Swastikas Appearing at UC Irvine

Received by email. An excerpt from an article by Daryl Temkin, Ph.D., Israel-Institute.com
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The University of California at Irvine (UCI) has become a center stage campus for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic speakers and demonstrations. The Irvine campus is not unique; they are just a leading campus which condones anti-Israel/anti-Semitic programming. Generally initiated by the campus Muslim student organizations or by the faculty members of the liberal arts departments, this kind of campus programming has been going on for a number of years. This situation has created an understandable amount of anguish and concern among Jewish students and it has even led to students choosing not to attend UCI.

The anti-Semitic speakers have used the "free speech" clause to justify their statements and it is simple for them to assert that what they are saying is “true.” In their view, "Israel and the Jews are the cause of the world's problems. The Muslims are just responding to the problems that the Jews and Israel have caused." This “logic” concludes that, "Muslims would not be forced to behave as they do if Israel and the Jews would stop provoking them."

Recently, several swastikas were found inscribed on the University of California's Irvine campus. Unfortunately, there are swastikas found on many American university campuses as well as high schools. The Jewish community is so used to this type of offensive occurrence that a newly drawn swastika incident usually doesn't get much attention unless the consequence reaches a significant level of outrage. This occurred several weeks ago -- on the first day of Ramadan. On that day, two Los Angeles area freeway overpasses were adorned with large swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans. That event got some coverage but was rapidly squelched and little attention was given to the fact that the incident just happened to coincide with the first day of Ramadan.

You can find the rest of the article in the English edition of Ha'aretz, Shalom LA, Israel-Jewish Life, and also appears in various North American and European publications, web magazines, and blogs

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