Lea Speyer Algemeiner
August 22, 2016

The heads of major campus and legal groups told The Algemeiner on Monday that they are outraged by the mild response of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to the violent behavior of an anti-Israel student organization on its campus.

Referring to a letter from UCI’s vice chancellor of student affairs criticizing Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for “disrupting” a pro-Israel event, Ilan Sinelnikov, founder and president of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) — whose UCI chapter was the target of SJP’s violent protest in May — said, “UCI has turned its back on the Jewish and pro-Israel campus community.”

He continued, “On the one hand, the school writes that SJP broke the student code of conduct. On the other hand, the punishment is no more than a written warning and that SJP needs to host an ‘educational event.’ SSI and many other pro-Israel groups that worked with the university during its investigation believed the school would come up with just and fair results.”

Roz Rothstein, CEO and co-founder of Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, expressed “disappointment that SJP is not facing more serious consequences” from the university.

“This is not the first time anti-Israel extremists have attempted to shut down free speech at UCI, and we hope to see a no tolerance policy for this kind of behavior this year,” she told The Algemeiner. “UCI was the first university to publicly commit itself to implementing the UC Regents Principles Against Intolerance, and we hope to see greater accountability for racism and anti-Israel extremism going forward.”

Aron Hier, director of Campus Outreach for the human rights organization the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called UCI’s written reprimand to SJP “a completely feckless ‘punishment.’”

“The university’s message here is clear,” he told The Algemeiner. “Pro-Israel free speech deserves less First Amendment protection than other forms of free speech.”

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, the head of campus watchdog group the AMCHA Initiative, questioned whether UCI’s punishment of SJP “is consistent with disciplinary measures that would be handed down to members of any registered student organization that had engaged in similar acts of harassment, intimidation, bullying and suppression of speech directed against any other racial, ethnic or gender group on campus.”

Antisemitism expert Kenneth L. Marcus — president and general counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law — told The Algemeiner his organization is “glad that UCI has finally acknowledged that SJP’s disruptive behavior violates University of California policies.” Nevertheless, he said, the letter of warning that was the upshot of the investigation is “an insult to the victims of SJP’s activities and to the entire Jewish community.” UCI administrators “need to do more than…apply slaps on the wrist,” he said.

In a joint statement provided to The Algemeiner by Hillel International, Orange County Hillel and the Rose Project of Jewish Federation and Family Services, the groups said that while acknowledging SJP’s violation is “a step in the right direction…further action is needed to ensure Jewish students are protected and afforded the right to free speech and assembly, and to make clear that efforts to thwart those freedoms by groups or individuals will not be tolerated.”

As reported by The Algemeiner, UCI found SJP in violation of university policy, which included “obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures, or other University activities.” SJP was issued a written warning and ordered to host an educational program by November 2016.

UCI’s decision was reached following a drawn out investigation after, as reported by The Algemeiner, SJP and other anti-Israel student groups at UCI violently demonstrated against a SSI event featuring IDF veterans and the screening of a movie about the Israeli army.

According to reports at the time, the protesters blockaded attendees and shouted slogans like, “Long live the intifada,” “f*** the police,” “displacing people since ’48 / there’s nothing here to celebrate,” and “all white people need to die.” One female student was so harassed and chased that she was forced to take refuge inside a nearby building. Police were eventually called in, but the protest was allowed to continue.

In July, as reported by The Algemeiner, UCI’s chapter of SJP came under investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s office to determine whether the protesters’ behavior was criminal. The DA’s office concluded that SJP did not engage in any criminal wrongdoing.

The results of UCI’s investigation come on the heels of an AMCHA report, which found a dramatic rise in attacks against Jewish and pro-Israel students across more than 100 US college campuses between January and June 2016. According to the report’s findings, antisemitic incidents on college campuses increased by 45 percent as compared with the same time period in 2015.

Original Article

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Washington, D.C. On Friday, the UC Irvine Office of Student Conduct announced that it had concluded a three-month investigation into an aggressive and disruptive incident on the UCI campus last May. The incident involved an anti-Israel mob that disrupted a small event held by a Jewish student group on campus. The angry mob of about 50 students blocked the entrances and exits while loudly chanting angry, anti-Israel, anti-police, and pro-Palestinian sentiments that promoted violence, anti-Semitism, and hate. One Jewish student, Eliana Kopley, attempted to get away, but was chased and hounded by members of the angry mob, forcing her to hide in a kitchen while a UCI staff member protected her. The Louis D. Brandeis Center (“LDB”), a national civil rights legal advocacy organization best known for its work fighting anti-Semitism in higher education, represents Ms. Kopley.

