Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D., F.A.C.P.

Medical Oncology/Hematology Telephone: (215) 333-4900

Facsimile: (215) 333-2023
Smylie Times Building - Suite #500-C
8001 Roosevelt Boulevard rsklaroff@gmail.com
Philadelphia, PA 19152
March 13, 2019

To: Patrick J. O’Connor, Esq., Chair, Temple University Board of Trustees – Plus Trustees
Re: Marc Lamont Hill, Ph.D. [D.O.B. 12/17/1978]
Cc: [https://tinyurl.com/y428zjty]

Although these memos were initially themed to focus upon how he disseminates Jew-hatred, it was
necessary to convey additional evidence of his being a racist/anarchist who would abolish police/prisons;
recent focus upon Rep. Omar has prompted “going full cycle” to illustrate both how he keeps bad company
and how he shrouds his Jew-hatred within an attempt to establish a “normative” level of anti-Zionism.
Here, two articles are published in-full [both to preclude concern that context may be lost herein and,
regarding the WSJ-piece, to preclude worriment about piercing a pay-wall]; the former by Farrakhan
praises him and the latter demonstrates the folly of swallowing the intersectional arguments he makes.
REMEMBER that he refuses to denounce Farrakhan, that he’s more extreme than Van Jones, and that
violence-advocacy supplements MORAL TURPITUDE [manifest also as word-choice that isn’t academic].

Criticism of Israeli wrongs and U.S. policy isn’t anti-Semitic, say Blacks and rabbi

https://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/Criticism-of-Israeli-
wrongs-and-U-S-policy.shtml

{The Final Call was founded in 1979 by Minister Louis Farrakhan and serves as the official
newspaper of the Nation of Islam.}

WASHINGTON—As Rep. IIhan Omar found out, speaking truth to power about the
savagery, violence and humiliations occurring every day to Palestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza and offering unapologetic critiques of U.S.-Israel policy has a price.

Since she was sworn into Congress in January, the freshman legislator from Minnesota
has spoken and tweeted about the crisis in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Few in her
position have been so openly critical about Israel’s decades-long clashes with Hamas, the
deaths of primarily unarmed Palestinians at the hands of Israeli defense forces and a
variety of actions that international organizations, like the United Nations, have deemed
violations of international law and breaches of human rights conventions.

And, in America, to be critical of Israeli atrocities or U.S. policy towards Israel can
jeopardize jobs, livelihoods and dry up donations to organizations or projects.

At a town hall at Busboys and Poets in downtown D.C., Rep. Omar, one of the two first
Muslim women ever elected to Congress, brought up the issue again.

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“…. For me, I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is ok for
people to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” she told the audience. “And I want to
ask, why is it ok for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries, or
Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobby that is influencing policy?”

She was referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has had
an outsized role in American politics. Rep. Omar has been consistent in her criticism of
the power and influence of AIPAC and the Israel lobby—which according to the Wall
Street Journal raises more than $100 million a year to influence Congress and send
members to Israel. She has also been deeply critical of America’s Israel policy.

For that, she has been vilified.

President Donald Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other GOP
members called for Rep. Omar to be removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee and
those accusing her of anti-Semitism screamed for a resolution condemning her
comments. Some Democrats backed those calls.

But the attempt to punish Rep. Omar led to an uproar in a closed-door meeting of
Democrats in Congress, with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and a number
of the progressive newcomers railing against a resolution that originally only sought to
address anti-Semitism. House leaders delayed the vote, added language to include a
condemnation of Islamaphobia and anti-Muslim bias and didn’t single out Rep. Omar by
name.

The House resolution passed 407-23 with 23 Republicans opposing the measure.

Among notable pro-Israel lobbyists are Christians United for Israel, the Anti-Defamation
League, the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, the American Jewish Congress, the
Zionist Organization of America and AIPAC.

AIPAC brass has boasted publicly about the group’s control over members of Congress on
both sides of the aisle. In the early 1970s, Sen. William Fulbright called Congress “Israeli-
Occupied Territory.” That influence hasn’t dimmed, but observers say this is the first time
that significant numbers of young Jewish Americans, progressives, members from the Left
and everyday Americans have begun to question what’s going on in their name and are
pushing to hold Israel to account.

Black Power movement icon, academic and activist Angela Davis, Temple University Prof.
Marc Lamont Hill and lawyer, attorney and author Michelle Alexander were among the
latest critics excoriated for criticizing Israeli actions and U.S. policy toward the Jewish
state.

Prof. Hill lost his job last November as a CNN analyst and contributor after the furor
following a UN speech he gave marking the UN’s “International Day of Solidarity with
Palestine.” He likened the Palestinian cause to American slave revolts of the 19th century
which “were equally important to preserving safety and attaining freedom.”

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The phrase that sealed his fate came at the conclusion of his remarks.

“ … We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political
action, grassroots action, local action, and international action that will give us what
justice requires. And that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea.”

