The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) praises the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for calling on Chancellor Michael Drake of the University of California, Irvine to publicly condemn the Muslim Student Union’s speaker, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, for his frightening anti-Semitic speech on the campus last week, and also to publicly denounce the Muslim Student Union, the student group that annually sponsors his hateful speech.  The ZOA also praises the ADL for joining in calling for the University to revoke the Muslim Student Union’s charter as a student organization.

In a press release issued on May 14, 2010, the ADL criticized Malik Ali’s speech on the previous day, in which he called Jews “the new Nazis,” confirmed that he supports Hamas, Hezbollah and jihad, and called for an end to the “apartheid state of Israel.”  The ADL characterized his speech as “border[ing] on incitement.”  Hamas and Hezbollah are murderous Jew-hating terrorist groups that are on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

In criticizing the UC Irvine leadership for its feeble response to the Muslim Student Union and its programs, Kevin O’Grady, the ADL’s Orange County Regional Director, said, “How long must we hear Malik Ali support terrorism, express hatred of Jews and call for the destruction of the State of Israel before the University is willing to denounce him and those who invite him and sponsor his speech at Irvine?”  The ADL told Chancellor Drake that his actions have not been enough; the Chancellor must issue “a strong public statement condemning this bigot and the Muslim Student Union that annually sponsors his vile speech. . . . The MSU has consistently violated the campus code of conduct.  Enough is enough!”

Morton A. Klein, the ZOA’s National President, and Susan B. Tuchman, Esq., the Director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, commended the ADL for its strong condemnation of UC Irvine, the Muslim Student Union, and Amir Abdel Malik Ali:  “We are pleased to see that the ADL agrees that Chancellor Drake must do more than issue vague and general statements about disliking anti-Semitism, without ever relating his statements to the specific anti-Semitic speakers and speeches on the campus, or to the student groups sponsoring the bigotry.  Chancellor Drake must condemn, by name, speakers who demonize Jews and Israel by promoting hate-filled lies about them, and also denounce, by name, those student groups who regularly promote this vicious hatred.  The Chancellor must also finally revoke the Muslim Student Union’s registration, and deny the group all the rights and privileges that come with being a registered student group, as the result of the Muslim Student Union’s repeated violation of campus policies.

“We fear that calling Jews “Nazis” and Israel an apartheid Nazi state that shouldn’t even be spoken to could, G-d forbid, incite physical violence against Jews and Israel supporters on the campus.  After all, if Jews are Nazis and Israel is an apartheid Nazi state, then it would be a moral imperative to physically fight Jews and destroy Israel.  As noted historian Paul Johnson said in his best-selling book, A History of the Jews:  ‘One of the principal lessons of Jewish history has been that repeated verbal slanders are sooner or later followed by violent physical deeds.  Time and again over the centuries anti-Semitic writings created their own fearful momentum which climaxed in an effusion of Jewish blood.’

“University officials must do whatever they can to stop immediately the hatred against Jews and the Jewish State.  What on earth is Chancellor Drake waiting for?”