February 10, 2010 - Los Angeles - AJC is outraged that a speech by Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, was disrupted last night by students at the University of California at Irvine, and we encourage the university to act. “

These eleven students interfered with the capacity of their classmates to learn,” said Los Angeles Regional Director Seth Brysk.  “If they wanted to make their point, they could have distributed leaflets, asked tough questions, maybe even walked out in unison as a protest.”

The students, most of them enrolled at the UCI were arrested (and released) for disrupting the speech. “We hope the university leadership uses this as a teachable moment,” said Brysk. UCI has had a long history of anti-Israel activity. There is a very active Muslim Student Union which has sponsored vehemently antisemitic events and speakers for many years who propagate the libel that Jews control the media, banks and government. A

JC has noted to UCI leadership in the past that while academic freedom allows the bringing of controversial speakers to campus, the leadership must do more to use its own free speech rights to denounce hatred. “

The administration must make sure this type of tactic is not used again,” said Brysk. “It must, therefore, penalize these students in a way that demonstrates that, regardless of how committed students feel on a particular issue, their passion does not give them license to disrupt others from learning. UCI leadership needs to underscore that while it welcomes students with whatever views, it will not tolerate anti-academic bullies.”

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