By: Alan Levine

The Orange County District Attorney’s office charged 11 UC Irvine students with conspiring to disrupt a lawful meeting and speech, the LA Times reported last week.  The incident in question came exactly a year ago today when 11 students interrupted a public lecture by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.

The interruptions were so intense and the crowd was so unruly that the ambassador had to leave the podium at one point.  The Jewish community and others correctly have argued that their right to free speech was violated, since their guest on campus was denied the ability to freely express his ideas.

Hasbara Fellow and Anteaters for Israel president, Moran Cohen introduced the ambassador and sat on stage during the event.  She summed up her frustrations saying: “You lose hope because all year, you are planning these big events, trying to improve life on campus and suddenly they try to intimidate us and ruin our event.”

The MSU at UC Irvine has a long history of anti-Semitism, intimidation of Jewish students, and disruption of campus events.

The most notable MSU initiative is its yearly anti-Israel hate fest.  The yearly event has had a number of different themes such as “Never Again? The Palestinian Holocaust,” “Israel: The Politics of Genocide,” and “Israel: Apartheid Resurrected.”

It’s no wonder that anti-Israel self-proclaimed supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, Malik Ali came to campus and declared that “UC Irvine has become a base of Palestinian support.”

The illegal activity is not new either.  The MSU hosted a lecture on campus with British MP George Galloway which allegedly served as a fundraiser for Hamas.  Their disruption of lecturers with whom they disagree is not new either.  Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes was shouted off stage by the MSU in 2007.

Supporters of the students in question, such as the dean of the UC Irvine law school are arguing that the “university’s discipline is sufficient.”  The students’ attorneys said in the L.A. Times that they “shouldn’t have their lives ruined by criminal charges at this point” and that prosecution would be “dangerous to democracy.”

But no other punishment has worked.  The university took the positive step of suspending the MSU as a group for the 2010-2011 academic year.  Anti-Israel events and intimidation of Jewish students, however, has not stopped.

Jewish students, however, have fought back peacefully over the years especially after the incident with the ambassador. They held rallies and made speeches.  Hasbara Fellow and past Anteaters for Israel president Isaac Yerushalmi designed a website to help people take action on freedom of speech issues.

UC Irvine has a new Hillel house and Jewish life on campus has thrived.  We know that well because Hasbara Fellowships is proud to have trained dozens of Jewish UCI students in pro-Israel activism, including over 10 Hasbara Fellows.

But, nevertheless, UCI can definitely use a restoration to law and order.  We applaud the district attorney’s office for enforcing the law.