A David Horowitz ad that has been seen by many as hate speech toward the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities has sparked strong reactions at SF State.

The ad charged that Palestinians and Arabs were dedicated to the destruction of Israel with the help of the international and American left, that Arabs are sacrificing their own children to the cause of destroying Israel and that Israel’s war against Palestinians is the same as the war on terrorism.

“Those who assume that (Horowitz) represents the views of Hillel, the Israel Coalition, the Jewish students on campus, or any student organization are terribly wrong,” said Samuel Vengrinovich, founder of the Israel-Palestine Alternative.

“We need to educate and not segregate,” Vengrinovich said in an e-mail.

Sara Fischer, associate director of San Francisco Hillel, said Hillel knew nothing about the ad before it was published.

“More of an issue is the lack of space for students to react to the advertisement in the forum which was published,” she said.

“This leads to unrest on campus and intimidation of students by other students and does not allow for the dialogue that is so essential to the academic community.”

Christine Yee, executive editor of Xpress Publications, said in an Xpress online commentary, “We are bringing back the Opinion page to hear what you have to say. You can e-mail xpresspublications@yahoo.com by Wednesday for Thursday’s issue (the issue to be published April 1).”

Nitzhia Shaked, a lecturer in the Jewish Studies program, felt that the issues more than the running of the ad itself raised concerns.

“Any other topic besides the Israel and Palestinian issue would not have raised so much debate,” Shaked said.

“This ad should be treated like any other controversial topic and should not be taken out of context,” she said.

“I want to know how this ad got in past deadline, without review,” Dean of Human Relations Kenneth Monteiro said.

“An ad like this creates a look that Xpress is attempting to create the news rather than report it,” Monteiro said.

Jess Ghannam, president of the San Francisco American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and adjunct professor of ethnic studies, laid out what he felt Xpress should do to help solve the problem that has been created.

“First I want the administration to investigate the placement of the ad. Second, I want the ad staff fired or at least reprimanded. Lastly I want the Xpress to print a retraction and an apology to our community,” Ghannam said.

LeBaron King, ad coordinator for the Xpress, regrets not labeling the ad as an advertisement, but stated that in the future he will clearly label all word ads as advertisements.

Normally, King sets aside word ads to read, and put the Horowitz ad aside for that purpose. But somehow it slipped through before he had a chance to read it, he said.

In an interview, Horowitz said he had sent the ad to 30 or 40 papers.

“My goal was to present the other side of the story,” said Horowitz, chairman of the Center for Popular Culture, a group which is viewed by many to be a soap box for Horowitz’s countless attacks on the liberal left.

This is not the first time Horowitz has found himself in the center of controversy through the use of advertisements. In March 2001, Horowitz created quite a stir by purchasing ad space in over 100 college newspapers attacking reparations for slavery.

As quoted in Insight magazine Horowitz has said, “One has to stigmatize the left and segregate it.”

In response to the reaction felt on campus, Horowitz proclaimed SF State as the worst campus in the country for one-sided debate.

“It is the ugliest campus for anti-Semitism,” he said.

Derek Wray, president of the Students for Academic Freedom, hopes for more open dialogue but overall he felt content with the ad.

“I think that the campus has been overdosing on just one side of the issue,” Wray said.

“The ad was a good counterbalance to dialogue from the other side, but I saw it based mostly on historical fact, with a little opinion mixed in,” said Wray, whose group is supported by Front Page Magazine.

Marla Schmalle, a SF State student who values the openness and diversity of the university, felt the ad may stir up an already volatile subject.

“When I saw the ad, I thought to myself, ‘All hell's going to break loose,’ ” Schmalle said.

“Though I have seen exactly the same (kind of) speech on the other side of the subject, I would like to see a forum for open and constructive dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians,” Schmalle said.