Students walking out Amb. Michael Oren's lecture

Hecklers Bully Israeli Speakers at UC Davis

"Irvine 10" guilty

From JTA:

A California jury found 10 Muslim students guilty of misdemeanors for disrupting a 2010 campus speech by Israel's ambassador to the United States.

In an incident that drew national attention, 11 Muslim students stood one by one and interrupted a February 2010 speech by Ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California, Irvine. Oren twice walked off the stage as students shouted "mass murderer!" and "war criminal!" before they were hauled out of the room by campus police. A planned Q&A session after the address was dropped.

The Orange County jury on Aug. 23 found 10 of the students guilty of two misdemeanor charges for conspiring to disrupt and then disrupting the speech. Charges against an eleventh student were dropped last month.

The 10 students were sentenced by Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson to 56 hours of community service and three years of probation, though the probation will be reduced to one year if the defendants complete their community service by Jan. 31 of next year.

According to The Orange County Register, Wilson said that jail time was not warranted because the students were "motivated by their beliefs and did not disrupt for the sake of disrupting."

The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine, which organized the heckling, was suspended for a year by the school for violating its code of conduct, but four months later the suspension was changed to probation on appeal.

The Volokh Conspiracy discusses the case:

The relevant statute, Cal. Penal Code § 403, says: “Every person who, without authority of law, willfully disturbs or breaks up any assembly or meeting that is not unlawful in its character ... is guilty of a misdemeanor.” In re Kay (1970) held that, to be convicted under the statute, the prosecution must show “that the defendant [1] substantially impaired the conduct of the meeting by intentionally committing acts [2] in violation of implicit customs or usages or of explicit rules for governance of the meeting, of which he knew, or as a reasonable man should have known,” and [3] “the defendant’s activity itself — and not the content of the activity’s expression — substantially impairs the effective conduct of a meeting.”

Legal nerds or nerd wannabes can read more there.

Atty: Muslim Students' Speech Rights Not Absolute

Santa Ana, CA - Prosecutors say 10 Muslim students broke the law by ignoring repeated warnings and carrying out a carefully drafted plan to shout down a speech by an Israeli diplomat at the University of California, Irvine.

Orange County Assistant District Attorney Dan Wagner told jurors Monday in closing arguments that emails among the students reveal they knew they could be arrested and charged when they got up, one by one, and interrupted Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech in February 2010.

Wagner says free speech rights are not absolute and the audience had a right to hear Oren.

Defense attorneys will argue Monday afternoon.

The students face misdemeanor charges of conspiring to disrupt a meeting and disrupting a meeting. If convicted, they could face a sentence of up to a year in jail.

Uncivilized Tactics at UC Irvine (Rough Cut)

Trial Starts in Oren Speech Case

Ten students from the University of California, Irvine and Riverside went on trial this week on misdemeanor charges that they orchestrated a systematic disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's February 2010 speech at the Irvine campus.

In opening statements, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Dan Wagnerrejected free speech arguments offered by the defense. "They didn't want to have an exchange of ideas to see who was telling the truth and who was not," Wagnersaid. "What their intention was, make no mistake, was to shut him down."

He pointed to emails from Muslim Student Union leaders with extensive plans to disrupt the talk. The students followed that plan closely, reciting their scripted lines before campus police escorted them out.

By their actions, Wagner said, Oren's right to free speech was hindered.

Defense attorneys insisted that the students stayed within the law while expressing their political views. "Each statement is for roughly five seconds. Some of the longest ones go 8 seconds — no more," said Dan Mayfield, who represents two of the defendants. "The evidence will show the interruption by the defendants — all of them together— lasts roughly a minute."

The prosecution itself infringes on the students rights, defense attorneys argued.

UCI claims it punished the students involved as well as the MSU chapter. The MSU was officially suspended for one quarter, which was reduced from the original year-long punishment recommended by a school investigation. MSU functions continued during the suspension but were sponsored by other campus groups. Student privacy laws prohibit the school from disclosing punishment meted out to the individual students.

The case has become a lightning rod for Muslim activists. The students are beingsingled out for prosecution "because they were protesting the activities of [Oren's] country, and also because the young men were all Muslims and because perhaps those behind the Prosecution thought that they could get away with it because of the rampant Islamophobia in this country," said Ameena Qazi, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles chapter.

If convicted, the students could be fined and face up to six months in jail.

Brandeis Students Calling to Arrest Avi Dichter

WALTHAM, MA -- Members of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP) disrupted a panel discussion of six Members of the Israeli Knesset tonight at Brandeis University.
The action targeted MK Avi Dicther, an international war criminal wanted for crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Convention. Dichter ordered the tortures of detained Palestinians while he served as head of Shabak, the Israeli Intelligence Services. In July 2002, Dichter ordered the assassination of a Hamas commander by dropping a one-ton bomb on his home in a residential area, causing the deaths of 15 people, including 9 children, and injuring dozens more.
When Dicther spoke, a dozen Brandeis students stood and demanded that he turn himself in to authorities, distributing warrants for his arrest. In English and in Hebrew, the students listed charges against Dichter, including torture and the bombing of civilians. They ended their disruption by chanting in Hebrew "Don't worry Avi Dicther, we'll meet you in the Hague."
The action aimed to alert the Brandeis community to the presence of a war criminal on campus. "We believe that Avi Dichter must be put to trial for his crimes against humanity," said participant Liza Behrendt.
Participant Paraska Tolan stated, "War criminals have a right to speak on our campus, but students also have the right to hold them publicly accountable for their crimes. This serves as a message that Dichter should not feel welcome, even at Brandeis University."
Lisa Hanania, a Palestinian student at Brandeis, said that she was extremely disturbed by the racist comments from some of the MKs. "MK Tzipi Hotovely claimed that 'Arabs have a different D.N.A that lacks humanity'. As a citizen of state, I am concerned that Israel is sliding into an openly racist ethnocracy."
Noam Lekach, a first-year from Israel, stated, "Brandeis claims to promote social justice, but today they invited legislators who openly espouse racist attitudes towards Palestinians."
The students emphasize that, although they targeted Dichter specifically, all MKs should be held accountable for recent racist legislation such as the "Loyalty Oath," the criminalization of Nakba commemoration, and the institutionalization of residential discrimination.