The Chicago Friends of Israel (CFI), a registered student organization, was denied use of the Oriental Institute’s Breasted Hall for an event scheduled for next month featuring Richard Perle, the conservative and oft-controversial former Reagan administration official.

The lecture, entitled “Middle East Peace: Illusion or Reality,” was to address “policy and steps that all sides could take in achieving peace in the Middle East,” said fourth-year Jonathan Hirsch, president of the Chicago Friends of Israel.

An e-mail sent to Hirsch on behalf of Oriental Institute director Gil Stein cited the lecture as conflicting with the Institute’s Facilities Rental Agreement Policy, which prohibits “events of a religious or political nature.”

“Please understand that this is not an attempt to pass judgment on your group’s activities but instead to maintain the impartiality of the Oriental Institute as a scholarly research institution and museum,” the e-mail read.

“I reviewed the request with senior staff members of the Oriental Institute and concluded that, as a politically charged event sponsored by a political advocacy group, it was not in keeping with the University approved rental regulations for Breasted Hall,” Stein said in an e-mail interview with the Maroon...

...In recent years, the Oriental Institute’s Breasted Hall has been used to host a variety of speakers and events that Hirsch contends took a decidedly political tilt.

In 2005, the Harris School of Public Policy rented Breasted Hall for an event featuring King Abdullah of Jordan, and last year hosted Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the Saudi Ambassador to the United States.

Other past events at Breasted Hall include an event hosted by the group Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a screening of the film No War in Iraq...

...An article published in November by historian Diana Muir accused the Oriental Institute of an anti-Semitic bias after plaques at an exhibition claimed that the religion of Islam developed in the Southern Levant. The Institute dismissed the allegations as being politically influenced.

A lawsuit filed by several Jewish-American citizens last year demanded that the Oriental Institute hand over several Iranian artifacts in its possession as restitution for injuries suffered by a 1997 terrorist attack in Israel, which was later found to have been funded by Iran. Decision on the case is pending...