Wayne U. Officials Rebuke College Paper for Anti-semitic Attitudes

The editors of South End a Wayne State University student publication, have replied to a severe rebuke over recently published anti-Israel articles with charges that the university administration is trying to deny the paper’s right to exist. The rebuke, published on a back page of a recent edition, was signed by Wayne State president Dr. George E. Gullen Jr. and the eight members of the Board of Governors.

It deplored “the anti-Semitic attitudes expressed throughout the articles” and particularly the imprinting of a Nazi swastika over a Jewish Star of David. “This insensitive treatment of symbolism of historic significance is…an embarrassment to the University,” the statement said. It urged the editors and staff of South End to “discontinue the editorial policy which permits the publication of such vicious and abusive articles.” President Gullen also offered a code of rules for the student paper which the editors called “a smoke screen to cloud the real issue which is the right of this paper to exist.”

South End, one of several campus publications supported by State funds, has taken a pro-Third World, extreme anti-Israel and anti-Establishment line. The editors, however, apologized for juxtaposing a swastika with the Star of David and denied anti-Semitic intent in publishing the articles.

EDITORIAL POLICY MUST BE AMENDED

“We admit that we made a grave error in our opposition to Zionism in all its forms when we unfortunately equated the legitimate national symbol of the Jewish people of the world with a swastika. It was a grave and tragic error and we apologized for that error,” the editors wrote.

The editors asserted, “Our editorial policy as stated many times is not in opposition to Jewish people. It is in opposition to the tragedy of Zionism as practiced in the Middle East. Under no circumstances will we ever attempt to undermine the integrity of the Jewish peoples of the world and we condemn all attempts to confuse our stand against Zionism with anti-Semitism.”

Dr. Gullen’s memorandum demanded that “South End immediately and in-responsible manner amend its editorial policy and become a responsible and respectable campus newspaper including directing itself to report university affairs in more adequate fashion, restraining itself from offensively violating the civil rights and decent sensitivities of other groups and improving the tone and quality of its total publication effort.” He warned that unless the publication corrected itself, the University administration would have to assume control of the publication.