Anti-Jewish Incidents at Southern California Universities

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has expressed outrage over recent anti-Jewish incidents at two Southern California universities. David A. Lehere, the ADL Western States Counsel, said “We filed complaints with the University of Southern California and with the University of California, Riverside, regarding the distribution of inflammatory anti-Jewish tracts by the Organization of Arab Students on both campuses.”

He said the ADL requested that action be taken to prevent further distribution of a flyer which states, “Israeli (sic) foods are mixed with the blood of Arab children.” Lehrer noted that the ancient charge of the blood libel has been cast in modern garb by these latter-day anti-Jewish bigots.

“We are not surprised that the head of the Jewish Student Union was physically attacked by Abdullah Sooft, the head of the Iranian Student Organization at UC Riverside during the distribution of these flyers, ” Lehrer said. The ADL also questioned the failure of the university administration to punish the attacker who was found criminally liable for this assault.

A similar incident almost occurred at USC where an Arab student was physically restrained from attacking a Jewish student who protested the distribution of these defamatory tracts, said Lehrer. The ADL told administrators at USC and UC Riverside that, in its opinion, these flyers were “beyond the pale of acceptable political discourse and should not be tolerated on a university campus.”

In another incident at UC Riverside, Arab students successfully excluded the Jewish Student Union from participating in a program on racism, claiming that the Union “Is pro-Zionism and Zionism is a form of racism.” The ADL protested this action to the university’s Vice-Chancellor and is awaiting his response.