Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June, 2010, Pages 36-37
Southern California Chronicle
Irvine 11 Face Unprecedented Penalties for "Dissing" Israeli Ambassador
By Pat and Samir Twair
"PUBLIC statements by the University of California Irvine [UCI] that students may face criminal charges, suspension or expulsion for peaceably voicing their objections to a speaker are extremely troubling," stated attorney Reem Salahi, who is defending the now famous Irvine 11.
On Feb. 8, eight UCI students and three undergraduates from the University of California Riverside were arrested for interrupting a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. Each student stood up separately for less than 10 seconds and shouted a message such as "You are an accomplice to genocide," before raising their hands and walking to a side area where they were handcuffed and arrested.
After 10 such outbursts, the ambassador did deliver his full speech, which emphasized four points: it is difficult to be an Israeli ambassador; the U.S. emerged as a nation much as Israel did; it is challenging to try to convince Israeli Jews that they can't build anywhere they want to in their homeland; and Iran must not become a nuclear power.
Prior to Oren's speech on the UCI campus, the Muslim Students Union (MSU) and other individuals protested in the campus newspaper that the Israeli diplomat's appearance was inappropriate, since many nations accuse Israel of committing war crimes during its 22-day assault on Gaza.
Inasmuch as the ambassadors of Britain, Germany, Japan or Russia have not been barnstorming campuses across the U.S. with speech-making campaigns, it seems Oren had an agenda. The American-born-and-raised diplomat served in the Israeli military three times and is one of his adopted country's star propagandists, having handled media whitewashes of Israel's 2006 attacks on southern Lebanon and its 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead assault on Gaza.
Thanks to YouTube, the disruptions of Oren's UCI address have been viewed around the world, revealing that the students were dignified as they silently exited the room. The same can't be said for the curses and insults of the pro-Israel audience members, particularly the raving of one Jewish Federation member who threatened the retreating students with failing grades.
The following day, Oren delivered basically the same speech at Loyola Marymount University's Los Angeles campus, where security was heightened far above that at the UCI program the previous night. Advance reservations closed 24 hours before Oren's talk, and the names of non-students were checked in advance by the Israeli Embassy. Loyola attendees were directed to a distant parking lot, then bused to the auditorium, where clothing and purses were checked.
Oren remarked after the mass walkout at UCI that he wished the students had stayed so that he could have conversed with them during the question-and-answer period. Judging by the way he handled questions at a Feb. 10 talk at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), however, this is unlikely.
When an Asian UCSD student noted that children and political prisoners are among the 10,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails and asked when they will be freed, Oren replied that the U.S. and many European nations look to Israel as a model for their prison systems.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has been chafing for years over innovative programs the UCI Arab and Muslim students sponsor each May to showcase Israel's apartheid policies.
In 2007, in response to a 2005 complaint by the ZOA that anti-Semitism was rife on the UCI campus, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights determined the allegations "did not raise an inference of national origin discrimination."
The fact that the furor on campus is being fueled by external organizations was substantiated by David Meyer, a UCI political science professor, who told the Los Angeles Times: "I'm Jewish, and I only hear about this stuff at UCI when I'm off campus." In 2008, the leaders of every Jewish organization were polled, and concurred that there is no discrimination at UCI.
The ZOA again targeted UCI's MSU in 2009 after the students invited British MP George Galloway to speak about his convoy of aid vehicles heading to Gaza that spring. The ZOA accused MSU of inviting a Hamas supporter to UCI.
Following the Feb. 8 incident involving Oren, the ZOA issued a letter advising Jews not to donate to UCI's fund drive, nor to consider sending their children to UCI. In response, UCI hired Washington, DC public relations consultant Alan Hilburn to do damage control on the campus controversy, as he had done for the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Love Canal pollution scandal.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, UCI's Law School dean Erwin Chemerinsky acknowledged that the 11 students deserve disciplinary action, but stated that UCI does not foster an anti-Semitic environment—or he would not have accepted a job there.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Los Angeles, stresses that the student outbursts were nonviolent and non-threatening. "Neither off-campus police nor the Orange County District Attorney's office should have been there to arrest a bunch of protesting students," he stated.
