Police are investigating the possibility of arson in a fire that swept the Students Union building in Witwatersrand University early yesterday morning after a week of clashes between Moslem and Jewish students.
The blaze, which gutted the second floor of the building, is believed to have been started deliberately in the offices of the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS).
Trouble began on the campus when the Moslem Student Association distributed anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist material in the course of an Islamic Week program. Subsequently, shots were fired into the Moslem Student Association’s headquarters. This was followed by a rash of anti-Jewish graffiti sprayed on campus walls.
Feelings are running high among the university’s 4,000 Jewish students. The Zionist Record, a Jewish weekly, has taken the university authorities to task for “bumbling ineptitude” in handling the situation.
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