Photo by ACasualPenguin/Pixabay University of California (UC) Board of Regents members Jonathan Sures and Sherry Lansing called the UCLA Asian-American Studies (AAS) Department’s May 2021 statement accusing Israel of “yellow-washing” as being “inappropriate” during a January 18 meeting.
The AAS statement, titled “Statement of Solidarity with Palestine,” alleged that “the Israeli military’s policing of the apartheid wall dividing Jerusalem and isolating the West Bank has influenced the U.S.’s own brutal border security policies along the U.S.-Mexico border; and how Israel has too often upheld its support of Asian and Asian American individuals as proof of multicultural democracy, over and against the ethnic cleansing of Palestine via a process of ‘yellow-washing.’” The statement was released during the Israel-Hamas conflict at the time.
Sures said during the January 18 meeting regarding the AAS statement: “I don’t think it’s appropriate that people are allowed to use university websites to make political statements. So I’m wondering, are we going to address it? I think it’s wrong. I think it is a violation of policy.” He asked if the regents should look into forming a working group “to define the policy so we know where we stand on this particular issue.” Lansing echoed Sures’ concerns. “We do have a policy on antisemitism… and I think this violates that.”
Cecilia Estolano, Chair of the Board Regents, said that the concerns have been noted and that it will be discussed as a possible agenda item in a future meeting.
Three UCLA professors, all of whom are members of the Faculty Committee for Academic Integrity, had spoken out during the meeting against the statement. Chancellor Professor of Computer Science Judea Pearl, who is also the president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation and National Academy of Sciences member, said that he was revulsed by the AAS statement because it “violates campus norms of discourse, and amounts to character assassination of many students and faculty whose identity is bonded to Israel.” Pearl called on the regents to issue a statement saying that “for many Jews, Israel is an important part of their identity, hence, anti-Zionism as well as other forms of identity-based discrimination have no place at the University of California.” Additionally, the statement should encourage “academic collaboration with Israel which, to many, has served as a role model of nation building, scientific innovation, liberal and democratic values.”
The other UCLA professors who spoke out about it during the meeting, Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA Yoram Cohen and Computer Science Professor Leonard Kleinrock, both said they were appalled at the department’s statement because it implies that they, as pro-Israel American Jews, are supporters of “racial apartheid and worse.” “I regularly collaborate with my Israeli colleagues in Israel on advanced computer technology, yet the AAS statement uses the good name of UCLA to admonish and denigrate such cooperation,” Kleinrock said. “It is just such commentary that inflames the kind of events we saw in Colleyville Texas this weekend.”
Cohen, who is also the current Chair of the Faculty Executive Committee at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and former Director of the UCLA Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, also said that the AAS Department’s use of the UCLA website to spread its message was in violation of both state law and department policy. “By their broadcasted fabricated view of history, the UCLA Asian-American Studies Department, by implication, has now labeled me, an American Jew born in Israel, along with my UCLA Israeli and Jewish academic colleagues and students as members of a society engaged in ‘settler colonialism, racial apartheid, and occupation,’” Cohen said. “This form of Anti-Zionism is in fact an intolerable form of Antisemitism. Therefore, I implore the Regents to consider the implications of the improper conduct by the UCLA Asian-American Studies Department and proactively ensure that UC Departments adhere to UC and State of California policies and codes.”
Two other UCLA professors, Anthropology Professor Joseph Manson and Business Administration Professor Daniel Mitchell, also gave similar comments during the January 19 public comment session. Manson said “that several UC departments have recently issued statements condemning the State of Israel” that are “are crude propaganda, and chock full of falsehoods.” “Individual faculty members are of course free to spout whatever malicious nonsense they wish, but it’s morally unacceptable for departments to do so in the names of all their members,” he said. Mitchell said, “There are potential legal issues based on nationality and religious discrimination since the statement is saying to anyone thinking of enrolling in a course or applying for a staff or faculty position, that they are not welcome if they disagree.
So far, the statement remains online and the campus has not taken action to remove it.”
A university spokesperson said in a statement to the Journal, “We acknowledge and respect the views of our university community, including those expressed at last week’s meeting. As an institution that values equity, diversity and inclusion, UCLA is committed to academic freedom as well as the proper use of university resources.”
The AAS Department did not immediately respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
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