Feds accused of abandoning Jewish students to violence
The federal government could be neglecting the civil rights of Jewish students on American campuses.
Jewish organizations have reported unprecedented hostility by Islamic students in an alliance with traditional anti-Semites. Jewish leaders have approached the government to protect the Jewish students from attack and discrimination, particularly in the University of California at Irvine. But the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights said the Muslim attackers, believed inspired by al Qaida, were driven by opposition to Israel rather than anti-Semitism. One Jewish organization warns that the federal office could provide a green light for Muslim attackers in college campuses throughout the country.
"OCR has sent a devastating message to Jews -- that we don't care about your legitimate fears or your psychological and physical well-being," Zionist Organization of America president Morton Klein said.
ZOA has sought federal protection against what many Jewish communal leaders agree has been a wave of Muslim attacks on Jewish students on campuses across America. In October 2004, the ZOA, citing a federal statute against discrimination, filed a complaint the University of California at Irvine for failing to protect Jewish students and activities.
The complaint said Muslim students have intimidated Jews on the Irvine campus, forcing several of them to leave university. ZOA said Muslim activists have distributed anti-Jewish literature, given anti-Jewish speeches and threatened Jews while others destroyed a Holocaust memorial, drew swastikas throughout campus, attacked and threatened Jewish students.
In its ruling in mid-December, OCR agreed that Muslim activities were offensive to Jews. But the federal agency, calling attacks on Jewish students "isolated," said the Muslim attacks stemmed from opposition to Israel rather than to Jews.
"There is insufficient evidence to support the complainant's allegation that the university failed to respond promptly and effectively to complaints by Jewish students that they were harassed and subjected to a hostile environment," OCR said.
OCR decided that no action need be taken at the California university, which removed the swastikas on campus. Instead, the agency determined that the university administration was "prompt and effective" in dealing with complaints and recommended that Jewish students undergo counseling. [The JEWISH students? What about the Muslim perpetrators?]
In 2005, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held hearings on Muslim attacks on Jewish university students. A year later, the independent federal agency later recommended that OCR "protect college students from anti-Semitic and other discriminatory harassment by vigorously enforcing Title VI [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964]."
"Many college campuses throughout the United States continue to experience incidents of anti-Semitism, a serious problem warranting further attention," the commission said in a 2006 report. "Anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist propaganda has been disseminated on many campuses that include traditional anti-Semitic elements, including age-old anti-Jewish stereotypes and defamation."
The report said many university departments of Middle East studies provide one-sided, highly polemical academic presentations and some may repress legitimate debate concerning Israel. The commission recommended that OCR protect college students from anti-Semitic and other discriminatory harassment by vigorously enforcing Title VI against recipients that deny equal educational opportunities to all students.
OCR's ruling was said to have sparked concern on other campuses threatened by Muslim and Arab violence against Jewish students. Jewish leaders said the threat was greatest in California and the Midwest, in some cases tolerated or encouraged by university professors or administrators.
In 2004, OCR termed Jewish an ethnic and religious group entitled to protection under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. But Susan Tuchman, director of ZOA's Center for Law and Justice, said that policy has been eroded under the new leadership of the office.
"Disgracefully, this agency abandoned the students, as well as its statutory responsibility to remedy racial and ethnic discrimination," Tuchman said. "The unfortunate message that OCR has sent, to the perpetrators of the hate and to UCI, is that hateful anti-Semitic bigotry and Israel bashing will be tolerated."
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