Group to probe anti-Semitism

Jewish and Muslim student leaders said they would be willing to help an investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism at UC Irvine, after a Jewish nonprofit group announced plans this week to send a task force to the campus.

The Hillel Foundation of Orange County — which sponsors student groups at UCI, Orange Coast College and other Orange County schools — plans to send members of the Jewish community to UCI to interview students, faculty and others. UCI has seen a number of conflicts in recent years between Jewish and Muslim students, most of them centered around the strife between Israel and Palestine.

Marya Bangee, the spokeswoman for the Muslim Student Union, said she would be willing to offer input to the investigation, but only if she knew for sure the task force’s agenda.

“My basic position is that it’s an intimidation tactic to blacklist people who are speaking out against Israel, she said. “I’d love to see what the task force puts together, and if it is something that promotes tolerance and diversity, I’d love to take part in that.”

The Hillel Foundation announced its task force after a Jan. 31 incident when Muslim students protested an appearance on campus by pro-Israel historian Daniel Pipes. Executive director Jeffrey Rips said the true mission of the task force will be to separate fact from fiction.

“Our goal is to find out what’s there,” Rips said. “We’re not making any presumptions. Clearly, there is enough information coming my way that we felt this is an important step that needs to be taken.”

Conflicts between the Muslim Student Union and Jewish groups have flared several times in recent years. A number of Jewish students complained last year about a program sponsored by the Muslim group titled “Holocaust in the Holy Land,” while Muslims protested a presentation on campus of controversial Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.

Alex Chazen, president of the UCI Hillel Jewish Student Union, said he was concerned about some of the angst on campus but wanted to make sure the charges weren’t blown out of proportion.

“We get a lot of bad press about UCI being a hotbed of anti-Semitism,” he said. “People come up to me and ask, ‘Is UCI a terrorist training ground?’ and that kind of thing. That’s what people get from media sources. What the task force will hopefully do is shed light on what really goes on at UCI.”

Rips said the task force hoped to start interviews in the next two weeks and have its reporting done by the end of summer. The final report, he said, should be in by the end of the year. As part of the research, he hoped to have the task force interview Muslim students.

Alexander Phillips, the editor of the campus Irvine Progressive newspaper, said he believed the antagonism between the groups arose out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rather than deep-seated racism. He noted the sometimes-inflammatory speakers that the students had brought on campus.

“To an outside observer, it seems like both groups are so passionate and so outraged about the events they’re standing up for that there doesn’t really seem to be any positive dialogue on the issue,” Phillips said.