This post was updated Nov. 8 at 10:41 p.m.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to call on UCLA to cancel a student event.

City Councilman Paul Koretz introduced the resolution in opposition to the upcoming National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference being held at UCLA from Nov. 16 through 18, stating SJP promotes anti-Semitic views.

Koretz said SJP members have posted violent and anti-Semitic rhetoric on social media. Justin Feldman, a third-year Middle Eastern studies and political science student, told the University of California Board of Regents on Sept. 27 that some of SJP’s speakers are convicted terrorists. Feldman specifically cited Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted for the murder of two Israelis.

The SJP conference has not released its list of speakers.

The resolution also stated the council’s disapproval that SJP would exclude students not affiliated with the group from attending the event, though it is being held at a public university. The council argues in the resolution this exclusion would violate anti-discrimination clauses of the Civil Rights Act.

However, SJP is privately funding the event and is therefore not mandated to open the event to the public.

Koretz also sent a letter to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block asking UCLA to shut down the event, citing an incident in May in which SJP members disrupted an event hosted by Students Supporting Israel.

On Oct. 31, UCLA Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck sent a cease-and-desist letter to SJP for allegedly infringing on the university’s trademarks. SJP’s event logo depicted a bear playing with a kite along with the name “UCLA.”

Published by Melissa Morris

Morris is the 2018-2019 assistant News editor for the campus politics beat. She was previously a writer for the campus politics beat. She is also a second-year global studies student at UCLA.

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18 Comments

  1. Days after the worst anti-Semitic shooting in American history, one of the nation’s most prestigious university’s is hosting one of the most anti-Semitic groups in American history and giving it a platform. And yes, SJP is a hate group, no different from the Westboro Baptist Church or the alt right. If it was Richard Spencer coming to spew hatred toward “Zionists,” the UCLA campus would be in an uproar. But because Palestine is a darling of the left, the Progressives Except for Palestine turn a blind eye to SJP’s anti-Semitism and genocidal rhetoric.

    Disgusting, but highly typical of the pro-Palestinian cause.

      1. “I found the Zionist”

        Oh wow, congratulations. You speak as if we’re in hiding, or that we have any reason to hide.

    1. The terrorist shooting was done by a white supremacist and was real anti-Semitism. Students protesting the crimes of Israel against the Palestinians is not anti-Semitism.

      1. And if all SJP did was “protest” the alleged crimes of Israel then there wouldn’t be a problem and I wouldn’t call them a hate movement. But they go beyond that, far beyond it, and that is why they are being treated in this manner.

        1. You will have to do better than innuendo. I haven’t seen them do anything but run a compassionate and necessary campaign to bring justice to the Palestinians.

      1. “Israel” was created to remove the Jews of Europe.

        Europeans no longer hate Jews. Time to go home.

      2. Hmmm, I’m pretty sure ethnically cleansing the indigenous Palestinians from their homes qualified as apartheid, at the least

  2. Focus on the real enemy: WHITE SUPREMACY. Not students who seek justice and equality for all!!! Shame on City Council!

    1. Nope. We focus on all of our enemies, and SJP is one of them.

      “Seek justice and equality for all”

      By robbing Jews of their justice and equality. Nobody is falling for your act anymore (at least, no one whose heart doesn’t swell with hatred for Jews).

  3. I am a UCLA alumni and Jewish who supports the Palestinian cause. This action is part of an outrageous assault on free speech for the purpose of suppressing the truth about Israel’s cruel occupation of Palestine. Using ethnic cleansing, apartheid and flat out murder, Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians are criminal. I am outraged that SJP is being suppressed from telling the truth. The accusations of anti-Semitism are false and ignore that a growing portion of the Jewish Community itself is against the occupation of Palestine.

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