Pro-Israeli elements say the phrase, “a free Palestine from the river to the sea,” has
historically been a clarion call of Hamas and assorted anti-Zionist groups which seek the
obliteration of the Jewish state. Prof. Hill and others denied that interpretation and some
likened it to the American expression from “sea to shining sea.”

Stories circulated after his firing and according to an anonymous person at CNN, Prof.
Hill’s position on Israel, and his growing criticism of it, had been “a festering problem” at
CNN, according to The Daily Beast. The source said CNN suits were watching Prof. Hill
closely after he posted a 2016 photo of a meeting between him and Nation of Islam
Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has been viciously attacked for criticism of Israel and
Jewish misbehavior. {FARRAKHAN WAS “VICIOUSLY ATTACKED”? RECALL HIS HAVING
RECEIVED A “PASS” AFTER CHARACTERIZING JEWS AS “TERMITES”!}

Concerted efforts by unnamed Jewish groups to get Prof. Hill ousted from Temple have
failed.

“Everything is fine now. I’m just working,” he told a Final Call reporter in a recent
interview. “I think that what happened to Rep. Omar created a bigger public conversation.
I hope we can have honest, realistic, fact-driven debate. Anti-Semitism is real. It’s an awful
reality that we’re dealing with. (But) you can’t confuse or conflate any criticism of Israel
as anti-Semitic.”

“The policy criticisms that you see from Rep. Omar, me, Angela Davis, these aren’t anti-
Semitic. These are critiques of Israel policy.”

Prof. Hill said he goes to Israel regularly and has spent the last five years traveling there.
His most recent visit was in January.

“When I travel to the state of Israel, I see a nation but not a nation of all of its citizens
because that has been codified in nation-state law,” he said. “There are 1.8 million Arabs
who’re affected but the world doesn’t see this. There are numerous ways used to diminish
Palestinians. I see a country that is not unlike America. There’s democracy, justice,
culture, development. The problem is that it’s not for everyone. I see how cruel life can
be under this system—in education, refugee camps and the restrictions.”

In January, Ms. Davis was scheduled to receive the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights
Award from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute when the organization decided to
revoke the award. Turns out the institute buckled under pressure from the Birmingham
Holocaust Education Center which drafted a letter to the organization’s board castigating
Ms. Davis for her support of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement.
They claimed that BDS “is troubling” and “targets the Jewish people excessively.”

3
Prof. Davis, a Birmingham native, told Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now” that she
learned a writer from the magazine Southern Jewish Life wrote a story detailing some of
her activism around Palestinian human rights, her support of BDS, and her opposition to
some of Israel’s policies and practices.

BDS is a peaceful, global human rights movement created by Palestinians that seeks to
use nonviolent economic pressure to force the Israeli government to end its illegal
occupation of the Palestinian territories, grant equal rights to Palestinian citizens, and
allow Palestinians violently expelled from their ancestral lands to return—as required by
international law.

Prof. Davis was philosophical, telling Essence magazine she’s “happy to assist in the
process of encouraging more discussion on racism, on anti-Semitism, on justice for
Palestine.”

During the federal government shutdown, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio introduced an anti-
BDS bill. Pro-Palestinian activist Ariel Gold said AIPAC wrote the bill. The Israel Anti-
Boycott Act would “impose severe financial penalties and up to 20 years in prison for
certain actions taken in support of boycotts for Palestinian rights ‘fostered or imposed’
by an international governmental organization like the EU or the UN.”

More than 100 groups, along with the ACLU, called on legislators to reject this legislation.
A number of people cited First Amendment concerns. Elsewhere, local lawmakers have
implemented anti-BDS bills in 24 states.

Activist Gold believes Rep. Omar has critically opened the door to more public debate and
shaken up the status quo in a way that likely cannot be reversed.

Ms. Gold is national co-director of Code Pink, a women-led grassroots organization

working to end U.S. wars and militarism and support peace and human rights initiatives.

“We’ve seen a dramatic shift in Congress and American Jewish opinion, especially young
Jews. They are more outspoken against the occupation and Reps. (Rashida) Tlaib and
Omar are now in Congress,” she said.

This changing sentiment has scared pro-Israel supporters, Ms. Gold said, hence their
resentment of, and fury towards, Rep. Omar.

“Defenders of Israel and the status quo became more incensed,” said Ms. Gold, a Jewish
American, who in 2018 was denied entry into Israel to study because of her work in the
U.S. and Israel in support of the Palestinian cause. “These supporters were looking for the
weakest link and saw a Black, Muslim woman. They thought this was shaky ground. They
felt this was the time to go after her, not just Marco Rubio, Engel, Deutsch, but to ensure
that Democrats would tow the party line. You had a number of different pieces coming
together. Let’s just say they got their asses handed to them.”

Democrat Eliot Engel is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Rep. Ted
Deutch is a Jewish Democrat from South Florida.

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 As she weathers the storm of criticism and condemnation, public support for Rep. Omar
has steadily risen. Columnists, writers and Jewish Americans have penned pieces offering
support, a number of prominent Jewish Americans wrote an open letter in her support
and members of the anti-Zionist Jewish group Neturei Karta International visited Rep.
Omar’s Washington office to show their support as well.

