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Rally Leads to Sanctions for Student Groups
A Palestinian student group has been put on probation and a Jewish student group given a warning at San Francisco State University after the two groups clashed at a May rally on campus. The General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) will lose its funding and university-sponsored Web site for one year. The clash occurred after a pro-Israel demonstration organized by San Francisco Hillel, which drew about 350 demonstrators. A counterdemonstration organized by GUPS drew about 75 people.
During the rally, members of the two groups, who were separated by barricades and by university staff members, argued loudly and reportedly shouted racial epithets. As demonstrators were dispersing, a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators aggressively approached a group of pro-Israel protestors, a university spokesman says, shouting at them until the San Francisco police department intervened. There was no physical violence, and no arrests were made.
Administrators at the university reviewed videotapes made at the event and concluded that GUPS had violated the university’s rules on demonstrations and that Hillel participants in one area of the rally had been out of control. In addition to sanctioning GUPS and warning Hillel, the university has developed a comprehensive plan to address what it calls “issues of campus climate, free speech, hate speech, and civility.” The plan calls for a task force on intergroup relations, lectures on civil discourse during the fall 2002 semester, a component on dissent and civility in student orientation sessions, and a three-day retreat for leaders of student groups.
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