Purdue SJP Stands By the ‘Irving 11′

Eleven students were arrested at the University of California, Irvine on 8 February for standing up and voicing their objections to Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s attacks on Justice Goldstone’s report to the United Nations on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. These students are now being threatened with expulsion and other disciplinary actions grossly disproportionate to the ‘crime’ of demanding justice for the Palestinian people.

Below is a copy of the letter that Purdue SJP sent to UCI Chancellor Michael Drake in defense of the eleven students who spoke up and of the UCI Muslim Student Union, which was not involved in the disruptions, but is being criticized for them anyway. You can learn more about what has been transpiring at UCI and review a video of the recent incident in a story published in the Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/salam-al-marayati/free-11-muslim-students-r_b_461927.html

This is the letter that Purdue SJP sent to Chancellor Drake:

Chancellor Michael V. Drake, M.D.
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697
Tel: 949.824.5011
Email: chancellor@uci.edu

Chancellor Drake:

We have long respected the campuses of the University of California both for their contributions to higher education and their reputations as places where students are encouraged to contribute to their communities by sharing their different values and concerns. The examples set by the students and faculty who demonstrated to defend public education and reject the deplorable acts of racism in San Diego have inspired students on campuses throughout the Midwest to join the struggle to make quality education available to people in the working class and members of minorities who are frequently denied such opportunities. We hope that you are proud of the way that students mobilized on all the University of California campuses last Thursday.

Unfortunately, some of this respect has been undermined at the University of California, Irvine by alarming reports of intimidation of the Muslim students who have been engaged in activism. We have been following the events that transpired in the wake of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s 8 February speech on the UCI campus, and are concerned about the measures being taken against the students who voiced their objections to the Ambassador’s attacks on Justice Goldstone’s report to the United Nations. According to the press, your faculty had 11 students arrested that evening, and are threatening them with expulsion simply for disrupting Ambassador Oren’s speech. We at Purdue were surprised to learn that you would consent to hosting an ambassador from a country known for its illegal military occupation and institutional racism on your campus without also inviting a representatives of the Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank, and of the United Nations Human Rights Committee or the General Assembly to encourage an open and meaningful debate. Your faculty’s response to the students’ outbursts and the draconian measures they resorted to in an effort to keep students from challenging the Ambassador’s position were even more disappointing. With these factors as precedents, the equivocation of these acts of protest with the racism and bigotry exhibited on the UCSD and UCD campuses in your February 26 statement seemed to reflect a degree of intolerance and insensitivity to the suffering of the Palestinian people that we had hitherto considered unfathomable at a University of California campus.

The intimidation fostered by your response to the students’ understandable objections to Ambassador Oren’s statements has raised several doubts about the extent to which the Irvine campus—and the University of California in general—is committed to developing student leadership and encouraging free expression, and may discourage students on other campuses across the country from taking action at a time when many of our core values are being threatened by the socioeconomic crisis. We at Purdue encourage you to reconsider your decision to continue disciplinary proceedings against the 11 students who spoke out at Ambassador Oren’s presentation, and to publicly apologize for conflating their actions with the deplorable acts of racism committed on other University of California campuses. Remember that the way this generation of students responds to the global social, economic, and environmental crises they are facing will be shaped by both their academic and social experiences at our universities. We sincerely hope that you will help to ensure that this generation is armed with the knowledge, experience, and confidence needed to take on these challenges. Thank you very much for your time and consideration on this matter.

Sincerely,
Purdue University Students for Justice in Palestine

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