Open Letter Regarding Yudof’s Statement
to the UC Community:
Date: April 8, 2012
Contact: davis.sjp@gmail.com
The Students for Justice in
Palestine (SJP) at University of California, Davis condemns the statement of University
of California President Mark Yudof in regards to the events surrounding the “Israeli
Soldiers Speak Out” event on February 27 at the UC Davis campus.
SJP planned a silent walkout in
response to the event organized by StandWithUs (SWU) on February 27. SWU is a
pro-Israel group that, in just days before coming UC Davis, was caught on
camera at New Mexico and UC Berkeley physically harassing and pepper spraying
people with opposing viewpoints.
At the event on February 27, a
student unaffiliated with SJP heckled the Israeli soldier and speaker. The
heckler was removed from the room and the event carried on until the
question-and-answer period, in which SWU members harassed and heckled students
and community members who attempted to ask questions.
On March 8, President Yudof
released an Open Letter to the UC Community in which he falsely and prematurely
reported on the incident based on clear misinformation. President Yudof’s
statement wrongly put the blame for the disruption of freedom of expression of
Israeli soldiers on “hecklers,” when all video evidence points to there being
one heckler. In reality, it was the freedom of expression of those concerned
about Israel’s violations of human rights that was violated.
We attempted to raise our concerns
with the UC Davis administration and with the UC President regarding the
physical and verbal harassment of students that attended in support of Palestinian
self-determination and human rights. Yudof’s statement did not mention the
behavior of David Siegal, a professor of medicine at the UC Davis Medical
School, who clearly overstepped his authority at the event by demanding to see
the IDs of students at the event, nor did he mention the violent behavior of the
SWU members. We also highlighted our administration’s lack of action when the
Palestinian symbol in the Third World Mural was vandalized in 2010, an apparent
hate crime against Palestinian students at UC Davis. Mr. Yudof did not mention
any of these issues in his statement nor did he care to address them in his
letter back to us. Yudof’s statement equated the political speech of supporters
of Palestinian rights with categorical hate crimes and disregarded the campus
climate for Palestinian students and their allies. It is important to remember that criticism of
the state of Israel, much like criticism of any other state, is protected
political speech. The Palestine issue is an issue of human rights,
sovereignty, freedom from colonization and apartheid, and the right to live in
dignity and racial equality.
Rather than meet with members of
SJP to discuss the campus climate of Arab students as we had requested, Mr. Yudof
has suggested we meet with two members of his advisory board on campus climate,
Jihad Turk, a religious leader, and Tyrone Howard, an associate professor at
UCLA. Putting aside the fact that Mr. Yudof did not give us the contact
information for either individual (as neither has contacted SJP as of the date
of this letter), nor did he tell us what date they would be coming to UC Davis,
the President has shown that he is clearly deficient in addressing the concerns
of the Arab students on his campus by equating the issues of Arab students to
Muslim students. Palestinians are not just Muslim, and our supporters come from
a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures.
Earlier this year, Hillel
directors had the opportunity to meet with Yudof to discuss the campus climate
regarding Israel. However, when Palestinian students and their allies feel threatened,
Yudof blatantly ignores our request to meet. It saddens and shocks SJP that the UC system
appears to have aligned themselves with SWU, an aggressive, violent, and racist
group rather than supporting their own community and students. When Yudof so
quickly jumped to the defense of a radical organization such as SWU, his words
and actions make Palestinian, and all Arab students along with their allies,
feel unsafe, insecure, and oppressed on our own campus. We attend UC Davis
hoping that the campus will be a place where we can learn and share the truth
of our histories, free of hate groups and hate speech.
When a soldier is brought to our
campus to humanize the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and normalize the occupation,
shouldn’t the UC administration be just as worried about how Palestinian
students feel? Don’t they realize that an event like this may be difficult for,
or offensive to, those who may have had personal experiences with the military
or have lost family members at the hands of IDF soldiers? The UC administration
and the President conveniently choose to ignore that there is an illegal
military occupation for which Israel has been condemned by the international
community, yet they choose to align themselves with and implicitly endorse the
actions of a foreign military. The University of California system’s
collaboration with the Museum of Tolerance and the Anti-Defamation League, as
advertized by Yudof, will not help to protect the greater student community for
these groups have a dismal record of pro-Israel advocacy and censorship of the
Palestine issue. These organizations do not reassure us of an improved climate
for Palestinian and Arab American students or of other marginalized communities
on our campus.
Currently, the student who
heckled at the event is suffering greatly for his actions. After receiving
punishment by Student Judicial Affairs in the form of a suspension from school
and the loss of his job, the UC Police have again acted far beyond actions
appropriate for the situation. This week, nine UC police officers stormed the
student’s apartment early in the morning with a search warrant in hand. They
handcuffed him and ransacked his apartment, taking his laptop and cell phone.
He was never violent nor a physical threat, and thus had no need to be
handcuffed. This is yet another example of unnecessary action by University of California
police suppressing political dissent on campuses throughout the state, the same
police who engaged in pepper spraying of peaceful student protesters in
November 2011.
SJP-Davis is deeply troubled by Yudof’s
statements regarding the SWU event for it has only confirmed for us the
one-sidedness of institutional views of this issue that apparently extend to
the highest level of the administration. We lack faith in our administration’s
ability to provide Palestinian and Arab students and their allies a safe and
accepting environment in which we are free to share our political opinions and
beliefs and to voice the truth.
Sincerely,
Students for Justice in
Palestine, UC Davis
