In response to a recent posting of antisemitic flyers across campus, Long Beach State President Jane Close Conoley issued a campus-wide email statement denouncing the act on March 13.
“Earlier this week, flyers appeared on campus featuring the image of one of our professors and characterizations purporting to represent his views related to the Hamas/Israel conflict,” the email said.
While the email does not specifically name the professor, Conoley said the situation was brought to the professor’s attention by students. The professor then notified their college dean, who then informed Conoley’s office last night.
According to Conoley, the flyers displayed pictures of the professor with statements calling him a genocide denier and other “trigger words associated with the Israel-Hamas conflict.”
The flyers were posted on bulletin boards at the Liberal Arts buildings, LA4 and LA5, according to Conoley.
“Everyone involved in the conflict is hurting… But no one on this campus is bombing Palestinians or was involved in the horror of October 7,” the email said. “No one on this campus deserves to be seen as an enemy. We are all reluctant observers of an unfolding tragedy.”
Conoley said she is disappointed in the individuals who created and posted the flyers. “…putting somebody’s picture up there, in this very tense and potentially violent situation is really an outrage,” she said.
In the email, Conoley emphasized the campus’s stance against threats of violence and said, “We must also reject Islamophobia and antisemitism.”