THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, June 3, 1983
ADL Countering Arab Propaganda on Campuses
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policies. This double
standard began long before
last summer's war in Leba-
non, but became a one-sided
obsession afterward. It was
eclipsed by final exam time,
but seemed to pick up
again.
While the actual number
of students involved in
anti-Israel activity may be
small, they usually out-
number those students who
try to defend Israel.
The intensity of the
pro-Arab manipulation
effort on the campus
cannot be solely meas-
ured in numbers, but
rather in its ability to
swing the focus of the de-
bate against Israel. This
swing is indicated by the
"debating points" scored
by pro-Arab advocates,
harassment of Jewish
students, a lack of out-
spoken advocates for Is-
rael among faculty, and
even some Jewish critics
of Israel.
From the Ivy League to
state universities and pri-
vate small colleges, much of
the information about the
Middle East and Israel
available to the majority of
students has been neither
objective nor factual. Opin-
ion among students today
seems to be fashioned either
by misinformation or out-
right pro-Arab propaganda,
including perverse
Holocaust analogies and
distorted perspectives of
Middle East history._
Phrases like "Zionism is
Racism," through constant
repetition, have been ab-
sorbed into the consciouness
of the campus community.
There have been in-
stances where anti-Zionist
expressions in reaction to
the events in Lebanon took
on the shadings of anti-
Semitism. At the Univer-
sity of California in Santa
Barbara, the campus news-
paper, the Daily Nexus,
published a cartoon depict-
ing the Star of David trans-
formed into a swastika. The
editor apologized later.
At the University of
Massachusetts at
Amherst posters an-
nouncing a meeting of the
Student Alliance for Is-
rael were vandalized
with swastikas and the
phrases, "kill the Kikes,"
"burn all Jews — send
them to the gas
chamber," and "Israel
should be a mass grave."
At San Francisco State
University, Jewish stu-
dents attempting to show a
segment from the ABC-TV
"20/20" program document-
ing the worldwide terror op-
erations of the Palestine
Liberation Organization
were physically threatened.
At the University of
California at Los Angeles, a
student-sponsored rally to
oppose a visit to the city by
Israel's Prime Minister
Menahem Begin turned
into a forum for anti-Jewish
comments as a Hillel ad-
viser was referred to as a
"Nazi." The university was
called a "Zionist campus"
and there were shouts by
many of "Death to Israel."
The Organization of Arab
Students at the University
of California at Riverside
capitalized on inflated
casualty totals to mount a
picture exhibition billed as
"Holocaust '82." The promo-
tional material falsely de-
clared that "American-
sponsored Israeli atrocities"
had resulted in the deaths of
"25,000 human beings."
Holocaust imagery also
appeared in the Harvard
Crimson. "The Palesti-
nians will never forget
this," an Arab graduate
student told the Ivy
League student news-
paper in the wake Of the
Sabra and Shatila mas-
sacre in Lebanon. "The
Jews remember
Holocaust I and this is
Holocaust II."
Few, if any, of the so-
called forums or other cam-
pus public events on the
Middle East are ever bal-
anced. What was billed as a
"mass educational forum"
at the University of Texas
in Austin last summer was
a highly partisan affair
which drew about 600 per-
sons. Funded by the pro-
PLO November 29 Coali-
tion, the event presented a
series of anti-Israel speak-
ers. It was -to have included
Vanessa Redgrave, but she
failed to appear.
Similarly, the University
of Central Florida was the
setting for , a one-sided
"Gathering for Peace and
Justice in the Middle East."
A local radio personality,
Gene Burns, had agreed to
act as moderator of the
event but withdrew when
he learned that no one
would be representing Is-
rael or the Jewish commu-
nity. The event's sponsors
were the Organization of
Arab-American Students in
conjunction with the
American-Arab Discrimi-
nation Committee, the lat-
ter a highly active pro-PLO
propaganda group in the
United States.
A similar attempt to re-
strict the free exchange of
views occurred at the Uni-
versity of Maryland where
the International Student
Council (ISC), an umbrella
group for 3,500 foreign stu-
excluded Israeli and
Lebanese students. The
president of the Lebanese
Culture Association as-
sessed the situation in the
following terms: "It's an al-
most exact photocopy of
what goes on in the United
Nations."
