On the night of May 18, a group of about 10 Jewish students gathered at UC Irvine to watch “Beneath the Helmet,” a film about young Israeli soldiers.
Outside, another group of students, as many as 50 by some estimates, gathered to protest the screening, saying the movie glorifies the Israeli army, which the protesters view as occupiers. Shouting, “Long live the intifada!” and slogans against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, the protest eventually brought a response from UCI police.
Two months later, the confrontation continues to draw attention from people around the world who believe long-running tensions at UC Irvine mirror – so far, in a nonviolent fashion – the Middle East.
How it plays out could say a lot about the state of religious tolerance and free speech at UCI and other schools in California.
On movie night, the Jewish students said they felt intimidated and physically trapped by the protesters. They eventually were escorted to their cars by police.
The protesters counter by saying they only expressed opinions and didn’t harass anyone.
Last week, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said it found no indication of criminal wrongdoing that night, ending a review launched at the request of UCI police.
Meanwhile, the school’s separate investigation into whether the confrontation violated UCI policy or a recent University of California statement against anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance remains open.
Though both sides remain frustrated, the incident is the latest in a string of confrontations that has led some to view UCI as a place that’s unwelcoming to Jewish students, and others to view it as a place where Islamophobia is tolerated.
The movie night conflict has been covered by newspapers in Israel. It also has been written about by many pro-Palestinean websites. And with every new post, and every shift in the story, people from around the world reach out to UCI to express an opinion.
“We have gotten hundreds of calls and emails,” said UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon.
TEST CASE?
If all sides can agree on one thing, it’s this: The movie night incident could be a test case for the University of California’s recent statement condemning anti-Semitism.
In March, the Board of Regents adopted the statement at the request of Jewish organizations who pointed to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents at campuses throughout the UC system.
It was adopted after much debate, several revisions and strong objections from pro-Palestinian groups who complained the statement’s main goal was to stifle opposition to Israeli policies.
Among other things, the regents document says:
“Harassment, threats, assaults, vandalism and destruction of property, as defined by university policy, will not be tolerated within the university community.”
Some Jewish leaders believe the movie night clash met those standards. And they are asking UCI officials to review what school rules and policies might have been broken and whether students should be disciplined.
“We are trying to use this as a springboard to get the university to lay out a plan to implement the regents’ statement,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer and director of the AMCHA Initiative, a nonprofit that tracks acts of anti-Semitism nationwide.
“This incident needs to be dealt with.”
“But our focus is not on this incident,” she added. Instead, it’s on “understanding that this incident is part of the pattern and that pattern needs to be addressed in a proactive way.”
Liz Jackson, staff attorney for Palestine Legal, an organization that offers legal advice to pro-Palestinian supporters, says movie night was about free speech, not harassment.
And Jackson argues that the school’s response – to call for a criminal investigation – was an overreach that could stifle expression in the future.
“It should never have been referred to the D.A.,” Jackson said. “The chilling effect of even a referral is severe.”
With the district attorney’s decision to not file criminal charges, the issue is fully in the hands of school officials.
On May 19, the day after movie night, UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman issued a campuswide letter saying the university supports freedom of speech but that the incident “crossed the line of civility.”
But it’s unclear what might happen even if the school investigation finds that some students’ speech jumped from expression to harassment. The document adopted by the regents doesn’t spell out specific punishments, or a specific protocol to follow while investigating conflicts.
UC Regent Norman Pattiz, who was involved in crafting the statement, said he also wants to see “how this plays out.”
“We would like this thing get resolved at the campus level,” he said. “(But) if it is in fact behavior that goes beyond protected speech, then something probably ought to be done about it.
“We didn’t craft and unanimously adopt a principles statement to simply make a statement and do nothing about it.”
Lawhon, the UCI spokeswoman, noted that the referral to the D.A.’s Office was routine and emphasized that the school asked the district attorney to review the overall incident and not the actions of individual students.
She did not know when the school might finish its separate investigation.
LONG-RUNNING TENSION
Jewish leaders say movie night did not occur in a vacuum.
