Tell Chancellor Drake that anti-Semitism at UCI is not acceptable!

Chancellor Drake's lack of even a public acknowledgment of the anti-Semitism at UCI as wrong (imitating his predecessor's similar actions) says very clearly that UCI recognizes that attacks on Jews and Judaism are a fully-acceptable form of civil debate at the University.

Please follow Ted Bleiweis's lead and print this Microsoft Word version or Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the following letter, sign, and mail or fax (1-949-824-2087) it to Chancellor Drake.

We need YOU to tell the Chancellor that things need to change.

Thank you for your support.

____________________
Today’s Date


University of California, Irvine
The Chancellor's Office
Irvine, CA 92697-1900


Dear Dr. Drake,

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) has for year’s hosted events on its campus whose participants have utilized inflammatory and hateful speech towards the State of Israel and the Jewish people as a whole.

This year a week-long program, entitled “Holocaust in the Holy land,” had been presented. It featured speakers calling for the destruction of the State of Israel, touting an acknowledged terror organization, Hamas, as the “people’s choice” and called Israel “the Fourth Reich”. Woven into the speeches were age old anti-Semitic themes. The perpetrators constructed an “apartheid” wall, and stationed intimidating guards dressed as Israeli soldiers nearby. The title itself denigrates the Jewish people, and contains an implied denial of the Holocaust during which over six million Jewish people were murdered.

The University’s stated policy has been, and remains that these campus activities are protected speech under the First Amendment. While this may be legally correct, it gives the appearance of official sanction by UCI.

In your May 30, 2006 message you stated “Hate speech is difficult to define precisely. It is largely defined by the individual hearing it…” Make no mistake; the annihilation of over two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population began with hate speech. The University and its leadership must recognize that it has a duty, and an obligation, as educators to denounce anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, and repudiate those whose demonstrations seek incitement against, or call for the destruction of, other human beings.

As a resident and a taxpayer of Orange County, I therefore call upon you as Chancellor of UCI to exercise your first amendment rights: that is, to take immediate and appropriate steps to publicly distance the University from those individuals who spew anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, or any form of hate speech.

Sincerely,





cc: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamonte