News Briefs

Did Group Raise Funds for Hamas on Campus?

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A U.S. congressman is the latest to call for a Justice Department investigation into whether a pro-Palestinian group has been raising money on college campuses for Hamas.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) urged a probe into Viva Palestina USA, a humanitarian aid convoy led by British lawmaker George Galloway that brought medical supplies to Gaza last July.

Both the Zionist Organization of America and the Anti-Defamation League in recent months have urged Holder to investigate reports about the convoy's links to Hamas.

The groups made their requests after Galloway and other Viva Palestina USA members appeared and reportedly raised funds at some college campuses in the spring and summer.

"Clearly, people and organizations in the United States cannot be allowed to solicit funds for foreign terrorist organizations," Sherman wrote in his letter to Holder.

"That such solicitation is occurring during the middle of the day at a public university is truly frightening," he said, referring to the University of California, Irvine.

Ban on Minarets Draws Protests

BUDAPEST (JTA) -- Jewish organizations have joined Muslims, the Vatican and other groups in warning that a Swiss referendum banning the construction of mosque minarets could fuel hatred, jeopardize religious freedom and further polarize an already divided society.

"Discriminatory laws like a ban on minarets are likely to alienate, rather than ease, integration," the Board of Deputies of British Jews said in a statement following the Nov. 29 vote. "They also give succor to the unacceptable politics of unlimited hate being peddled around Europe by right-wing extremists."

France's chief rabbi also criticized the vote, as did two influential U.S. Jewish organizations -- the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.

Both the Swiss government and Switzerland's Jewish community had strongly opposed the initiative.

Called by the far-right Swiss People's Party -- the country's largest political party -- the referendum won the support of nearly 58 percent of voters.

The result, which stunned many, mandates a constitutional ban on the construction of minarets, or prayer towers, on newly built mosques.