By Joyce Craig and Michele Gendelman
LOS ANGELES — The SJP/BDS disruption of the May 17, 2018 meeting of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) was intolerable, and those responsible deserve the strongest condemnation: the SJP and pro-BDS anti-Zionist students violated the First Amendment rights of the attendees, drowned out any attempts at response by using the “heckler’s veto,” ripped down a nation’s flag, tore papers belonging to a speaker, and doubtlessly frightened many, if not all, of the SSI students in the room.
This meeting hosted by SSI was approved by the administration in advance, and those in attendance deserved the oversight and protection due to a University-sanctioned group, regardless of politics, religion, and/or ideology. The event was titled “Indigenous People Unite,” and was intended to give a platform to three indigenous communities to share stories of their people, by providing an overview of their history, struggles, and aspirations. Represented were the Jewish, Kurdish, and Armenian communities.
The time-code of the video footage of the event shows that at 42:06 minutes, a male student entered the room, with others, ripped the Armenian flag down from the blackboard behind the Armenian-American student who was speaking, and came around to the front of the panel’s table, loomed over him, and addressed the speaker in a loud, aggressive and threatening manner.
Keep watching the video, and you see that at 46:59, two campus officers entered the front of the classroom, where they simply stood and did and said nothing; their mere presence was not an effective deterrence to the disruptors: protestors paid no heed. Later, other officers arrived, through the back of the classroom, and finally began to ask students to leave.
That’s just shy of seven minutes from the start of the disturbance for campus police officers to take action. And when they did react, they clearly had no idea of what was happening on either side of the issues. Why haven’t campus officers been better trained to deal with such situations? It is not the first time on our campus that such incidents have arisen. It should be noted that during the incident there was a loud and open call for the extermination of the State of Israel, in addition to the obvious acts of violence.
We are aware that persons with an interest and Administration’s ear have requested training regarding recognition and management of anti-Zionism. In view of what’s happening abroad, and, increasingly, here at home, shouldn’t these officers have a greater familiarity with the specificity of the issues triggered by such circumstances?
As alumni of UCLA, parents of UCLA students and alumni, Jewish Americans, and co-founders of the UCLA chapter of Alums for Campus Fairness, a large and fast-growing chapter of more than 700 UCLA alumni members and part of the national organization interested in freedom of speech generally and activity on UCLA’s campus, we are deeply disheartened that our University allowed the SSI group and the associated students’ meeting to be disrupted and the students to be intimated.
We have been informed that the University has initiated an investigation of the occurrence, and we received a short, general statement of disapproval on the Chancellor’s behalf through the Communications Office. But that is certainly not enough, nor is it compatible with, the level of need in this circumstance. Here is an opportunity to instruct and improve.
With that in mind, it is our recommendation that UCLA and your offices openly commit to do the following:
(1) Learn the names and group affiliations of the students (and others) who disrupted the meeting, the names of the organizers of the “protest,” and use the most stringent of University policies to condemn their actions or seek suspension/expulsion for those actions. Pursue all legal actions against non-students and support student victims who may seek to pursue legal remedies against such persons. We recognize that freedom of speech is at issue here and urge that the student who committed vandalism and assault be punished and those who exercised the “heckler’s veto” by blocking audience view of speakers and using a bull horn indoors be appropriately warned and required to attend training or be subject to sanctions, in the University’s discretion.
(2) Train campus police to respond immediately to victims’ defense. There was vandalism, public disruption, trespass, and harassing/threatening behavior plainly audible and visible at the SSI meeting, which should have met with prompt intervention. Give students an opportunity to request security and provide sensitized campus officers from the start of a pro-Israel or Jewish event, who are trained to appropriately intervene when free speech is impaired or students are threatened.
(3) Use the Daily Bruin to issue a formal public apology to SSI and event participants and the Jewish and pro-Israel Community and assure the campus community that every student group and association affiliated with or supporting Israel will be kept safe, and that the Administration will take any and all steps to carry out the Regents’ Statement of Principles Against Intolerance and protect such Israel supporters, i.e., Zionists.
The end goal in our view is to tell the University’s population that Jewish and pro-Israel students, regardless of politics, are in fact welcome on campus, despite chants to the contrary by protestors. With UCLA’s Student Conduct Code simultaneously under active revision, this may be the perfect opportunity to include in the Code particular references to disruption, bullying, and destruction of others’ property, as well as relevant instruction regarding anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist hate speech. ​
You have remarked in the past that you support the Regents’ Statement, which defers to campus administrators to both implement the Principles and to discipline students who commit intolerant acts in violation of those principles.
And so, it is with this in mind that we respectfully inquire as to what steps you and the University shall undertake in response and to avoid a recurrence in future, whether it involves a pro-Israel group, a pro-Jewish group, or any other organization under our school’s aegis. We ask that you respond at the earliest opportunity with something other than the standard response is being disseminated, and we ask that you particularly respond to items 1 through 3 above.
Please feel free to forward this letter to anyone whom you believe should be included in its consideration and response.
It is our deepest hope that what has been entrusted to your care and execution rests in good hands.
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Craig and Gendelman are members of Alums for Campus Fairness at UCLA. The preceding was provided by StandWithUs.