03-30-17 Jewish students complain about harassment at US campuses

Jewish students complain about harassment at US campuses

Published in the Arab News March 30, 2017

By Ray Hanania

You have to hand it to AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group that herds American foreign policy on issues related to Israel and the Middle East.

They’ve come out with a new documentary called “Hate Spaces,” which claims to expose rising anti-Semitism on college campuses against pro-Israel students.

That’s fascinating to me because the real harassment has always been against Palestinian and Arab students at many college campuses. Only in recent years have Arab students stood up to the hate politics of the pro-Israel activists in this country.

When I was in college at the University of Illinois after serving honorably during the Vietnam War, I immediately got involved with the Arab Student Organization.

What I learned was that the University of Illinois was biased and discriminatory against Arabs.

The university provided funding, grant money, office space and all kinds of support to the Jewish and pro-Israeli student organizations, but made it impossible for the Arab Student Organization, which I headed as president in 1975-76, to get any funds or program support.