to Israel’s nation-state law, “im 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 your ass i’ll go ahead and work every day for the rest of my life to abolish your petty ass ethnosupremacist settler-colonial state.”
Daoud later edited his post to replace “physically” with “intellectually.”
“I edited this post because i realize intellectually beating Zionists is the only way to go,” Daoud wrote at the bottom of his post. “Physical fighting is never an answer when trying to prove people wrong. Radical love. And a whole lot of smarts! Facts will get you hella far.”
Daoud apologized for his post in an email to the Stanford Daily on July 22.
“I apologize if I made anyone feel unsafe,” Daoud wrote. “That was not the intent and will never be an intent of mine at all.”
Daoud also told the Stanford Daily in a prior email that his post was made in the heat of the moment because he was disgusted at the nation-state law, claiming that it turned Israel into “an apartheid state.”
The Stanford College Republicans (SCR), who first highlighted Daoud’s post, called for “disciplinary action” against Daoud and that Daoud should be removed from his upcoming position as resident assistant (RA) of a dormitory on campus.
“Mr. Daoud’s statements reveal him to be a danger to the safety of students on Stanford’s campus, and such an individual should never be put in any position of authority over other students, particularly in a dormitory that includes freshmen,” the SCRs wrote on their Facebook page. “Moreover, while we are disturbed by Hamzeh Daoud’s statements, we find it unsurprising that a member of SJP, an organization with financial ties to terrorist affiliates, would issue a call to violence against pro-Israel students.”
Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper had similar sentiments, saying in a statement that “an individual filled with such hatred” should not be an RA.
“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 wrote in a letter to Stanford President Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne.
Stanford spokesman E.J. Miranda told the Stanford Daily that they are looking into matter.
“Stanford is committed to free expression of ideas and a culture of inclusion where all members of the university community can feel safe,” Miranda said.
A student at Stanford told The Weekly Standard that Daoud is “one of the most aggressive and prolific anti-Israel figures at Stanford” and that if he’s allowed to be an RA then “he could quite literally threaten the safety of the students in the dormitory.”
