California
Poll shows many protesters severely uninformed | California Focus
“The idea is to appeal to people who know nothing.” – Sean Eren, national steering committee member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), to a New Yorker Magazine reporter.
No slogan has been shouted more by the tens of thousands of students protesting Israel’s retaliation for the Hamas slaughter of more than 1,200 of its residents than the one that goes, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Most Jews believe the catchy phrase amounts to a call for genocide, reminiscent of the Nazi German demand for a Judenrein (“Jew-free”) Europe. The slogan has been a trade mark of pro-Palestinian groups for more than a decade, as they’ve plumped for a complete Palestine free of Jews.
It was the ancient Romans who tagged the land Palestine after the even more ancient Philistines while they dragged most of its inhabitants away into slavery, a conquest still depicted on the Arch of Titus in modern Rome. But a Jewish remnant stayed on for millenia; there is solid documentation of a Jewish presence on the land through the last 3,000-plus years.
Now there is also evidence that many, if not most, of today’s loud protesters know little or nothing about the history and places they shout about.
This was determined in a poll commissioned by UC Berkeley’s Ron Hassner, a professor of political science and the campus Israel studies chair.
Hassner first reported the survey findings in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that the pollster he hired surveyed 250 U.S. student protesters on a variety of campuses. While Hassner did not respond to a request for comment on the poll, its findings were clear.
Fully 85 percent of demonstrators surveyed supported the slogan, but only 47 percent of those surveyed knew which river and sea it refers to (the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea).
Some thought it meant the Nile or Euphrates rivers, both far from Israel. Many named the Dead Sea, Atlantic Ocean, or the Caspian and Caribbean seas. Of these, only the Dead Sea — the southern terminus of the Jordan River — borders Israel.
The same students knew just as few other facts of the region. Not even 25 percent could identify Yasser Arafat, and 10 percent named him as the first prime minister of Israel. In fact, he was the founding leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Wrote Hassner, “There is no shame in being ignorant unless one is screaming for the extermination of millions,” which many believe is the real aim of “From the river to the sea…”
“These students had never seen a map of the Mideast and knew little about the region’s geography, history or demography,” Hassner wrote. He reported that when shown the error of their concepts, 67.8 percent said they now reject the “From the river…” slogan.
This indicates many, if not most, demonstrators are largely living out the “people who know nothing” aim expressed by Eben to the New Yorker.
It’s much the same whenever the history of the so-called Palestinian “Nakba,” or “catastrophe” is taught; techniques from classroom teaching to children’s books (like one now used in some Oakland schools) claim that all today’s Palestinian refugees or their forebears were forced to leave the territory of present-day Israel by “a gang of bullies called Zionists,” as the children’s books puts it.
Actual history is that Palestinians at the time of Israel’s birth via a 1948 United Nations resolution could have had their own country, had they but agreed to live with a partition quickly accepted by the region’s Jews. A two-state solution.
Instead, as Israel declared independence in 1948, armies from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq invaded. This was how Jordan acquired the territory now known as the West Bank and part of Jerusalem, which it held until Israel won it in the 1967 Six Day War.
Meanwhile, repeated radio messages from Amin al-Husseini, then the Muslim grand mufti of Jerusalem, urged Palestinian Arabs to leave temporarily and allow Arab armies to operate more freely. Israel at the time urged Arabs to stay on, and many did.
Very few current protesters know this history. Which suggests students at Berkeley and elsewhere might make better use of their time by learning relevant history and geography, rather than shouting slogans.
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com.
California
Federal appeals court blocks California law requiring federal agents to wear identification
LOS ANGELES — An appeals court has blocked a California law passed in 2025 requiring federal immigration agents to wear a badge or some form of identification.
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit in November challenging the law, arguing that it would threaten the safety of officers who are facing harassment, doxing, and violence and that it violated the constitution because the state is directly regulating the federal government.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction pending appeal Wednesday. It had already granted a temporary administrative injunction to block the implementation of the law.
