In the weeks following the appearance of a letter in San Jose State University’s Spartan Daily accusing Israel of masterminding September’s terrorist attacks and advocating the atomic annihilation of the Jewish state, campus and area Jews have made their displeasure known to the SJSU administration.
In meetings with school officials, the newspaper’s senior editorial boardmembers, faculty advisers and the university president, campus and community Jewish leaders charged SJSU junior Romeo Bonet’s Oct. 22 letter constituted “hate speech.”
“Just because they have the First Amendment right to print the article doesn’t mean they have to print it. They also have a First Amendment right to not print it,” said David Goodman, president of the school’s Jewish Student Union. “We respect the First Amendment, but in a situation such as this, it was not appropriate to print this rhetoric, this hate.”
Expressing similar concerns, Jon Friedenberg, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose, met with SJSU President Robert Caret on Monday.
Following the meeting, Gabriel Reyes, an assistant to Caret, held a Tuesday conference with Spartan Daily editors and advisers as well as school administrators to review newspaper policies toward hate speech.
In the Tuesday conference, it was decided that Michael Ego, the dean of SJSU’s College of Applied Science and Arts, will oversee an assessment of the curriculum supporting the Spartan Daily journalism program. Reyes said Ego’s review should be completed by winter break.
“We will wait and let the committee do its work and see what they come up with. Hopefully it will make thoughtful, appropriate [recommendations] we can support,” said Friedenberg.
“I think the most important thing is for the university to see this as a teachable moment. There clearly needs to be a university-wide conversation on the nature of free speech, hate speech and the responsibilities that come with free speech and freedom of the press. If the university engages in that kind of exploration, good things will result from it.”
Goodman, along with several other Jewish students and community leaders such as Arlene Miller, executive director of Hillel of Silicon Valley, and Yitzhak Santis, Peninsula director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, met with newspaper editors and advisers on Oct. 25. Six days later, a correction ran in the Spartan Daily’s opinion section.
The brief correction pointed out that Israel receives roughly $3 billion a year from the United States, not the $8 trillion Bonet claimed. It also mentioned that F-16 fighters are jets, not tanks, as they were described in the letter.
The correction didn’t come anywhere close to satiating Goodman, who called it “a joke.”
“I feel they’re not taking responsibility for what they’re printing; that’s what [the correction] is saying,” he said. “It’s one thing to print an opinion, but it’s another thing to print an opinion that’s advocating murder and genocide.”
Other campus leaders agree.
“I think it was the very least they could have done, but a lot more should be done by the paper and university,” said Miller. She would be satisfied by “an apology, support of awareness and a retraction, not just a correction.”
Bonet’s commentary, which appeared as a “viewpoint” was entitled “Patterns in the Sept. 11 attacks point to Israeli Mossad.”
“The Mossad and Zionists are behind the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon, past and future,” said the piece, which also claimed Jewish control of ‘most’ media. “They are capable because they have access to the United States, have money and have blue eyes. The money the United States pays them exceeds $8 trillion a year. They spy on us as we speak.”
Michelle Jew, the Spartan Daily’s executive editor, said Bonet’s letter originally ran “like 15 pages” and had to be returned to him several times for re-writing. After the paper sat on the viewpoint for several weeks, faculty adviser Mack Lundstrom recommended that the letter run. He apologized to the Jewish students and leaders at the Oct. 25 meeting.
Attempts by the Bulletin to contact Lundstrom were unsuccessful.
While Goodman and others have called for a public apology by Lundstrom, Reyes said that was not likely. While he felt the newspaper used poor judgment in printing the letter, Reyes was uncertain if it met the standard of hate speech; as a result, Lundstrom may not have anything to apologize for.
“The role of a faculty adviser is not to tell students one way or the other. The role is to advise and guide, but it’s the students’ decision,” he said. “He followed what his responsibilities are as an adviser.”
Goodman, however, is still hoping for the Spartan Daily to show some remorse.
“Really, I ultimately want to see humility from these people. It takes a big person to stand up and say, ‘I was wrong.’ Judaism teaches us to forgive, but you have to apologize before you can be forgiven,” he said. “It’s a school newspaper, and it’s there for them to learn. If the students on the newspaper use this situation as an opportunity for growth and do the right thing, on some level, this experience was worth it.”