Drop All Charges Against the Irvine Eleven

We, the undersigned people of conscience, call for all charges to be dropped against the Irvine Eleven.


Their speech was protected under the First Amendment's right to free speech. It did not incite violence. The Irvine Eleven protested peacefully and willingly attempted to leave. When approached for arrest, they did not resist. Oren's right to speech does not preclude the Irvine Eleven's right to protected speech. No substantial impairment of Oren's right to free speech occurred as Oren was able to complete his speech. At the end of his talk, he even noted that he wished the students would have stayed.


The Irvine Police Department and the UC Irvine Administration have overstepped their bounds by arresting the Irvine Eleven and threatening them with criminal charges and university disciplinary actions. The threats of suspension and expulsion are wholly disproportionate and unwarranted. This reaction is unparalleled in its harshness when compared to UCI's reaction to much more violent protests, including Defend UCI protests against tuition fee hikes. The severity of the punishment undeniably demonstrates that the Administration is attempting to appease external organizations and lobbying groups. The Administration is not acting neutrally. It is utilizing its disciplinary mechanisms to send a chilling political message.


Furthermore, we, the undersigned, are appalled that UC Irvine would host a speaker who represents a State that has committed war crimes and has inarguably targeted civilians during its recent attack on the Gaza Strip in December-January 2009. Israel's gross human rights record, which has led to its condemnation by more UN resolutions than any other nation, gravely undermines UCI's claim to impartiality and the defense of justice and the rule of law.



Students are enraged that while our nation and our state are in the throes of the deepest financial crisis and while we are facing 32\% tuition fee hikes at the UCs with a decreased quality of education, the University has chosen to implicitly support U.S. policies that allow for the continued expenditure of our tax dollars on military aid to Israel. We find it morally reprehensible and fiscally irresponsible that Israel receives $3 billion per year in contravention to the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA), while millions of Americans are suffering from poverty, lack of jobs and substandard education.


Hence, we support the students who did speak up for what is right and just, particularly when those in power who have been endowed with the responsibility to uphold these principles, fully ignore their duties. We will not tolerate the spread of propaganda on university campuses. We condemn the sponsors of the February 8, 2010 event at UCI for allowing an individual who seeks to distort truth and spread falsehood to speak. We condemn the sponsors for supporting a state which commits heinous violence through the aid of our tax dollars and continues to violate the human rights of all the indigenous Palestinians to this day.


We demand that UCI and the Orange County District Attorney's office stand on the right stand of history and drop all charges against the Irvine Eleven.