ADL Says California U. Fails to Deal with Anti-Jewish Acts on Campus

The Pacific Southwest Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has filed a formal complaint charging the administration of the University of California, Riverside, with abdication of responsibility in failing to deal with anti-Jewish activities on its campus.

In a four-page letter to the Regents of the University of California, ADL regional board president Joshua Kheel cited numerous incidents of verbal and physical abuse of Jewish students at UCR and asked that they be investigated and appropriate action concerning the situation taken. The ADL said that: On Feb, 14, 1979 the head of the Iranian Student Association assaulted the coordinator of the Jewish Student Union for having photographed him distributing an inflammatory flyer charging that “Israeli (sic) food is made with the blood of Arab children.” The Jewish student Union was prevented from participating in a “Rally Against Racism” (sic) by the Organization of Arab Students (OAS) and other student groups because, in the words of an OAS spokesman, “Jewish students are pro-Zionism, Zionism is racism.” The OAS students distributed a flyer showing a swastika superimposed on the Jewish Star of David with the caption, “Zionism-Nazism.” In addition, an OAS member invoked the Christ-killer libel by displaying a six-foot cross on which Palestine was crucified by a distorted Jewish Star of David to make it look like a dagger.

Despite repeated requests by ADL, the UCR administration has refused publicly to denounce the bigoted activities of the OAS on campus, the ADL charged. Kheel described the inaction as “negligence” and an “abdication of responsibility in failing to deal, in any way, with the several ugly and potentially dangerous incidents on the campus.