Pro-Israeli Posters Stir Debate

A student group distributing a series of pro-Israeli posters on campus has added to the controversy at Harvard over the continuing conflict between Palestinian rioters and Israeli troops in the West Bank.

The Harvard-Israel Public Affairs Committee (HIPAC) has been posting one-page sheets, entitled "More facts to think about," at more than 50 campus locations since mid-February, said Joseph Enis '90-'91, the committee's chairman. HIPAC, a branch of a conservative national lobbying group, operates at Harvard under the auspices of Hillel.

Enis said the sheets carry information to counterbalance what he called the biased portrayal of Israel in the national press. Three issues of the leaflet have been distributed.

"One of the things we're concerned about is the leaving out of relevant facts in the press," said Glen I. E. Schwaber '91, who drafted the flyers. Schwaber said extra information was needed to provide "context" for the news presentations of violent Israeli military action in the West Bank and Gaza strip.

But Adam A. Sabra '90, president of the Society of Arab Students, called a portion of the posters' content "almost racist."

He criticized a statement on the poster dated February 22, which reads, "The shattering political conflict in Lebanon has demonstrated Arab intolerance toward non-Islamic religious groups in the Middle East and the impossibility of a [Palestinian Liberation Organization['democratic, secular state.'"

Sabra said the statement implied that all Arabs were Islamic and that they could not run a democratic government.

"It's really an attack on people's civil liberties," he said. "They have a right to disseminate their propaganda, [but] I think if anybody said this of any other group there would be an enormous torrent of disagreement."

"My first reaction was anger," said Dina N. Abu-Ghaida '91. "The next reaction was frustration because I thought `What has to happen for them to understand us?'"

Abu-Ghaida, whose parents are Palestinian, said she had hoped the recent uprisings would shed light on thePalestinian dilemma as "a real problem that has tobe confronted now," rather than a historicaldispute. She added that she had hoped the riotswould inspire various campus groups to discuss theissues, but instead, she said they will now "onlybe sending out fact sheets at each other."

"Yet again," Abu-Ghaida said, "the Jews and theArabs seem not able to talk to one another."

HIPAC officials said they had received littleor no comment about the posters from Jewishstudents. But some members of the liberalJewish-Arab Dialogue Committee, an independentundergraduate discussion group, said the posterscontain "skewed" information. One member calledsome points "disputable." Abu-Ghaida and Sabraalso belong to the group.

Ellen L. Chubin '90, a member of HIPAC andassociate chairman of Hillel, said the groupexpected the posters to provoke "intelligent discussion," and that they had hoped to hear students' comments on them