UCLA issued a statement denouncing a display depicting a pig holding a bag of cash and a Star of David cannister that was on campus earlier this week.
The Israel War Room X account posted an image of the display on Thursday, March 21; the display had the words “UC Regents” in front of flames and a clock behind it that said, “Time is running out.” The display was in front of the UCLA Luskin Conference Center, where the UC Board of Regents were holding their meeting.
UCLA: A figure depicting Jews as pigs suggesting Jews “prioritize money over lives”.
Remember, it’s “Anti-Zionism” only, definitely not Antisemitism…. pic.twitter.com/8LXktYzhks
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) March 21, 2024
In an email to community members on Thursday, UCLA Hillel Executive Director Dan Gold wrote that “BDS activists camped out” and made a scene, including “ugly displays and slogans.” “This has become routine … yet we cannot accept it as normal!” he added. Gold told the Journal in a text message that Jewish students “were very disturbed, upset and concerned” about the pig display.
“The most recent display of Jew-hatred on a University of California campus speaks volumes to what Jewish and Israeli students are experiencing every day. Students and faculty across California are impacted by this hateful bigotry and it must come to an end.” – Jeffrey Abrams
Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles Regional Director Jeffrey I. Abrams said in a statement posted to social media, “The most recent display of Jew-hatred on a University of California campus speaks volumes to what Jewish and Israeli students are experiencing every day. Students and faculty across California are impacted by this hateful bigotry and it must come to an end.” Abrams urged the UC Regents to “denounce this antisemitic display and make clear that there is no tolerance for antisemitism on University campuses. Their silence on this issue is complicity.”
ADL Los Angeles Regional Director @JeffreyAbrams addresses the most recent display of antisemitism at a @UofCalifornia Regents meeting on the @UCLA campus.
Read about the Regents’ meeting here: https://t.co/4ry3ahrspr pic.twitter.com/pKbe2vpoZT
— ADL California (@ADLCalifornia) March 21, 2024
In a Friday statement to the Journal, the university said: “We are offended and deeply saddened by the ugly antisemitic caricature that was displayed as part of a protest aimed at the University of California Board of Regents that met at UCLA on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The protest has ended and the display has been removed. Ethnic slurs and racist depictions are an affront to UCLA’s Principles of Community and True Bruin Values, and to the diverse, inclusive academic community we aim to cultivate. It is absolutely critical that Jewish members of our community — as well as those of all backgrounds and faiths — are treated with respect and dignity, and we remain committed to doing all we can to ensure the safety and protect the rights of everyone on our campus.”
Gold also noted in his email that the UC Regents President Michael Drake announced during the meeting that the 10 UC campuses will be partnering with the Hillel Campus Initiative, which Gold called “a welcome and necessary step to better address campus antisemitism and take meaningful action to ensure our campuses are free of hate and fully accepting and inclusionary for all Jewish students, faculty and community members.”
According to The Los Angeles Times, one of the issues discussed during the UC Regents meeting was a proposal requiring faculty departments to put any polemical commentary statements up to a vote before posting and clarifying who exactly they are speaking on behalf of. The proposal would also require that faculty polemical commentary be posted on a webpage clearly marked as an opinion page that’s not speaking on the behalf of the university. The proposal has been tabled until May; when it was first introduced by Regent Jay Sures, pro-Palestinian protesters shouted “shame on you!” and accused Sures of attempting to censor their point of view.
Also during the meeting, Jewish students spoke out during public comment, where they denounced the “growing harassment against faculty and students who support Israel, including a ‘barrage’ of unjustified negative student evaluations of faculty, classes disrupted by protests, swastikas painted on buildings and signs calling Jews ‘the new Nazis,’” the Times reported. A pro-Palestinian student urged the UC Regents to divest “from firms that support the ‘ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing’ of Palestinians,” per the Times.
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