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Friday October 31, 2003

Swastika-scrawling vandal targets anti-Zionist group

by joe eskenazi
staff writer

Being defaced with swastikas is bad — but don’t use that situation to push a political agenda.

That was the Jewish Community Relations Council’s reaction to anti-Semitic vandalism discovered last week at the Middle East Children’s Alliance, a Berkeley anti-Zionist organization.

On Oct. 20, an unknown vandal or vandals defaced a poster with swastikas scrawled with a ballpoint pen. The poster, which was hanging in MECA’s bathroom, depicted smiling Palestinian girls walking to school, and was emblazoned with the words “End the occupation.”

Berkeley police classified the vandalism as a possible hate crime.

The Anti-Defamation League contacted MECA on Monday, and regional director Jonathan Bernstein denounced the vandalism.

“Obviously, there are lots of people, particularly in the Jewish community, who have a strong difference of opinion with the Middle East Children’s Alliance, but it shouldn’t devolve into an exchange of epithets,” he said.

“We can communicate our opposition to their position without resorting to hate symbols.”

Yitzhak Santis of the JCRC also rebuked the vandalism, but warned organizations not to use such unfortunate incidents to generate publicity for themselves.

“Any threat of violence, hate expressions or death threats must be condemned unequivocally. At the same time, these actions by these anti-Israel activists to propagate their cause by using their victimhood to generate headlines should be suspect,” said Santis, the JCRC’s director of Middle East affairs.

Santis excoriated MECA and pro-Palestinian activist Alison Weir — who allegedly received death threats from a pro-Israel caller following her participation in a Middle East debate earlier this month — for “grandstanding” by running to the media.

Many Jewish organizations have been defaced with swastikas or have received threatening calls or notes in recent months, and Santis noted that the JCRC recommends not informing the media, which often spurs copycat crimes.

Barbara Lubin, MECA’s executive director, countered that the media approached her and not the other way around.

“We’ve been having incidents for 15 years at this organization; hate mail and broken windows and lots of stuff. I don’t like to give a voice to people who do this stuff,” she said.

“I feel sorry for people who have to disagree with us in that way. There are plenty of people who disagree with the work that we do and our stand on supporting children in Palestine, and they call up or come in here and tell me so, often in a very decent way and sometimes very heated. I appreciate that. But I just feel disgusted that people feel drawing swastikas on children’s faces is a way to speak about how they feel about this issue.”

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