UP FRONT
MSU Students, Protests
Mark Independence Day
MICHELLE COHEN
Special to The Jewish News
pproximately 150
Michigan State Uni-
versity students
celebrated Israel's 41st birth-
day May 10, despite pro-
testors shouting phrases such
as "stop murdering children"
and "long live Palestine"
throughout the celebration.
"I think they can protest
364 days of the year, but why
now? It's offensive," said Sid
Appelboom, an economics
senior.
"The PLO have
proven to us in
the past through
their actions that
they are barbaric.
They just proved
it - to us again."
Many seniors agreed the
protestors had a right to
attend the event, which
was organized by Michigan
State's Student Coalition for
Israel and Hillel Jewish
Center, but objected to the
continuous chanting through-
out speeches and songs.
Hillel director Dr. Mark
Finkelstein spoke about
Israel's importance as the
only democratic nation in the
Middle East. Finkelstein
said, "In the past, Jews had
no place to go. But now they
have Israel," and in order to
survive, Israel needs every
Jew's support.
Following Finkelstein's
speech, Stuart Newman, aide
to Senator Jack Faxon (D-
Farmington Hills), gave a
chronology on Israel, in-
cluding Arab efforts to
eradicate the Jewish state.
During the 30-40 minute
program in front of MSU's
Beaumon Tower, the students
read the Israeli declaration
of independence in English
and Hebrew, and sang "Ha-
tikvah" to end the rally.
A spokesperson for the pro-
testors Mona El-Bayoumi
said the group wanted to
make people aware of how
much tax money the United
States gives to support a
"repressive state."
"People are getting a rosy
picture of what Israel is all
about, but they are actually
violating basic human rights
and breaking United Na-
tions' laws," El-Bayoumi said.
"We're not against Judaism
as a religion," she said.
"We're against Zionism which
is a racist ideology!"
Earlier in the day, Vandals
defaced a sidewalk near the
celebration site with Jewish
stars, swastikas and the
words "You talk about Nazis,
take a good look at your-
selves. PLO — Go, go, go."
"The PLO have proven to us
in the past through their ac-
tions that they are barbaric:'
said Miriam Kreinin, an
advertising sophomore. "They
just proved to us again, by
comparing us to Nazis, what
they are — terrorists and bar-
barians. We're not dealing
with rational people."
Despite the anti-Israel ac-
tions, Student Coalition for
Israel co-chairperson Steve
Steinhardt was pleased with
the turnout.
"I think it's important for
Americans to remember this
day," said communica-
tion/education sophomore
Amy Widenbaum.
"I'm American because I
was born here, but home is
where the heart is, and Israel
is my home:'
Jennifer Winer (Israel shirt) and Rachel Williams, right, distribute Israel literature at Michigan State University.
I ROUND UP
Sempo Sugihara
Receives Honor
New York — Sempo
Sugihara, who as Japanese
consul in Lithuania during
the Nazi years helped
thousands of Jews escape the
Holocaust, was posthumously
honored with the Anti-
Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith's "Courage lb Care"
award.
The award, established to
recognize exceptional actions
by non-Jews on behalf of Jews,
was presented to Sugihara's
wife, Yukiko, and son, Hiro.
Sugihara, who died in 1986,
saved some 4,000 Polish and
Lithuanian Jews. As consul of
Kovno, he acted despite
repeated objections by his
government, which at the
time was forging an alliance
with Hitler's Germany.
Debate Sways
The Undecided
Palestinians demonstrate at the Israel Independence Day rally.
A poll taken before and
after a debate at Andover
High School in Bloomfield
Hills last week shows that a
large number of students who
went into the program unsure
about U.S. support for a
Palestinian state came out
against the plan.
Asked "Do you agree that
the United States should sup-
port a Palestinian state?"
before the debate, 19 percent
agreed, 43 disagreed and 38
percent were undecided.
Responding to the same
question after the program,
20 percent agreed, 58 percent
disagreed and 12 percent
were undecided.
Children Build
For The Future
Haifa - — Today's building
blocks could result in tomor-
row's architecture if Israeli
professor Rachel Sebba has
her way.
Sebba, an architect in the
faculty of architecture and
town planning at the Thch-
as 11
Play areas designed by Israeli youth.
nion, Israel Institute of
Technology, is designing
playgrounds with the help of
children and their teachers.
As part of the project, Seb-
ba asked children to draw pic-
tures of a new play area. They
"kept in mind the basic pro-
blems of the physical layout
which we had discussed with
them beforehand," Sebba said
in an interview with Tech-
nion magazine, though she
noted that some requested
swimming pools and amuse-
ment park rides.
E.T. Phone
Israel
Haifa — An unidentified
flying object recently zoomed
through the skies of Haifa,
landed in a ball of fire on the
beach and eventually burned
out.
Astrophysicist Professor
Giora Shaviv said the object
was probably debris from a
military excercise or an or-
biting spaceship, but long-
time UFO watcher Hadassah
Arbel said the object was "a
spy disc sent out by an alien
spaceship to measure the
electromagnetic waves ema-
nating from earth," according
to The Chicago Sentinal.
Jackson's Ties
With Farrakhan
The certainty that nothing
he did would make Jews ac-
cept him was behind the Rev.
Jesse Jackson's decision not
to condemn Black Muslim
leader Louis Farrakhan, ac-
cording to a new book by the
1988 presidential candidate's
former press secretary.
Elizabeth Colton says in
her book that Jackson did not
understand why Jews were so
unhappy with him, believing
his opponents were simply
racists. He opted not to de-
nounce Farrakhan, who once
labeled Judaism "a gutter
religion," so as not to lose sup-
port among blacks, she says.
Jackson's "steadfast refusal
to repudiate Farrakhan had
become a matter of principle
with him:' Colton writes.
"The more the Jews pushed,
the more entrenched he
became in his determination
to stand his ground!'
Compiled by Elizabeth Kaplan
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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