SAN FRANCISCO, June 4, 2002 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on the University of California administration and community to reject a proposed anti-Israel divestment campaign. A press conference held today at UC-Berkeley, ostensibly directed by University faculty, and spearheaded by the Berkeley chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, called on University officials to divest the University portfolio of investments in companies that do business with or in Israel.

In response to today's rally, Jonathan Bernstein, ADL San Francisco Regional Director, said:

"Campus administrators and students alike have overwhelmingly rejected similar petitions at Princeton, Harvard and MIT. The real point of the exercise is not at all financial. Rather, it is a propaganda effort to use the University to demonize Israel, through the propagation of a false and odious comparison to Apartheid-era South Africa.

"We are confident that the University of California administration and community will see this for what it is and reject it as well."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.