Five weeks after the University of California’s Board of Regents rejected the “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance” drafted by UC President Janet Napolitano’s office, a UC-appointed “working group” held a forum Oct. 26 at UCLA, where the public was free to comment on the proposed principles.
The demand for such a statement was initially pushed by pro-Israel, Jewish UC students who wanted the university to define and condemn what are considered unacceptably intolerant actions and speech, while stopping short of legislating any punishments. Particularly worrying to many Jewish students has been a series of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions votes in student governments at seven of UC’s 10 campuses, and a number of anti-Semitic incidents. On Jan. 31, the exterior of the house of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi at UC Davis was spray-painted with swastikas. Last February, Rachel Beyda, a Jewish pre-law student at UCLA who had been nominated for a student-judicial role, was asked at her nomination hearing whether she could serve as an unbiased judge given that she is Jewish. And two weeks ago, again at UC Davis, swastikas and anti-Jewish slurs were keyed into 11 cars at a campus housing complex.
On Monday at UCLA’s Covel Commons, about 100 people gave comments (maximum of five minutes) throughout the day to the eight-person panel that is tasked with drafting a new “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance.” This was not a question-and-answer session, and the working group did not respond to public comments, but simply listened to what people had to say.
Pro-Israel students and activist groups want UC’s Board of Regents to adopt the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism, which labels demonization and delegitimization of Israel as anti-Semitic. Muslim and Jewish activists from groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace argue that such a definition would stifle freedom of speech.
Philippe Assouline, a political science instructor at UCLA, spoke at the public forum in favor of adopting the State Department’s definition, and said that given how many other minority groups on UC campuses are given special protections, he believes Jewish students should be given the same. “The only group that doesn’t get that attention is Jewish students,” Assouline said. “They have to decide between pride in their heritage and being welcome on campus.”
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer and co-founder of the AMCHA Initiative, a campus watchdog of anti-Semitic incidents, was in Los Angeles for the forum and said she believes the working group “has all the input it needs at this point to be able to do its job.” As of press time on Oct. 27, no deadline for the working group’s draft had been announced.