Attorney Salahi pointed out that during a Feb. 24 janitorial dispute, 11 UCI students and three custodial workers forced administrators out of their building, turned over trash bins and set them on fire. Arrests were made, but no one was held subject to disciplinary proceedings. Nor were arrests made on March 4, when students protesting educational cutbacks disrupted several classes at UCI.
"That's why I've requested public acts records on how security was arranged at UCI for Feb. 8," she explained. "So far, the records haven't been forthcoming. One thing is clear: mass arrests were anticipated. The students said that as they were herded into a back room, they saw dozens of handcuffs on a desk."
Salahi noted that President Barack Obama was interrupted during a 2009 commencement speech at Notre Dame University, where people heckled him with a chant that abortion is abomination.
"The president stated that, while it is hard, this is what America is proud of—implying such heckling is protected as freedom of speech. So why is this draconian punishment of possible criminal charges or expulsion from the university hanging over the students' heads?" Salahi asked.
Since the Irvine 11 didn't prevent Oren from delivering his speech in its entirety, why should they be prevented from completing their studies in the University of California system?
"I am a product of UCLA and UC Berkeley Law School," Salahi continued. "I find it terrifying that we're losing UC academic freedoms because of vigilante actions by external organizations."
A case in point is the March 3 meeting officers of the Orange County Jewish Federation and Samueli Foundation had with UC President Mark Yudof at UC headquarters in Oakland, CA.
Yudof was quoted as being "outraged" that several students attempted to prevent Oren from speaking. Pending an investigation with due process, Yudof opined that the students and MSU should be disciplined for violating campus codes of conduct and breaking the law.
"MSU is facing disciplinary proceedings even though it didn't organize the protests," Salahi concluded. "This is guilt by association."
Interestingly, when students and activists interrupted a Feb. 9 speech at UCLA's School of Law by Daniel Taub, principal deputy legal adviser of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jewish organizations raised no public objections.
A half-hour into Taub's PowerPoint presentation defending Israel's assault on Gaza and denigrating the Goldstone Report, a dozen dissenters stood, turned their backs on the speaker and held signs stating: "Turn your back on war crimes." All had covered their mouths with duct tape. After several minutes of confusion, they were told to leave or be arrested, and walked outside, where more than 20 protesters were handing out fliers describing Israel's transgressions as an occupying power.
Arab-Brazilian Concert at UCLA
On March 5 and 6, the UCLA School of Music Department of Ethnomusicology staged its second interdisciplinary program when it presented a lecture and concert in collaboration with UCLA's Center for Near Eastern Studies and Latin American Institute. The first such event—a concert and lecture on the legacy of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish—took place last year.
The March 5 lecture featured UCLA's Dr. A.J. Racy and the University of Georgia's Dr. Robert Moser presenting a joint paper entitled, "Memory, Imagination, and Roots in Music and Literature of Syrian-Lebanese Immigrants and their Descendants in Brazil." The two scholars carried out research on this topic last May and June in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
The March 6 concert featured Dr. Racy as maestro of the Eastern Soul Ensemble and Ph.D. candidate Beto Gonzalez leading the Samba Society, with a finale of Arab-Brazilian fusion music.
An interpretation of a composition by Najib Hankash, recorded in Brazil and later arranged by the Rahbani brothers in Lebanon, with lyrics by Kahlil Gibran featured Racy on the nay and Souhail Kaspar on the riqq. Another Lebanese love song, "Ya Loru Hubbuki," composed by Mitri al-Murr, was a favorite of immigrants in North and South America in the early 20th century.
Audience members rose and swayed to rousing samba rhythms as Gonzalez'sß 11 musicians and singers opened the second half of the concert. Favorites were Colin Walker on the seven-string guitar, percussionist Bobby Easton, and lead vocalist Katia Morales. Unique sounds were rendered by Andrew Connell on the clarinet and Kerry Loeschen on trombone.
"O Ronco da Cuica," a song by Brazilian guitarist and composer Joao Bosco, who is of Lebanese descent, was improvised on by both groups in the Los Angeles premiere of Arab-Brazilian fusion. A first for the assembled musicians was when they were joined by Dr. Moser playing the exotic single-string berimbau. Innovations were offered by William Shaheen on the violin and Nasser Moussa on the oud, but standing ovations were earned by Racy performing on a recorder flute and then a single reed folk clarinet.
Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.
