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An anti-Zionist event sponsored by the Muslim Student Association at Santa Clara University last week came as a blow to several Israelis and Jews who felt unfairly bombarded.

For the event, “Anti-Zionist Week 2000,” members of the Muslim student group lined campus walls with fliers that named Zionists as the “Pioneers of Terrorism.” Another posting read: “Zionists deliberately and systematically murdered, maimed and menaced the innocent… until 780,000 Palestinians ran for their lives.”

“It’s propaganda,” said Oli Reinat, an Israeli student in the Leavey Business College at Santa Clara University. “The fliers said nasty things, lies.”

The week closed with a lecture by U.C. Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian entitled “Zionism and Israel: A Strategic Liability to the United States.” Although it was billed as “an analysis of U.S.-Israeli ties,” Reinat said it was an attack, not an analysis.

“The Berkeley professor spoke very hateful words,” she said, adding that she was so offended she left during the address.

Patricia Orendain, a political science major who described herself as a Palestinian supporter, also walked out during the event. “I came here to hear a discussion, not propaganda,” said Orendain, who is not Jewish.

However, according to Barry Holtzclaw, director of media relations at Santa Clara, the speech was basically, “a fairly boring, school lecture from [Hatem’s] perspective, on the Middle East.”

Reached by phone, Bazian refused to comment on the content and basis of his lecture as well as the fliers.

Sara Azad, an officer of the Muslim student group and an organizer of the theme week, stood by the content of the fliers and the events. She also apologized that some people were offended, but maintained “it’s because they truly don’t understand the nature of Zionism.”

“I am sorry that they subscribe to a racist ideology,” she said. “There are many good-willed people who call themselves ‘Israelis’ and subscribe to Zionism, but that is because they do not understand the oppressiveness and racism inherent to the ideology.”

She said the pro-Israel leanings of the United States are due to “ignorance.”

Kate Lapan, president of the Jewish Student Union at the university, said she also recalled reading fliers posted on campus two years ago that read: “Mourn the 50th anniversary of Israel.”

Lapan, who went to the same high school as Azad, said she never thought something like anti-Zionist week would happen on her college campus. She was especially upset that this was instigated by someone whom she considered to be her friend.

The event “upset a lot of people and it doesn’t make people feel very good about being on campus,” Lapan said. “We don’t mind free speech, but the way it was advertised and presented was wrong.”

In response to the theme-week, the Jewish Student Union put up a poster reading, “Who’s next? Anti-you? Anti-me? Anti-them?” with room for signatures at the bottom.

“Within the first hour we put it up, at least 15 people had signed it,” Lapan said.

Reinat said she agrees with the principles of free speech, but “there should be a limit.

“In a place like a university, small groups attacking other small groups shouldn’t be allowed,” she added.

Event fliers must be approved by the university in order to qualify for posting, but according to Holtzclaw, the university “didn’t feel that the fliers were anti-Semitic or inflammatory.”

“If the administration had detected anything attacking people, they would have stopped it,” the media director said. However, he did object to the fliers’ claim of university sponsorship.

“We regret and dismay that our name was connected to the title,” Holtzclaw said. “No way would we be as crazy as to sponsor something called Anti-Zionism Week.”

In response, university officials issued a statement apologizing for the flier’s “inappropriate juxtaposition and use of the university’s name” as well as the “tone of some of them.”

Lapan is currently searching for someone to speak on campus in response to “Anti-Zionism Week.” However, because the event was organized so close to the end of the school year, she said she has encountered difficulty.

“I wish they had told us about this event in advance,” said Lapan. “We could have done something on the Middle East together. Instead of addressing my side- your side, we could have addressed peace.”

But Azad shot down that notion in a hurry.

“It’s easy to ask for peace once you have taken someone’s land,” she said. “I do not have respect for [Zionists] and I have no intention of working towards an unjustifiable peace agreement with such people.”