Even in an era in which one of the country’s two major political parties is backing a presidential candidate who would ban Muslims from entering the country, pro-Palestinian advocacy is a growing cause on college campuses around the country. Student councils on every UC campus except UC Santa Barbara, for example, have approved resolutions to divest from Israel for its treatment of Palestinians, according to Palestine Legal.
“This is what happens at college. You have to confront people who have different worldviews than your own. It’s scary sometimes. But it’s college,” Jackson said.
But some argue that in the campus debate over Palestinian rights and Israeli domestic politics, free speech too often morphs into hate speech.
“When I was a kid, people called me a dirty Jew,” said Pattiz, the regent who helped craft the intolerance policy. “When they expressed their anti-Semitism, that was the frame of reference. Today, (it’s) ‘you’re a Zionist pig.’”
The Board of Regents report addressed discrimination against Muslims, gays and others, denouncing intolerance in all forms. But the report also responded to the idea that “expressions of anti-Semitism are more coded and difficult to identify.”
“In particular, opposition to Zionism often is expressed in ways that are not simply statements of disagreement over politics and policy but also assertions of prejudice and intolerance toward Jewish people and culture.”
“Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.”
Which raises questions about Anti-Zionism Week, an annual event at UCI that, over the years, has included various levels of verbal conflict.
Many college campuses across the country host a weeklong series of pro-Palestine programs. Most include an “apartheid wall,” symbolic of the Israeli West Bank barrier the Israeli government built following a Palestinian uprising. At UCI, members of the Muslim Student Union call it Anti-Zionism Week and sell T-shirts with the phrase “UC Intifada.“
“To me, that means death to Israel,” said Leore Ben-David, West Coast campus coordinator of the Zionist Organization of America, who visited UCI during its Anti-Zionism Week last spring.
“UC Irvine is the most hostile, anti-Israel campus I have encountered. I work on 40 campuses on the West Coast,” Ben-David added.
Last year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, a Jewish human rights organization, said in an 18-page report that anti-Semitism has been “a serious problem,” singling out UCI for a string of incidents dating back more than a decade.
In 2006, the Hillel Foundation of Orange County created a task force to investigate alleged anti-Semitism at UCI. Its findings: “The acts of anti-Semitism are real and well-documented.”
And in 2010, the Zionist organization named UCI as “a campus that permitted bigotry.” That year, 11 Muslim students from UCI and UC Riverside were arrested for disrupting the speech of an Israeli speaker on campus. Eventually, 10 people were sentenced and the school’s Muslim Student Union was temporarily suspended.
Today, many students say expressions of anti-Semitism are mostly experienced during Anti-Zionism Week – and a pro-Israel commemoration day sponsored by Jewish students, which is regularly protested by pro-Palestinian students.
“It’s not an anti-Semitic campus,” said Trevor Nassi, 21, the most recent student president of Chabad of UCI and a new graduate.
“There’s no anti-Semitism on a daily basis,” he added. “That’s what Jewish moms get wrong.”
To help dispel UCI’s reputation as unwelcoming to Jewish students, five Jewish UCI groups in 2011 put together a video titled “UCI Jewish Life – What the Media Doesn’t Show You – The Real UCI.” The video extols programs, services, Shabbat dinners and other social events as well as trips to Israel and elsewhere.
“UCI is very misinterpreted,” said Lisa Armony, executive director of Hillel of Orange County, the local chapter of a Jewish student organization.
“In last few years, we’ve seen a change for the better. Largely because the administration has taken this issue very seriously and has taken steps to promote a more civil climate.”
During the past two months, dozens of organizations on both sides of the debate have signed on to public letters to UCI Chancellor Gillman – some urging him to investigate, others telling him to stop.
“At minimum, the university has a responsibility to take prophylactic measures which include educational measures to ensure there’s a nontoxic environment on campus, and if violations are found, to punish any and all wrongdoers,” said Aron Hier, campus outreach director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Hier and others said they are watching closely for the university’s resolution.
“There’s a certain amount of frustration the longer this investigation takes,” Hier said.
“People’s patience is running thin.”
Contact the writer: rkopetman@ocregister.com Twitter: @RoxanaKopetman
