UCLA My alma mater has some proud moments in the history of civil liberties. In 1939, the UCLA Philosophy Department hired Bertrand Russell. (You can buy for a pretty penny on E-Bay a 1940 UCLA Yearbook featuring both him and Jackie Robinson.) This was before Russell was unceremoniously barred by the City University of New York for his heterodox views on Christianity and marriage. Then, after World War II, the Westwood campus joined Berkeley as the hotbed of opposition to anti-communist loyalty oaths which the UC Regents tried to impose on professors. Ultimately, the professors won in court in 1954. Now, sixty years later, it’s a different pressure group purportedly speaking for the “progressive” grassroots that wants to impose a sort of loyalty oath—or “disloyal to Israel” oath—on students with the audacity to support Israel or associate with organizations that do so. Who ever would have thought that the McCarthyite assault on loyalty—“Are you now or have you ever been a communist?”—would be transmuted into an attack to target, harass, and intimidate pro-Israel students (Jewish and non-Jewish) at UCLA. Beyond Joe McCarthy, there are ominous echoes here of both the Spanish Inquisition’s witch hunts and of Joseph Stalin’s “Show Trials.” Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is funded by American Muslims for Palestine and Al-Awda—two organizations dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Neither it nor its sponsors have an agenda extending beyond demonizing Zionists and destroying Israel to improving the lives of Palestinians. SJP is using ham-handed McCarthyite tactics, in the updated form of cyber-bullying, to punish Jewish students who recently were in the UCLA student government majority that voted against a resolution to divest from and boycott Israel. The SJP wants Tammany-style dominance of the UCLA student government. And Jewish students who opposed the anti-Israel divestment resolution reportedly feel uncomfortable even walking on campus because of the hate mail they have received. Adding insult to injury, the (SJP) has introduced an initiative which calls for a Judicial Board investigation of student council members who have taken trips to Israel sponsored by groups—such as the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and Hasbara Fellowships—which the SJP deems to have “political agendas that marginalize multiple communities on campus.” A second SJP initiative seeks to deprive pro-Israel students of a voice in campus discussions was its demand that candidates for student government positions sign a statement pledging that they will not go on any trip to Israel sponsored by the three Jewish organizations. The SJP has crossed the line and violated both UCLA Principles of Community Conduct and Student Conduct Code against harassment of all kinds. Yet UCLA Chancellor Gene Block has refused to intervene, “leaving the matter to be resolved by students” according to the Daily Bruin. This is equivalent to “leaving the matter” to those forming a political lynch mob to bar Jews from the fundamental rights of freedom of association and expression. Now, the aggrieved UCLA student have turned to UC President Janet Napolitano and the Regents for relief. Pastor Dumisani Washington, leader of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, said in his remarks at the hearing before the UC Regents that the SJP’s denunciation of pro-Israel groups for having a political agenda is not just hateful, it is hypocritical given SJP’s own repugnant political agenda. On other campuses around the country, National SJP tactics include the mock eviction notices against Jewish students, “die-ins,” and promotions of virulently anti-Israel speakers and events. Unfortunately, what’s happening at UCLA is not an aberration but the symptom of a trend. Here are examples from coast-to-coast report, compiled by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, about what’s happening around the country: • At the University of the California, Davis anti-Israel “occupation” rally a student who expressed concern about the anti-Semitic banners displayed at the protest was physically assaulted by a protestor who screamed in his face, “You are racist and you should die in hell.” • At the University of California, Berkeley, a Jewish girl holding an “Israel Wants Peace” sign was ramrodded with a shopping cart by the head of Students for Justice in Palestine. • At San Francisco State University this past fall, the General Union of Palestine Students hosted an all-day event where participants could make posters and t-shirts that said, “My Heroes Have Always Killed Colonizers,” meaning Jews. • At Harvard University, the Palestine Security Committee frightened Jewish students by placing mock eviction notices on their dormitory rooms. • At Northeastern University in Boston, Students for Justice in Palestine vandalized a menorah and disrupted Jewish events. • Anti-Israel student activists at the University of Michigan hurled death threats at Jewish student council members and called them “dirty Jew” and “kike.” The UCLA administration has placed itself at the cutting edge of the supine cowardice and hypocrisy that characterize academic do nothingism about anti-Semitism and double standards against Israel. Chancellor Block has written a message to the UCLA Community expressing his “personal concern” about the dangers of “disrespectful or hurtful remarks,” but defending as “sacrosanct” because “within the realm of free speech” the organized demands that Jewish and other students who have taken sponsored trips to Israel should disqualify themselves from participating in UCLA student body elections. UC President Janet Napolitano has tried to walk a middle line: embracing Block’s preposterous “free speech” defense of the SJP’s organized intimidation campaign while criticizing them for violating principles like “civility” and “inclusion”—but not freedom of expression and association. Who’s more to blame: twenty-something SJP members carried away by their anti-Israel animus or the mature adults in academic officialdom who wash their hands of student excesses while perverting Bill of Rights principles? It’s time for our colleges and universities to rediscover their moral compass before, at some future point, they appeal for aid against attacks on their freedoms emanating from hostile outsiders, but find that they no longer have any friends who deem them worth defending.