CMU, Pitt students deliver petition demanding Rep. Summer Lee return campaign funds
"It is just absolutely appalling to me that someone would be willing to compromise their values and take money from people like that,” Arolovitch said.
Students from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh delivered a petition on March 1 signed by over 1,000 community members to Rep. Summer Lee.
It calls for the immediate return of campaign contributions by what the petition labels “Hamas sympathizers and antisemites.”
The document specifically mentions Hatem Bazian, co-founder of Students for Justice in Palestine; Nehad Hammad Awad, executive director of CAIR; Zahra Billoo, executive director of CAIR California; and Osama Abuirshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine.
The students message ended by saying antisemitism will not be tolerated in Pittsburgh and echoing a familiar refrain used after the Oct. 27, 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and calling on Lee to take action: “[T]here is no place for hate here, and, as our representative, you will denounce hate wherever you see it.”
Julius Arolovitch learned of the petition through one of his friends who helped craft it and that he helped gather signatories.
The CMU sophomore said the large number of people that signed the document shows how much people care about what’s happening and the concern over things like anti-Israel rallies that have taken place on campus.
He called the climate on campus following Oct. 7 “acute.”
“Friends of mine received death threats, were insulted in broad daylight by people passing by, like when we painted the fence at Carnegie Mellon,” he said. “Generally, the environment was one where people were afraid to be visually Jewish. I have an Orthodox friend who, instead of wearing a kippah, is wearing a baseball cap.”
CMU graduate student Ben Koby went with the group of students and citizens to deliver the petition.
He said that they did not meet the representative and instead spoke with office staff. The reception was polite and professional, he recalled.
Still, he said the proceedings were filled with anxiety and that there was a sense of foreboding while approaching the representative’s office.
The large number of people that signed the petition speaks to how the community is feeling, Koby said.
“I was thrilled they got that many. Honestly, it was more than I was expecting,” he said. “At the same time, it speaks to the seriousness of the issue and the level of discontent.”
For Arolovitch, that discontent doesn’t end with antisemitism. He said the people Lee has taken money from are anti-democratic and anti-American.
“I don’t think their values represent what our country believes, what is generally good for our country, and it is just absolutely appalling to me that someone would be willing to compromise their values and take money from people like that,” Arolovitch said.
Of course, he said, there may be another option.
“Maybe she’s not compromising her values, which is even scarier,” he said. PJC
–David Rullo
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