Rabbi Dovid Feldman told reporters, “What she’s saying is the voice of Judaism.”

To confuse Judaism with Zionism and to accuse someone of being anti-Semitic because
they oppose the occupation of Palestine or the oppression of the people “is revolting,
unacceptable,” he added.

The rabbi issued a statement expressing support for Rep. Omar and her principled
position on Israel.

“No one should be attacked for criticizing AIPAC, certainly not the esteemed
Congresswoman Omar. She should be lauded for differentiating between Jews and
Zionists,” it said. “Judaism is a religion which teaches service of the Almighty, while
Zionism attempts to transform Judaism into nationalism.”

Revs. Graylan Hagler and Patti Sears of Washington, D.C., have visited Israel and the
occupied territories a number of times in the past and they said the atrocities, brutality
and the utter lack of concern for Palestinians’ humanity is seared into their memories.

Both are longtime advocates of Palestinian sovereignty and a peaceful solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conundrum. But Rev. Hagler said, it’s time to stop conflating legitimate
criticism of Israel’s actions and U.S. policy toward the state of Israel.

It is not the same as attacking Jewish people and is certainly not anti-Semitic, he said.

“What Israel is doing has nothing to do with and is not related to Jews in the Bible. What
we saw was a European-American enterprise of colonialism. They have absolute control.
We couldn’t get into Gaza but we were able to get into the West Bank. Gaza is an open-
air prison camp,” Rev. Hagler said.

In contrast with this thinly-veiled endorsement of Hill, Angela Davis and their fellow-travelers, note how
this piece [also just-published] diagnoses precisely what is totally incorrect with Hill’s narrative AND,
therefore, why his voice DIMINISHES Temple each day he remains disseminating his bile on-campus.

When Jew-Hatred Isn’t Anti-Semitic:

Ilhan Omar and her defenders have a point about anti-Zionism—a very small point.

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/when-jew-hatred-isnt-anti-semitic-
11552429415?fbclid=IwAR171-cTroRqDWgZ17biYO9hnKlw3nFE-
X6dZaOSTvaI00IvYggeUgXnoyo

5
 The House voted last week to condemn anti-Semitism and a long list of other hatreds—
but not anti-Zionism. Rep. Ilhan Omar and her defenders insist anti-Zionism is not anti-
Semitism. They have a point, but a far weaker one than they think. Anti-Zionism is a form
of hatred against Jews.

Well-meaning activists often say that even though Hitler was defeated, anti-Semitism was
not. But in this narrow sense, anti-Semitism was largely defeated. Hardly anyone makes
a “scientific” case for Jewish inferiority anymore. But Jew-hatred, like a virus, survives by
adapting to changing conditions. Today’s version focuses on a new “evil,” as Ms. Omar
calls it. The French diplomat Daniel Bernard might have put it most concisely when he
said in 2001: “All the current troubles in the world are because of that s—y little country,
Israel.”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has pointed out that Jew-hatred is usually justified by appeals to a
culture’s highest authority. During the Middle Ages, that was religion—so the Jews were
charged with killing Jesus. During the Enlightenment it was science, so Jews were deemed
an inferior race. Today’s highest source of authority is human rights—so Israel is
portrayed as the worst violator.

Opponents insist that it is possible to be critical of the Israeli government without being
anti-Jewish. That’s true of any country, though it almost never needs to be said—so why
is it so often repeated when it comes to the Jewish state? Because “criticism” of Israel so
often is accompanied by simple hatred of the Jews.

A recent Amcha Initiative report on U.S. campus anti-Semitism confirms that “Israel-
related incidents are actually more likely to contribute to a hostile environment for Jewish
students.” When Hezbollah searches for world-wide targets in its terror campaign against
Israel, it targets synagogues and other Jewish institutions, not merely “Zionist” ones.

After Holocaust survivor Mirelle Knoll was brutally murdered in her Paris apartment a
year ago, a memorial march in her honor was planned. Hours before the march, the office
of the Union of French Jewish Students at the Sorbonne was ransacked and defaced with
graffiti like “Viva Arafat” and “death to Israel.”

And the charter of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, mentions the struggle against the
“Jew”—not the Zionist—23 times. Israel’s greatest sin, according to the Hamas charter:
“Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and
the Muslims.”

For anti-Zionists, the verdict against Israel is set before the trial. It’s an old hate with a
new mask. If the U.S. House won’t condemn it, who will?

Note how this latter piece captures the tenor of precisely what this faux-professor preaches, absent any
attempt to recognize — for example — just how tolerant the Gaza Strip governance by Palestinian Arabs
has fared; Abbas was just “convicted” (and sentenced to life-in-jail) following a corrupt mock-trial
[https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Abbas-given-life-sentence-in-mock-trial-over-Goldstone-report].
Imagine the injustice that would befall Jews who were forced to function under these terrorists’ rule.