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Judea Pearl Calls on UCLA to Announce Support for Zionist Students

[additional-authors]
November 16, 2018

Judea Pearl, chancellor professor of computer science at UCLA, National Academy of Sciences member and Daniel Pearl Foundation president, called for UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to make it clear that the university stands with Zionist students with the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) set to occur this weekend.

Pearl wrote in a letter to the editor in The Los Angeles Times that Block has engaged in “selective denunciation” with how he handled far-right pundit Milo Yiannopolous compared to the NSJP conference.

“Yiannopoulous’ views were denounced explicitly on moral grounds, and the cultural contributions to Latinos to our city and country were highlighted proudly,” Pearl wrote. “Block should use the same instrument against the anti-Israel conference about to convene at UCLA and tell the campus community how central Zionism is to the collective identity of many Bruins and how inspirational it is to us.”

Pearl added that Block “should tell Zionist students that they are welcome on this campus.”

“An environment in which most students learn about Israel from the megaphones of anti-Zionist speakers cannot sustain a climate of respectful discourse,” Pearl wrote.

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Pearl told the Journal on Monday in response to Block’s Los Angeles Times op-ed announcing that the NSJP conference would not be canceled:

“When xenophobic Milos Yiannopolous requested to speak at UCLA, Chancellor Block wrote (paraphrased): I can’t stop you legally but be aware, you are not exactly welcome on this campus, you are in fact disgusting, your values clash with ours.

“When anti-Semitic-Zionophobic NSJP requested to speak at UCLA, Chancellor Block wrote (paraphrased): I can’t stop you legally, but I won’t stop you even if I could, here’s why, here’s why, here’s why.”

Max Samarov, the executive director of research and strategy at StandWithUs, told the Journal via email that StandWithUs “strongly agrees with Professor Pearl.”

“That is why we worked with students to launch a petition and letter writing campaign calling on Chancellor Block to unequivocally condemn the conference, protect student rights, and increase UCLA’s cooperation with Israel,” Samarov said.

Other petitions launched against the NSJP conference include Stop Anti-Semitism’s petition and CAMERA’s petition.

The university has not responded to the Journal’s request for comment at publication time.

For more background on SJP, check out the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) primer on them here as well as the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs’ report on them here.

For more information on UCLA’s SJP, read Canary Mission’s primer on them here.

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