One February 2010, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was invited to lecture about US-Israel relations at UCI (University of California Irvine). Soon after he started, students started to stand and interrupt him shouting statements such as:” Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech”. A total of 11 students stood up and yelled, 8 from UCI in Orange County, but also 3 from Riverside.
The students were speaking on cue, even using cards, in what clearly appeared to be a “rehearsed show”.
The connection with the MSU (Muslim Student Union) shouldn’t be missed, as they had denounced Oren’s visit hours prior. The same MSU is responsible for organizing a yearly event in the Spring that has been known as Hate-Fest, when they invite anti-Israel speakers, many of them having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and even the terrorist group Hamas.
UCI has the reputation of being the most virulent anti-Semitic campus in America, yet Michael Drake (UCI chancellor) has been quoted to say that there was no such problem on campus. To his credit, he decided to revoke the MSU charter for one year and put them on probation for another year. Thus they did not have the opportunity to organize their annual anti-Israel rallye in 2010. They quickly resumed in May of 2011 with another week of vitriolic diatribes while on probation. Well, we are back to freedom of speech I guess!
The anti-Israel rhetoric is nothing but a wolf in sheep’s clothing or anti-Semitism in disguise. That is of course if we agree that anti-Israel sentiment, as the lesser of two evils is indeed the “sheep”, and this is hardly a fact!
Almost one year later, on February 4, 2011, the disrupting students were facing charges by the Orange County District Attorney. This was already a small victory against the poison of radical Islam and it certainly didn’t go unnoticed by both Jewish and Muslim communities. This was small but worth mentioning in our politically correct self mutilating society. And yet, the verdict had not come out!
On September 23rd, the Santa Ana Court in Orange County, California made their final deliberation and to much surprise, found the students GUILTY. They were sentenced to community service and put on a three-year probation.
This is a great victory in the history of campus anti-Semitism. This creates a precedent that will for sure dictate how other universities will and should react to hate speech, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. It sends a message to those who go on spewing hatred, thinking that they will go unpunished.
This is one case where “Campus Intifada” has been defeated because there were enough outraged people within and without our legal system, and they were not afraid to speak up and defend the truth.
An anti-Semitic group attempted to propagate hate speech by misusing free speech but Judeo-Christian ethics prevailed over radical Islam lack of ethics.
Chutzpah prevailed over Sharia and may the momentum continue!
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