DPS to apologize to attendees of SJP-hosted event
The Department of Public Safety will apologize to two individuals who were asked to leave an event hosted by USC Students for Justice in Palestine, according to a statement by Senior Vice President of Administration Todd Dickey.
SJP hosted “Los Angeles Campaign Kick off and Petition Circulator Training to Qualify the Israel Divestment Initiative for the California Ballot” in Taper Hall of Humanities on Sept. 19, along with the California Israel Divestment Campaign.
StandWithUs Executive Director Roz Rothstein and Senior Developer Gary Ratner, the individuals whom DPS officers escorted out of the event, said they attended the gathering to listen to the opinion of SJP and the Israel Divestment Campaign. StandWithUs is an organization dedicated to representing the Israeli view of the conflicts in the Middle East.
“We just wanted to find out what was happening and some more information about it,” Ratner said. “Roz and I went to USC with the complete understanding that anybody could go to this meeting.”
Upon arrival, Rothstein said attendees at the event who recognized Ratner and her began to yell at them.
“They said, ‘You can’t be here, you can’t come in,’” Rothstein said. “I said, ‘I don’t think you can do that.’”
The event discussed the Israel Divestment Campaign, a measure that would require the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the State Teachers’ Retirement System to participate in a divestment process with some companies that practice business in Israel. Californians will vote on the measure in the next statewide election after the upcoming one in November.
SJP President Marwa Katbi called DPS to the scene and the officers escorted Rothstein and Ratner outside of the room.
“Given that they were not well received, were causing an environment of extreme discomfort and heightened tensions within the room, I made a decision to call DPS and have officers handle the situation from that point onwards,” Katbi said in an e-mail.
Katbi said she allowed DPS to handle the situation independently after officers arrived.
Though university officials declined to specify any details of the incident or infractions that might have occurred, the administration plans to continue its ongoing investigation of the incident, the statement from Dickey said.
DPS Capt. David Carlisle said he could not comment on the matter as it is still being investigated.
Ratner said DPS told him that because SJP had rented the space, they were allowed to control the event. The DPS officers stated that the event was private and asked Ratner and Rothstein to leave. Ratner, however, disagreed.
“We even printed out the invitation to show the police that there were no restrictions [at the event],” he said. “You didn’t have to be a supporter of this or that.”
Dickey said DPS officers would receive training to handle similar situations in the future and student groups would be reminded of university rules.
“The University of Southern California is committed to freedom of expression and open inquiry,” he said.
Correction: A previous version of this story stated the Israel Divestment Campaign would target businesses that “aid Israel in violating human rights and international law.” That is incorrect. The story has been corrected and the Daily Trojan apologizes for the error.
@against_empire
Note the correction at the bottom of the article; they changed the sentence. Do you really think that I have the time to create a fake quote? Come on.
I don’t know what DPS was thinking. There is no history of violence between these two groups!
Would DPS ever be so quick to throw out Muslim students from an event held by Jewish orgs? Of course not because in our politically correct campus, if you dressed yourself with turbans and tunics, you will be above reproach but if you dress like a “typical Westerner, you are fair game for security to pounce on you and throw you out of an “open” event.
This is so typical of SJP – drown out and eliminate any opinions that differ from their own. I suppose that is also one of the major themes that plague Palestine and the surrounding areas. I will say this straight out – the people in that region of the world are not very open to listen to other people’s opinions and that is obviously evident in this “open” meeting where people are being physically ejected by security.
This is why the Middle East is going to have trouble a thousand years from now and why there will never be real peace. The people in that region just love to fight and NOT listen to other people. For all the politically correct Westerners who feel they are making positive steps toward peace, you are just flaming the fuel in the fire by censoring yourselves with your liberal politically correctness that avoids the 800 lb pink elephant in the room.
Does your correction mean that the Israel Divestment Campaign will NOT target businesses that “aid Israel in violating human rights and international law”?
Then what businesses will it target?
Please clarify.
Good God. Why so much outright hatred for Jews? No wonder they think they’re the most persecuted people on the planet. Some USC students can’t even accept them. Zman you’re a disgrace bro.
Dave
You are an idiot.. I’m not hating Jews.. I am being critival of Israel’s policy of occupation,deprivation of human rights and murder. Israel is a rogue state. That’s just a fact. I’m suprised you didn’t play the holocaust card.. That one has been used up though,so I guess that’s why..
Next thing you know, people will be arrested by the police for trying to spread the word of Christianity in public places and near mosques. That’s right, that has already happened in Detroit, MI. Believe or not….not hard to research.
If Arabs kick Israelis out of the same room, when they are sitting quietly just because they are “uncomfortable” as Marwa says… what makes anyone think they will LIVE in peace with Israelis. No wonder the Palestinians love terrorism so much – there is no concept of coexistence and mutual respect in Arab culture. Americans have to understand, Israel wants Peace – Palestinians, as an be seen here, definitely do not.
excuse me but the actions of some students in SJP, whether warranted or not, do not reflect the views and desires of the Palestinian people. That is a false assumption. The Palestinians do want peace and have renounced the use of violence. Divestment is a non-violent movement with the same application as was used in Apartheid South Africa. And while equality was achieved in S. Africa through non-violence, do not assume that their wasn’t any violence at all. There will always be those one or two people who’s actions cannot be controlled or accounted for. The same goes with India and Gandhi’s movement for liberation from Britain. Gandhi chose non-violence but it doesn’t mean that everyone struggling for independence in India subscribed to his methods.
