Letter to the Editor: Free Speech?
Mengfei Chen | Feb 09, 2010 | Comments 11
To the Editor of the New University News Paper:
Tonight UCI hosted the ambassador to Israel the Honorable Michael
Oren. I along with about 300 to 400 people attended this program. It
was billed as;
Ambassador Oren’s address to the community:
“US-Israel Relations: A Personal and Historical Perspective”. This
would be a significant look into the issues that are currently present
in the Middle East.
The Ambassador started his talk and 5 minutes into his speech a person
stood up and started shouting, disrupting the Ambassador. Security
quickly removed the person. While he was being removed an active
group of Muslim students clapped and whistled. This continued about
every 5 minutes throughout the Ambassadors talk. The audience had a
large number of Muslims who were obvious in their taking direction
from slips of paper and their phones to disrupt and stifle any speech.
They were prepared and programmed to disrupt.
The Dean of the Political Department stood up and asked everyone to be
polite and allow the flow of ideas and free speech, the Dean of UCI
did the same. This was useless and inconsequential as it did no good.
This representation of the faculty was weak and feckless as there was
no consequence to poor and disruptive behavior. Is your institution
taken over by hooligans?
Is this what our schools of learning are coming to? This University
isn’t fit to host a discussion on opposing ideas or free speech. The
University and obviously the faculty aren’t able to either teach or
control their students.
How can anyone support an institution that allows suppression of
speech with the disruption and unruliness that took place? Why would
any family send their children to a school that doesn’t teach and
support the values of our great country? Why do we continue to
financially support this type of institution?
Respectfully,
Marc Spiegel
Popularity: unranked [?]
Filed Under: Opinion • OpinionEater
@Jeanine and McGovern:
I am pro-Isreal and anti-terror, but your remarks still make me cringe. A similar (yet reversed) event occurred at UC Berkeley last year: Jewish students mocked and disrupted a speech by an anti-Israel professor. No one talked about sending these boys to jail, or even disciplining them (although they definitely deserved a strong lecture and a possible suspension). It worries me that being white gives us this sort of privilege.
Both protests were disgusting. Both groups deserve censure.
But what’s important to remember is that neither of these factions speak for the majority. Most Jews and Muslims just want peace and understanding. They are real people families, jobs and homes. Everyone involved in this conflict deserves our unwavering respect, whether we agree with them or not.
I really suggest these students need to be expelled, and those on an F1 visa need to be deported.
The US has enough garbage to deal with, without taking on the ballast of cavemen mentality emanating from fundamentalist societies.
All these “heroes” have succeeded was to make me, a Catholic, become more pro-Israel than ever.
There has been a website launched to support the eleven students against mistreatment by the UC administration for deciding to take a stand for justice! Check it out: irvine11.com
I have seen the entire video of the event. I am neither Jewish nor Muslim, but this video made me realize better the kind of dialog “partners” Israelis have to deal with. How can you make peace with people who weren’t educated, even at an elementary level? If this is how they understand to have a conversation, *in the US*, *in an academic institution*, what should one expect to encounter in the terrorist nests of Gaza?
Robaby, you don’t know what you are talking about. Constitutional free speech rights are NOT unlimited, and a key tenet of civil disobedience is that you accept the legal consequences of your actions. And it was the “protestors” who were engaging in the undermining of “this important First Amendment Right.”
By the way, if you are so concerned about human rights violations, do you worry about human rights violations by Islamic governments? I’ll bet I know the answer.
robaby1984, One does not promote free speech by shutting it down. I am a flowerchild with a few petals still left and legitimate student protest is toothless when the substance of the protest is erased by the delivery of the message.
Those students would’ve better served their cause had they stayed to ask Ambassador Oren thoughtful, meaningful and purposeful questions.
Trying to shut down the dialogue displayed a fear of that amendment you so loftily extolled in your letter.
Smacking a child because that child hit another kid isn’t just ridiculous, but sends the wrong message entirely.
So instead of getting Ambassador Oren and those in attendance to actually hear and consider your ideas and viewpoints by way of using intelligent, informed and substantive words, it was the volume, stridency and utter crassness of your words that left an impression. Sometimes style over substance results in an utter waste of energy and the total obliteration of the message.
It goes both way Speigal. 11 of these muslims were arrested for their act of free speech while Oren was allowed to continue. The right to freely express one’s opinions is a most sacred freedom protected by our Constitution, finding college campuses to be its most cultivating venue. Civil protest against government abuses is a time-honored tradition that has led to the end of apartheid and the birth of civil rights. The students voiced political views to shame the representative of a foreign government embroiled in controversy for its outrageous violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Delivering this message in a loud and shocking manner expressed the gravity of the charges leveled against Israeli policies, and falls within the purview of protected speech. The selective application of laws by off-campus law enforcement agencies to students engaged in constitutionally-protected political speech will be viewed by the American Muslim community and those who value free speech as an attempt to repress legitimate student protest and will undermine this important First Amendment Right.
As long as your quoting Martin Luther King… “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.” and.. “I see Israel, and never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land almost can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.”
This was incredibly embarrassing and disgusting. The MSU are nothing but hypocrites demanding free speech while taking away another individuals entitlement to free speech as well. I have nothing against the MSU but they should have protested in a more peaceful and just way. What a joke.
I gotta say, if that really happened at the volleyball game, I’m personally embarrassed.
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
It is a disgrace that UCI provided a platform for this man to defend murder.