An Analysis and Recommendations Concerning an Incident in Which Muslim Students Interrupted an Israel Official Speaking on a College Campus

Abstract

Eleven young men, eight of them members of the Muslim Student Association at the University of California, Irvine, and three from UC Riverside, as part of a planned stratagem, in turn stood up and heckled the Israeli Ambassador to the United States for about 5 min during his public presentation on the Irvine campus. They were ejected from the auditorium and punished by the University. Subsequently, the local district attorney filed misdemeanor charges against the group and won a conviction. The article provides details of the event, the varying reactions to the behavior and to the criminal case, and describes and analyzes a key state Supreme Court opinion considering the constitutionality of the statute employed against the students. Finally, recommendations are offered as a means to avoid what the writer regards as an unfortunate and perhaps biased official action against members of an ethnic minority.