Hat tip to the Jewish students at UCI who made this tape and the OC Jewish Experience
A group of Jewish students at UCI have made their case to the ASUCI (Associated Students of UCI). This same group had passed a resolution urging that no punitive action be taken against protesters who disrupted the Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren's speech on February 8.
Thanks for posting this. This was well done.
ReplyDeleteIt is too bad this won't be covered by any newspapers or even the New University. Yet, screaming and shouting at a guest speaker during a lecture gave the MSU a public platform to get their views heard.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. The other thing that the MSU accomplished was that they woke up an entire community that had been told that there was no problem at UCI. Most of the audience were old Jewish folks that had been bussed into the event by the OC Jewish Federation, an organization that has spent years denying the problem and giving cover to the administration. (Yes, this same crowd that the MSU defenders are portraying as a dangerous and violent crowd about to commit violence.)
While so many others were reacting in outrage, I (and my companions) were sitting there remarking that the MSU was cutting its own throats. They did. Now, no one can reasonably deny the problem at UCI-without being laughed at.
How are they cutting their throat? I have seen a ton of support for the disruptive students on youtube.
ReplyDeleteHave any charges been filed?
I am curious to see what sort (if any) of discipline these students will face from UC Irvine. Do you know the process of how discliplne is handed out by UC Irvine and how long it normally takes?
- Jeff Klives
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteWhat I meant by "cutting their throats" was that they demonstrated to a mostly jewish audience of community members that there is a problem at UCI over this whole Israel/Palestine business. Previously, the public had been assured (in some cases by jewish community leaders) that everything was fine at UCI. The incident awoke a lot of people and has drawn international coverage. THE MSU would have been better served had they listened to the speech then engaged in critical questions or comments in the Q&A.
Yes, there are several edited versions of the event going around which focus on some inappropriate reactions and statements by many of the audience members (not me). One version I have seen was a confrontation between one audience member and a Muslim student that claimed it happened BEFORE the event began. Not true. There was no incident before the ambassador began his speech. Keep in mind, this was a mostly elderly audience, many of whom were bussed in to hear the speech. They were shocked and angered by the disruptions.
As to what will happen to the students, I have no idea. The university has to decide what punishment to mete out and the DA has to decide whether to prosecute the case. As for the process, I don't know. I have heard about investigations (everybody who would investigate it was there), meetings, proceedings, who knows? The university is under pressure from both sides on this. The punishment could be expulsion, suspension, probation...I don't expect much, personally. As to how long it will take, again, I don't know. UCI is still investigating the George Galloway fundraiser at their school which happened in May.