Natasha
It’s Israel who doesn’t want peace.. You have no understand of what is really going on over there. You turn on the TV and watch CNN,Fox News/ MSNBC and think that you are getting the truth… What you are getting is the pro-Israel propaganda bought by the Jewish-American lobby AIPAC.. IT is a lie.. Israel’s occupation is the reason that there is no peace over there.. They occupy lands from multiple countries have just today continued to buld settlements in territories that they recently took from the Palesitinians.
against_empire – Thats the dumbest thing i have ever heard..
only open to a specific anyone***
meaning it never said that the meeting was only open to those with similar beliefs.
@against empire
“It was a workshop. The meeting had a specific purpose, it is not acceptable to attend a purposed meeting with the intention of disrupting or preventing the meeting from achieving itself. It is nonsensical to attend a purposed, goal-oriented meeting in which people are being trained to complete a certain task if you yourself do not plan on learning and participating in said task.”
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. The meeting was publicly advertised and did not state that it was only open to anyone. Furthermore, Rothstein and Ratner had no intention of “disrupting” or “preventing the meeting from achieving itself,” nor did they. To accuse them for that is wrong.
You don’t know that it wasn’t their intention. And to be fair, I can’t be positive that it was. But it still did not make sense for them to be their if they were not going to participate in the activity at hand.
I’ll also ask that you kindly refrain from making petty deriding insults such as “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” I’ve made no comments of the sort and feel that such statements are undeserved. This is a space for disagreement, decorum and respect should be maintained.
to be there*
If something is stupid, I will say so. I hope that others would do the same if I said something that silly. I didn’t insult you personally.
Anyway, it was their intention? Is that really your argument? A reader is supposed to know that ONLY THOSE WHO SUPPORT SJP AND THE IDC are permitted to attend because that’s their intention?! No, they didn’t explicitly state it but, it was their intention…what?! lol@that.
And it doesn’t make sense for someone who doesn’t support them to attend the activity? Really? So it doesn’t make sense to know what they are doing if you’re someone who disagrees with them? It makes perfect sense. It’s not like they were going to sabotage them or something, they just wanted to listen. People do the same thing in politics all the time.
Hey guys!
Request: save the Isreal vs. Palestine argument for somewhere else. You’re seriously deluded if either side thinks they’ll convince anyone in this comment thread.
I’m glad the DT corrected that sentence, though, since it hardly seems objective whether you feel that it is true or not. I hope they’ll avoid that kind of thing in the future.
seeing as the article is about israel-palestine i think it’s fine to have this discussion here.
however, most of my comments were geared towards issues i had with the article itself.
you also seem to have missed my point that the revised sentence wasn’t objective either.
@Locke the people in Gaza were not cheering on 9/11. Muslims died in those attacks to and that statement is completely irrelevant to this article.
@Nathan the sentence you quoted “The event discussed the Israel Divestment Campaign, a measure that would require the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the State Teachers’ Retirement System to participate in a divestment process with businesses that aid Israel in violating human rights and international law” is incorrect.
The article actually reads “The event discussed the Israel Divestment Campaign, a measure that would require the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the State Teachers’ Retirement System to participate in a divestment process with businesses that aid Israel.”
I actually find this sentence to be misleading in that it suggests that these businesses provide “aid” to Israel. The use of the word “aid” suggests that Israel is some impoverished developing state, in need of help for its citizens and development. It suggests that the divestment is trying to take money away from an innocent civilian population. This is entirely false. The people of Gaza and the West Bank are the ones in need of AID. What these businesses do with Israel is provide funding and shared technologies for illegal occupation and human rights violations by their immoral army & government. Investing in war profiteering is neither neutral nor innocent. Divestment IS.
As far as the actual incident is concerned, the purpose of the meeting was to be trained in signature collection processes for the ballot initiative. It was not an informational forum. It was a workshop. The meeting had a specific purpose, it is not acceptable to attend a purposed meeting with the intention of disrupting or preventing the meeting from achieving itself. It is nonsensical to attend a purposed, goal-oriented meeting in which people are being trained to complete a certain task if you yourself do not plan on learning and participating in said task.
An apology is certainly appropriate, and where is the law school to weigh in on the actions of DPS?
zname=ignorance
last I checked, it’s the folks who populate Gaza who were cheering on 9/11, not the Jews
well duH!!!!!!! It’s Americans weapons that are used to kill thousands of palestinians.. We block every UN resolution that condems ISrael for their brutal attacks and we support israel in their constant occupation and opression.. You can’t expect them to like us..
Nathan are you out of your mind??
israel violates international law 24/7. They’re a terorist state that is in the business of expanding their land and they classify resistance organizations as “terrorist organizations”. They have a policy of slaughtering and starving out the population of Gazza.
What editor allowed this sentence to be published?
“The event discussed the Israel Divestment Campaign, a measure that would require the Public Employees’ Retirement System and the State Teachers’ Retirement System to participate in a divestment process with businesses that aid Israel in violating human rights and international law.”
Israel violates neither human rights nor international law, and the claim that it does is biased, unjust, and unsubstantiated.
And when is this supposed apology? is it going to happen monday, or has it already been emailed or when will it be?