Not In Our Name

Please forward the link https://tinyurl.com/not-in-our-name

We, Jewish faculty and staff members at UCLA, join with colleagues around the country to express our unequivocal opposition to the arrest and detention of former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, and Columbia University’s subsequent expulsion, suspension, and diploma revocation of dozens of pro-Palestinian protestors, apparently in response to demands from the Trump administration. We are vehemently opposed to efforts by the federal government to arrest, deport, or pressure universities to discipline students, staff, or faculty at UCLA or at any university who are deemed politically unacceptable by virtue of their support of freedom for the Palestinian people. We resist all calls to assist in compiling lists of those targeted for arrest, deportation, or discipline, and reject without equivocation any attempt to invoke our name to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities. These actions do not protect Jewish people but instead are a direct attack on democracy and freedom of speech. 

Although we hold a range of political views and degrees of religiosity, we share a strong memory of the experience of Jews in the modern age who were subject to stigmatization, exclusion, and murderous violence due to their political views, ethnic origin, and perceived foreignness, even in their countries of origin. This memory compels us to take a strong stand against the targeting of all members of our university community who are now under grave threat for exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech. We urge our university’s leaders to join in resisting any attempt by government officials to harm pro-Palestinian students, staff or faculty who run afoul of the current McCarthyite dictates of the Trump administration. 

Please forward the link https://tinyurl.com/not-in-our-name