A petition by the University of California, Sana Cruz Committee for Justice in Palestine has asked the university president to condemn the racist comments a UCSC lecturer, Tammi Rossman Benjamin, made against Muslim and Jewish groups at an off campus event
Rossman-Benjamin claimed that students have become poisoned by information they hear on campus, criticising Palestine-related activism by the students.
She said that Muslim Student Association and Student for Justice in Palestine are connected to terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
An excerpt from the speech:
"These are not your ordinary student groups like College Republicans or Young Democrats. These are students who come with a serious agenda, who have ties to terrorist organizations."
The video of this speech made on June 20, 2012, has recently surfaced on the Internet and offended a lot of students. They have called for a strong punishment against the lecturer.
Students from Committee for Justice in Palestine have written an open letter to Mark Yudof, UC President seeking an answer to Rossman-Benjamin's hate speech.
They say that a null action will be seen as the university promoting the lecturer's proclamation of students being tied to terrorist groups.
The committee has asked the president to release a statement condemning Tammi Benjamin's hateful comments in the video.
