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VOICES: Community outrage in response to SJP’s bullying of UCLA Jewish students

COMMUNITY VOICES: Outrage in response to SJP’s bullying of UCLA Jewish students

May 18, 2014

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  • My oldest son has expressed interest in UCLA. We were eager to encourage his interest in this fine academic institution, but the more we learn about the climate for Jewish students at UCLA and other UC schools, the less inclined we are to allow our son to apply. We hope the situation changes very soon. Perhaps we would then reconsider.
  • As a member of the UCLA campus faculty, and a proud Jew, I am deeply offended by this proposal. I am also saddened that thus far there has been no response by the UC Regents in general or UCLA specifically. Groups like SJP cannot and will not succeed in their efforts to delegitimize Israel if the University stands in their way and prevents overt anti-Semitism from being freely promulgated on our campuses.
  • I am writing this in reference to the pressure that’s being put on Jewish students at UCLA regarding travel to Israel. I am an ongoing longtime supporter of UCLA generously provided funds for various causes at the school. This time I am withdrawing my support until I see a change in your agenda.
  • What you are allowing is harassment. You are restricting freedom of speech, of travel, of thought, and you are singling Jewish students at UCLA, exactly the way it was done in Nazi Germany. As former students, we are appalled at your failure to lead and secure.
  • Basic human rights and freedoms are what our country as well as our universities are founded on. Organizations that behave in hatred manners, discrimination, and harassment should not be allowed at any University of California.
  • It is appalling to hear that the Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA has resorted to yet again another bullying tactic to intimidate Jewish and non-Jewish students. To ask that students declare their trips to Israel, or to promise that they will not take a trip to Israel is not just anti-Semitic, it is against the law, against freedom of speech, and against freedom of inquiry. My own son was at UCLA until 2 years ago, and I, as well as most of my family, are alumni of UCLA or other UC campuses and cannot comprehend this tactic against our sons and daughters. Are you going to allow these people to have their freedom of intimidation by taking the freedom of others?
  • The very idea that my taxpayer dollars go to support an organization such as the SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) is abhorrent and repugnant to me as well as to many other taxpayers in the state of California. In addition it is inappropriate and possibly illegal for the University system to enable the finance or even allow the propagation of hate filled anti-Semitic actions. The time has long since occurred for the University system to take the necessary actions to promote free speech unencumbered by bullying tactics, intimidation and fear. The lack of such action on the administration’s part is inappropriate and perhaps even as some might say, cowardly. Take action now!!
  • Jewish students deserve better than to be harassed because of their religion. Doing nothing about SJP will only embolden the group to pursue its goals with more vigor.
  • I am an academic, and I have witnessed the hypocrisy and double-standards academic institutions have exhibited with regard to Zionism and Jewish students. I would appreciate your handling abuses by pro-Palestinian bullies in the same manner that you would handle abuses of Palestinian students by pro-Israel bullies, or for that matter, abuses of African American students by white supremacist bullies. You seem to have a high tolerance for bullying of Jewish students, a tolerance that I find to be ugly, bigoted, and exhibiting a profound ignorance of Jewish history. Your claim that the students should arrive at a solution on their own is odd for a university that has routinely suppressed free speech in the name of “words that wound” double talk. I urge you to take appropriate action now.
  • It is with shock and outrage that I continue to read about the ongoing harassment of pro-Israel (aka Jewish) students by those defaming the State of Israel and its supporters. As a graduate of UCLA, parent of a former student, with long standing ties to the university, it is inconceivable that this intimidating atmosphere exists and that the administration believes that it is a purely student affair.
  • I have been an active member of the UCLA community for many years.  I have been shocked and disappointed by the recent pattern of hateful intimidation that has been directed at Jewish students at UCLA.  I have been further shocked and disappointed by the inaction of UC and UCLA administrators regarding this recent pattern.  I respectfully request that the UC administration and the UCLA administration investigate this matter without delay and take appropriate action as soon as possible. I would not want to see the international image of the UC system and UCLA become permanently damaged/tarnished by this matter.
  • As a California taxpayer, I believe that it is a reasonable expectation that any student attending your (and my) university should be able to benefit from a rich intellectual life without fear of running an ongoing gauntlet of abject hatred, disguised as anti-Zionism. Nor is it unreasonable to expect you and your administration to assume the responsibility of ensuring the physical and psychological safety of all of your students, rather than to continue to permit this chillingly hostile undercurrent permeating UCLA.
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