At first, the Israelis
were barred because of
alleged technicalities in
meeting ISC's by-laws,
but according to a pub-
lished report, there were
other reasons: "The basic
issue is Zionism," one ISC
leader told the Baltimore
Sun. "As a racist philos-
ophy, it's unacceptable
to many of the other stu-
dent groups."
In the case of the
Lebanese students, they
were barred when the
Organization of Arab Stu-
dents argued that it repre-
sents all campus Arabs.
When the Israeli and
Lebanese students or-
ganized a new International
Students Association, the
Student Government Asso-
ciation granted the ISA offi-
cial status and funded it at
the expense of the
politically-tainted ISC.
The task of responding to
the consistent barrage of
pro-Arab propaganda has
up until now fallen on
campus-based organiza-
tions such as Bnai Brith's
Hillel and the American
Zionist Youth Foundation.
The Anti-Defamation
League, which traditionally
played an active consulta-
tive role with campus
groups, has launched a pro-
gram aimed at reaching a
network of Jewish student
activists with materials and
techniques to offset the
sophisticated and well-
fueled pro-Arab prop-
aganda. Initiated in New
England, where over 20
campuses are represented,
the concept is being rep-
licated throughout the
country.
The job of identifying
supportive students is
shared by current stu-
dent activists and an
ADL campus coor-
dinator, also a student.
The campus coordinator
opens a channel for sup-
plying information about
the Middle East, using
ADL publications and
audio-visual materials.
New materials include
ADL's directory of pro; Arab
propaganda organizations
in this country and a series
of pamphlets on issues dis-
cussed in campus debates.
These are entitled: "The
Forgotten Refugees";
"Peace in the Middle East:
The Record Speaks For It-
self"; "Israel, the Arabs and
Africa and Anti-Zionism
and Anti-Semitism: It's
Hard to Tell the Dif-
ference."
Where possible and
appropriate, misstatements
of fact and intentional lies
are rebutted at a public
event or in the press. This
was the 'case at the Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin,
where Leslye Winkelman,
community consultant in
ADL's Southwest regional
office, was able to refute in a
published interview much
of the propaganda aired at a
pro-PLO event. What lent
credence to her comments in
the Daily Texan, the cam-
pus newspaper, was that
she had just returned from
Lebanon and was reporting
her conversations with
Bernstein Cited
BONN — Conductor and
composer Leonard Berns-
tein will receive the $10,000
Raiffeisen Culture Prize
from a Bavarian organiza-
tion for his musical
achievements and "his
dedication to youth."
Bernstein announced
that he would donate the
prize to his own foundation,
which aids young musi-
cians.
Lebanese who had lived
under PLO terror.
In the San Francisco area,
which has a cadre of con-
cerned Jewish students, the
ADL role has taken on a
psychological dimension
b „yond material assistance
like speakers, pamphlets,
books and films. The stu-
dents there have expressed
a sense of isolation from the
surrounding Jewish com-
munity, and in response, a
new ADL regional board
"Campus Committee” lets
them know that they are not
alone.
"When there is a prob-
lem — about anti-
Semitism, pro-Arab
campus events — we are
usually the first to be con-
tacted for advice on the
proper means of coun-
teraction," reports ADL
community consultant
Robert M. Smith.
In the Los Angeles area,
contacts have been estab-
lished with activist stu-
dents at major college cam-
puses. In addition to being
trained how to provide the
ADL regional office with in-
formation about pro-Arab
activities on campus, the
students are sent monthly
packets of material to assist
them in responding to un-
fair newspaper articles or
letters to the editor. Ber-
nard I. Massey, an ADL
community consultant,
regularly participates in a
Hillel-organized college
task force to coordinate
strategy.
By creating a structure
for campus outreach, ADL
is hoping to improve deliv-
ery of its formidable re-
sources to the college cam-
pus battleground. But pro-
viding facts and guidance is
only the first part; the stu-
dents on the front lines need
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