UCI 911: Police Rescue Jewish Students as Intifada Returns to Campus By Rabbi Yonah Bookstein

Posted By on May 25th, 2016

UCI 911: Police Rescue Jewish Students as Intifada Returns to Campus

By Rabbi Yonah Bookstein

Hearing chants of “Long live the Intifada” on video shot at UCI Wednesday night brings back the tumultuous and scary days as a campus rabbi at University of California, Irvine. (Video below)

As the campus rabbi at UCI for almost five years, I became accustomed to constant anti-Israel programs, racist and anti-semitic speakers, anti-Israel marches, protests and disruptions and an administration that looked the other way or denied how bad it was.
The atmosphere was so toxic, that in a blog post in May of 2006, I coined the phrase “UC Intifada” to describe their hateful anti-Israel, anti-Jewish campaign.
The Muslim Student Union later adopted it as their motto, made t-shirts, and it can be seen today on the Students for Justice – UCI Facebook page.
The most infamous episode — but by no means the worst — was in February 2010, when eleven Muslim students conspired to prevent Ambassador Michael Oren from speaking, and then lied about it. This embarrassed then UCI President Drake and the University, and the climate improved as the ring-leaders were now having to defend themselves on criminal misdemeanor charges. They had less time to parade hate and racism. I was asked by a prominent muslim leader to sign a letter requesting charges be dropped. I agreed on condition the group apologize for their behavior. They showed zero remorse.
In September 2011, the group was found guilty of conspiring to disrupt, and were sentenced to community service, but served no jail time.
Today a new, and more violent group of students seems to have taken their place under the SJP banner.
On Wednesday night at UCI, Police rushed to rush to the scene of a screening of a film about Israel called Beneath the Helmet, as Jewish students feared for their safety called 911.
Outside, some 50 protesters gathered and began profanity-laced chants against Israel and UCI police, according to observers and video from the scene.

“They were screaming. They tried to push open the door, but we were holding the door from the inside,” said Katrin Gendova, the Israel group president, who said the attendees were mostly women and some felt intimidated and trapped inside the room.

“They had a lawyer with them who said (they had) a right to come in,” Gendova said. “They were disrupting our event. This is not freedom of speech. It’s harassment.”

The group, Students for Justice in Palestine at UCI, posted on their Facebook wall:
Today we successfully demonstrated against the presence of (Israeli) soldiers on campus. We condemn the Israeli “Defense” Forces, better defined as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), because they enforce Zionist settler colonialism and military occupation of Palestinian land by the Israeli nation-state…
In other words, they are congratulating themselves for criminal behavior by harassing and threatening Jewish students.
Meanwhile, UCI President Gillman wrote, “The administration is “investigating whether disciplinary or legal actions are appropriate.”
Perhaps community service is not enough of a deterrent when hate-filled students attack Jews at UCI?
Perhaps expelling the students instead of just disciplinary hearings, is what is needed to make UCI safe for Jews?

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This article originally appeared in the JewishJournal.com

UCI students chant “Long live the Intifada” as Jewish students call 911 and have to escorted out by Police.
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