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In the wake of recent recommendations by a federal civil rights commission that university administrators should denounce antisemitic hate speech on campuses, the chancellor of a California state campus is facing harsh criticism for failing to condemn a week of "anti-Zionist" activities at the University of California, Irvine.
Last week's "Holocaust in the Holy Land" forum, a series of lectures and symposiums presented by UC Irvine's Muslim Student Union, prompted an outcry from some Jewish organizations, including the local Jewish federation and the local chapter of the American Jewish Congress. But the university's chancellor, Michael V. Drake, brushed aside calls to publicly deplore the week's activities, instead issuing an e-mail letter to students. The letter broadly emphasized the right to free speech on campus.
Some Jewish leaders contend that the administration has not gone far enough to address what they view as hate speech, particularly in light of findings and recommendations issued in early April by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The commission, an advisory body whose recommendations are not binding, held a hearing in November 2005 to address the issue of campus antisemitism. Among the commission's findings was that "anti-Israel" or "anti-Zionist" activism often serves as a thin guise for antisemitism on college campuses. That finding, Jewish leaders say, was illustrated by last week's activities at UC Irvine, which included lectures titled "Israel: The 4th Reich" and "Islamic Palestine" by well-known anti-Israel activist Amir Abdel Malik Ali. The activities also included the building of a 12-foot-high wall that was spattered with...