Orange County Republican Politicians Urge Strict Punishment From UCI Against Hecklers Of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren

The Jewish Journal reports that two "Orange County elected officials have joined calls for administrators at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to act decisively against students involved in provocative, anti-Israel activity. In separate letters to UCI Chancellor Michael Drake, Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) and state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) called for strict discipline against students for repeated heckling of Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, during a Feb. 8 speech at the Student Center. Eight UCI students, including the president of the UCI’s Muslim Student Union (MSU), were arrested and charged with violating the university’s student code of conduct. In a Feb. 26 letter to UCI Chancellor Michael Drake, Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) urged full disciplinary action be taken against those students responsible for the incident, describing their behavior as 'egregious' and 'intolerable.' He also called for an investigation into the conduct and membership of the MSU. 'This is not the first time the MSU has been involved in violations of free speech, intimidation, and, at the very least, threats of violence on campus. Sadly, this is becoming a pattern, and one which is especially troubling, as the chosen rhetoric of this group incites hate and violence against both this country and Jewish-American students on campus,' Campbell wrote. Muslim students and their defenders claim they were exercising their right to free speech when they interrupted Oren with shouts like 'You are an accomplice to genocide' a total of 10 times before dozens of students boisterously left the ballroom to stage a demonstration outside. Experts, including UCI Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and civil liberties scholar Nat Hentoff, maintain that the students’ actions are not protected under the First Amendment... DeVore’s Feb. 23 letter calls on Drake to ban the MSU as 'an entity inimical to the University’s imperative to provide an education in an atmosphere of academic liberty, free of coercion and conducive to meaningful debate and free inquiry.' The assemblyman said he recognized this step to be a 'severe and enduring penalty,' but that the MSU’s dedication 'to support of terrorism, anti-Semitism and the suppression of free speech' warranted such a response. Representatives for Campbell and DeVore said neither official has yet to hear back from Drake on this matter."
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