According to yesterday’s announcement, the student group Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) is responsible for violation of the UCI Code of Conduct’s provision prohibiting “Obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures, or other University activities.” As for sanctions, SJP was issued a written warning, effective immediately and continuing until March 29, 2017. SJP must also host an educational program by November 18, 2016.

LDB President and General Counsel Kenneth L. Marcus expressed his concerns about the university’s announcement, stating, “I am disappointed in the outcome, which fails to hold SJP accountable for the harassment and physical intimidation of Eliana Kopley – or to even acknowledge that anything happened to her that night.” Indeed, the statement yesterday makes no reference to any student being chased, followed, or needing to hide from attendees of SJP’s “protest” gone wrong.

Marcus further stated, “I do believe that it is a step forward for UC Irvine to finally acknowledge that SJP’s disruptive behavior violates university polices. We are pleased that the university has implicitly rejected the spurious claims by the National Lawyers’ Guild and Palestine Legal that such disruptive behavior is protected by the First Amendment, when it clearly is a violation of the freedom of speech. We are also glad that the Office of Student Affairs has — at a minimum — issued SJP a warning, and we hope that administrators will closely monitor SJP’s activities over the coming year and respond quickly to any further crimes, infractions or violations that they commit.”

However, Marcus described the weak sanctions as “a slap on the wrist for SJP, and a slap in the face to the Jewish community.” Ms. Kopley agreed, stating, “I feel like their punishment is not enough to keep the pro-Israel and Jewish students on campus safe. It isn’t guaranteeing our safety. What happened that night does not warrant just a ‘warning’. There should be a real, visible action by the school to ensure safety to all students on our campus.”

Jennie Gross, Senior Staff Attorney at LDB, considered the effect that the weak sanctions might have on future incidents, “This will not be the last protest to occur at UCI. Nor should it be. Peaceful protest is an important element of public discourse, even when the topic is controversial – perhaps particularly when the topic is controversial. But the group that organized this protest and their advocates would have us believe that the First Amendment provides a free pass for any and all conduct by protesters. That message is not only false, as any first-year law student can tell you. That message is dangerous. The school acknowledged that the First Amendment does not protect this type of conduct, but by failing to appropriately punish the offenders, UCI failed to counter that dangerous message.”

Irvine officials have not disclosed whether university investigators have identified the persons who chased Ms. Kopley, although LDB attorneys believe it would have been relatively easy for them to do so using basic investigative techniques. The university would not even confirm that they attempted to identify the offenders, although Ms. Kopley can partially describe articles of clothing that they wore, and believes she would be able to recognize them in an unbiased line-up or photo array.

Marcus also stated, “Vice Chancellor Parham’s statement also fails to mention the obviously anti-Semitic nature of the violations here. One would never know from his statement that hate was at work in this angry mob.” Despite the claims of SJP, NLG, and Palestine Legal, political activism played no role in the decision of a few to harass Ms. Kopley. Eliana had gone to see a movie with other Jewish students. She was interested in a documentary about Israelis her own age, and what it their lives are like when they are required to serve in the IDF. The only thing the harassers knew about her was that she identified with the Jewish students on the other side of the door. That is anti-Semitism – not anti-Israel political action.

Marcus continued, “Indeed, it appears that Dr. Parham is either unaware of the gravity of the facts in this case or unwilling to publicly disclose them. The signal this sends to the Jewish community and to all minorities on campus is one of indifference. That signal will be heard by victims of intimidation, harassment, and bias for some time to come.”

Finally, LDB attorneys noted that the Regents of the University of California sent UC administrators a very strong signal just a few months ago that they need to respond more firmly to anti-Semitism and intolerance. Marcus commented, “It now seems clear that the Regents’ message still hasn’t been fully heard at UCI. The Regents should be appalled at how little their statements are being followed by Irvine’s Office of Student Affairs. Irvine needs to demonstrate that they have heard the Regents’ statement and that they are prepared to reform their process. At this point, it appears that Irvine’s Office of Student Affairs is still behaving in the same old way that got the Regents so incensed in the first place.”