At a hearing March 3, Justice Department lawyers argued that the California law sought to regulate the federal government, violating the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
The appeals court agreed unanimously, saying the law “attempts to directly regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions,” in an opinion written by Judge Mark J. Bennett. The panel was composed of two Trump appointees, Bennett and Daniel P. Collins, and Obama appointee Jacqueline H. Nguyen.
California lawyers argued that the law applied equally to all law enforcement officers without discriminating against the U.S. government, and that states could apply “generally applicable” laws federal agents. They also argued that the law was important to address public safety concerns.
People are more likely to attack officers in self-defense if there’s no visible identification letting the public know they are law enforcement, California lawyers said in a brief opposing the injunction.
“This confusion has resulted in federal law enforcement officials being mistaken for criminals and vice versa, creating serious risk of harm to peace officers and members of the public,” they wrote.
The appeals court judges said they did not consider the public safety factors because the federal government has demonstrate its constitutional rights would be violated by the legislation, and “all citizens have a stake in upholding the Constitution,” it ruled, quoting previous case law.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli called it a “huge legal victory” in a post on X.
The California Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The initial lawsuit also addressed another California measure signed into law last year that would have banned most law enforcement officers from wearing masks, neck gaiters, and other facial coverings. It was blocked by a federal judge in February.
The legislation did not apply to state law enforcement and made exceptions for undercover agents, protective equipment like N95 respirators or tactical gear, and other situations where not wearing a mask would jeopardize the operation.
California
California Islamic calligraphy artist preserves ancient tradition during Arab American Heritage Month
As Arab American Heritage Month is celebrated, one Northern California artist is keeping the centuries-old tradition of Islamic calligraphy alive, one carefully measured stroke at a time.
Sehar Shahzad is a student calligrapher. Before starting any project, Shahzad said “one of the first things that calligraphers learn is how to cut their pens.”
Her tools must be in pristine condition.
“Your instruments are just as important as anything else in this art,” she said.
Shahzad said that as a young girl growing up in Toronto, she took up Islamic calligraphy while reflecting on her religion.
“It’s not like I’d never seen it before, but it was my first time kind of trying it,” she said. “And there’s no other way to say it except that I just fell in love with it.”
Now married with three children, Islamic calligraphy is very much part of her life.
“I remember thinking that this isn’t something that I just want to learn for fun,” she said. “I really want to be able to master it.”
Shahzad said that every angle and curve follows strict geometric rules and is measured with dots.
“For example, this letter here was just a little bit too long, so we use these nuqtas to help us guide and understand how long that letter should be,” she said.
Like the Arabic language, Islamic calligraphy is read from right to left. Its bold simplicity requires precision and a deep understanding of proportion.
“When you’re creating a composition, it’s not only about the letter itself,” Shahzad said. “It’s about composition as a whole and making sure that everything balances together.”
Even though she’s still mastering her form, Shahzad’s work is featured in the prayer room of a Muslim cemetery in Napa and in the domes of mosques in San Jose, Hayward, and San Francisco.
Still, she considers her work on paper the most special.
“A form of meditation, a form of worship, requires focus, requires discipline, really brings me to a different space,” Shahzad said. “And I think that’s what I love most.”
Proving that in this fast-paced world, this millennia-long tradition is far from disappearing.
Shahzad’s work will be featured at the upcoming Light Upon Light art exhibit at the Tarbiya Institute in Roseville from April 24-26.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday highlighted what he called historic progress in the state’s fight against gun violence.
“California has achieved something historic with the lowest rates of firearm deaths, suicides and homicides on record,” he said during a press conference.
According to Bonta, in 2024, California saw the lowest numbers of firearm-related deaths since 1968. That also drove the state’s overall homicide rate to its lowest level on record in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, Bonta’s office said.
However, Bonta warned lawmakers that those gains could be at risk without continued investment.
“This progress is fragile,” he said. “It was driven in part by significant investments that are now declining or disappearing, and without continued and increased investment, we risk losing it.”
Bonta urged policymakers to continue advancing gun violence prevention efforts and education initiatives.
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