UC RIVERSIDE ADMINISTRATION COMMENDED FOR STANDING UP TO HATE-MONGERS

The Simon Wiesenthal Center commended the administration of UC Riverside for standing up to hate-mongers from Al-Awda who
effectively deny Israel's right to exist as a Jewish State.

Their rejection of Israel is so complete that they only refer to it on their website as "Israel" in quotation marks.  Their rallies are often hate-fests against Israel, where people chant "Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,"
and, "The Jews are our dogs."

Al-Awda is a Palestinian advocacy group that calls for unlimited boycotts of and divestment from Israel, and militates for the complete right of return for Palestinian refugees to any and all parts of Israel they lived in in 1948.

Al-Awda's Fifth Annual International Convention had been slated for University of California, Riverside for May 25-27, 2007. After a number of meetings with Al-Awda, University personnel insisted that standard University policy  would have to prevail in regard to security costs, and  that the event must  be open to all registrants.  Al-Awda withdrew the conference, and moved it to the Embassy Suites Hotel. As Al-Awda explains on its website, "the university administrators insisted that Zionists be allowed to attend the convention."

"What is remarkable about this move by UC Riverside, is that nothing about it was remarkable at all," explained Wiesenthal Center associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper.

"We commend UC Riverside officials for not looking the other way and insisting that University rules, including full access to campus programs, be adhered to. We hope other schools of higher learning will follow UC Riverside's example in the future," added Rabbi Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, the Center's Interfaith Affairs Director.

For more information,contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.