Police Called After Campus Protesters Disrupt Pro-Israel Event, Block Exits

A dispute between pro-Israel and anti-Israel students on the campus of UC-Irvine got ugly Wednesday, with the police being called and campus administrators criticizing the anti-Israel students’ conduct.

Students Supporting Israel held a series of events as part of what they call Peace Week. Wednesday’s event was a screening of the film Beneath the Helmet: From High School to the Home Front, a documentary film following several members of the Israeli Defense Forces. But a group of about 50 protesters from the group Students for Justice in Palestine arrived to protest the event.

To prevent the disruption the pro-Israeli students locked the doors, but the protesters remained to block the exits. One female student arriving late to the event was met with “an angry crowd pounding on the doors and windows—engaged in violent chants targeting the Jewish state.”

After she left, a group of protesters followed her to a nearby room. She eventually called the police. “I was terrified. There is no other word to describe how I felt,” the student told the anti-Semitism watchdog Haym Salomon Center.

The police shut down the protest and the event, leading to a stinging denunciation from UC-Irvine chancellor Howard Gillman. “While this university will protect freedom of speech, that right is not absolute … threats, harassment, incitement and defamatory speech are not protected. We must shelter everyone’s right to speak freely – without fear or intimidation – and allow events to proceed without disruption and potential danger,” he wrote in an email.

Students for Justice in Palestine was unrepentant on its Facebook page. “Today we successfully demonstrated against the presence of IDF soldiers on campus…” they announced. “The presence of IDF and police threatened our coalition of Arab, black, undocumented, trans, and the greater activist community. Thank you to all that came out and bravely spoke out against injustice. ‪#‎UCIntifada‬”

[Image via screengrab]
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