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March 25, 2005/Adar II 14 5765, Volume 57, No. 30
Jewish students allegedly harassed at UC Irvine
TOM TUGEND
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Office of Civil Rights has opened an investigation into charges that officials on the University of California's Irvine campus have been turning a blind eye to intimidation and harassment of Jewish students for the last four years.
In an 11-page letter of complaint, the Zionist Organization of America listed incident after incident in which, it alleges, Muslim and Arab student groups and extremist Muslim religious speakers vilified Jews and incited against "Zionists" and Israel.
The university is the latest U.S. campus to be hit with allegations of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist harassment.
Jewish students wearing T-shirts with a Star of David or pro-Israel slogans have been insulted and threatened with violence, said Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA's Center for Law and Justice in New York, who drew up the complaint.
In the latest incident, in early February, Muslim cleric Amir Abdel Malik Ali talked before a campus audience for an hour about "the apartheid state of Israel" and its "Nazi behavior," as well as "American imperialism" and the "Zionist-controlled media."
The federal investigation is being conducted in San Francisco by the Office of Civil Rights, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education. Spokeswomen in San Francisco and Washington said they could not comment on an ongoing probe.
The ZOA filed the complaint under a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion or national origin. If found in violation of the act, the university could be deprived of all federal grants.
In their defense, university administrators cited the First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly for Muslim and all other students and said they preferred to settle grievances through mediation and campus forums.
"Your views are going to be challenged at any great university," said Manuel Gomez, vice chancellor for student affairs.
But even granting these arguments, Tuchman noted that officials had a duty both to protect Jewish students and to condemn hate speech and incitement on campus.
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