From the Mailbag: Yousef Salem Attacks Israel

Campus Watch recently received the following email from Yousef Salem, associate director of the Islamic Education and Information Center in San Jose. He attacks us for reproducing this article from WorldNetDaily, which we posted in 2004.

Given the contents of Salem’s email, it’s no secret that the organization for which he works is virulently anti-Israel. In spite of that, the Center has provided materials for school curricula, as outlined by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. That material, which was used by the public schools in Contra Costa county, California, was as much a form of proselytization as education, and strong objections were raised by some parents, as described in this piece by Josh Gerstein of the New York Sun.

Here’s Salem’s email:

“Since you sseek [sic] to defame me on your campus watch site I decided to respond. My report is that yes, Israelis are terrorists of the highest order and they do commit war crimes, atrocites [sic] against the Palestinians and Lebanese, and they have committed, and continue to commit, crimes against humanity. Yes, Hizballah has the guarantee, repeat, the guarantee of the Fourth Genevea [sic] Convention, of which israel [sic] is a signatory, to use any meams [sic] at its disposal to dispel its illegal occupiers. This applies to the Palestinians, Syrians, and the Lebanese since israelis [sic] illegally occupy and/or have illegally annexed land stolen from the two former peoples and never fully withdrew from Lebanon as required by UNR-425. Under that FGC guarantee, there can be no such thing as a terrorist if his land is under illegal occupation. If one asks about violence commited [sic] by Arabs against others in land that was alotted [sic] to them under UNR-181, then they may use the same justification of “retaliation” by the israe

lis [sic] who have murderered [sic] and created mayhem and enormous pain, misery, torment, suffering, agony, and grieve [sic] in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories for almost six decades in blatant violation of international humanitarian law, but you will have to ask them about that. If you decide to include this on your campus [sic] watch [sic] site, then have the decency do so in its entirety. I saved a copy on a CD. Yousef Salem”

Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.
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