Who Broke the Silence at UC-Irvine?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk


Hat tip to OC Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism

Recently, I posted a video of a group of Jewish students at UC-Irvine making statements in front of the student government asking who would protect their rights of free speech after the student government had passed a resolution defending the right of free speech of the Muslim Student Union members who disrupted the Israeli ambassador's speech on February 8th.

Below is a link the the OC Jewish Experience blog of the Orange County Jewish Federation, which (as I understand it)originally posted the video made by the Jewish students.

http://ocjewishexperience.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/must-see-video-from-jewish-students-at-uc-irvine/

As I said before, I commend these students, some of whom I have met. They are fine young people who showed courage in going to make their case to the student government. One of them, a previous president of the campus group, Anteaters for Israel, has been at UCI for 5 years and has attempted repeatedly to engage in meaningful dialogue with the Muslim Student Union over the issue of Israel. I applaud the action they took.

What I would like to nitpick, if I may, is the Jewish Federation's labeling of the event as "breaking the silence". The people who broke the silence at UCI go back to around 2002. Earlier students like Merav Ceran and Reut Cohen, who were members of Anteaters for Israel, were quite vocal in protesting the MSU-sponsored events and speakers. I never knew Merav, but I do know Reut, and I know personally what she did when she was a student at UCI. She complained repeatedly to the UCI administration about hate speech and got nowhere. She was treated as a troublemaker. Once, she had her camera shoved into her face at one of those events. Nothing was done.

The Orange County Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism has been breaking the silence for a few years now bringing to public attention the incidents of anti-Semitic speech spoken on the UCI campus. They launched their own investigation and interviewed students who were affected.

The Zionist Organization of America has taken a lead in breaking the silence. They filed a complaint with the Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights on behalf of Jewish students at UCI who were complaining of anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation. To this day, they continue to follow the events at UCI and write letters complaining to the university. No other national Jewish organization has done what they have done.

In the past year or so, ACT for America has been breaking the silence about events going on at UCI.

And if I may, if you are looking for a UCI faculty member (albeit adjunct) who has broken the silence, it is yours truly. If there is another UCI faculty member who has taken a stand, I am unaware.

I am gratified to hear that the Orange County Jewish Federation, after the ugly event of February 8th, is joining the battle. But during the period of years that I have just described, that organization was very silent. It was their position that there was no problem of anti-Semitism at UCI, and that the administration was doing a great job. (That's not hearsay or something I read somewhere; that's from the horse's mouth.) Nevertheless, it is greatly satisfying to see that the Federation, in the words of one newspaper writer, is "laying down the gauntlet" to the school and demanding punishment for the disruptors of the ambassador's speech. It is great to hear that they are "working intensely with multiple channels of leadership on local, national and international level . . . to be sure the ongoing [disciplinary] process proceeds quickly.” It is also good to see that the Federation's reaction is "immediate and swift".

So I look forward to the next Israel Apartheid week when the Federation and their leaders will join with me, the Task Force and others shoulder to shoulder in challenging the words of speakers like Amir Abdel Malik Ali, Alim Musa, Cynthia McKinney, George Galloway and others.

We shall see.