Faculty at the University of California–Irvine (UCI) have established a chapter of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.

We have over twenty five members, and have had four chapter meetings since March 2007, with total attendance of about 85 over those meetings. In addition to these chapter meetings, our steering
committee (Amihai Glazer, Nat Rynn, Jack Sklansky, and Henry Wyle) meets weekly to develop our chapter’s plan of action, and we continue to add to our mailing list interested faculty and community members.

On April 17 some of our steering committee met with Professor Judea Pearl, the father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl.

On April 27 our chapter meeting’s speaker was Kenneth Marcus, staff director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. This federal commission has published a report on campus anti-Semitism (which discussed problems at UCI at some length).

At our chapter meeting on May 8 we heard from Tammi Benjamin (coordinator of the SPME chapter at the University of California, Santa Cruz), and from Leila Beckwith (coordinator of the SPME chapter
at the University of California, Los Angeles); we intend to work closely with them.

On May 3, 2007, former president Jimmy Carter spoke on campus to about 3,000 students, faculty, and staff, focusing on topics covered in his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. Among the highlights of his presentation was the claim that American friends of Israel want the United States to be subservient to Jerusalem, and that he is able to criticize Israeli policy because he has Secret Service protection. Our SPME chapter co-sponsored a full-page advertisement in the New
University (the student newspaper) posing questions to President Carter that he was not asked during his presentation.

On May 15 we met with David Makovsky, a former reporter for the Israeli newspapers The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz, who had traveled to both Syria and Saudi Arabia.

On June 13 we heard from Rabbi Aron Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

On September 10, at our request, two members of our steering committee met with the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

Problems of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism at UCI have attracted much attention. In May 2007 the campus Chancellor addressed some five hundred members of the Jewish community to discuss the problem. The film “Tolerating Intolerance,” which includes anti-Semitic/anti-Israeli speeches made at UCI, has been shown at most of the major synagogues in Orange County, and seen by hundreds of people. The Office of Civil Rights at the US Department of Education is investigating complaints made by Jewish students. The United States Commission on Civil Rights heard testimony about problems at UCI.

For next year, we have several goals in mind.

We wish to bring speakers to campus. Professor Alan Dershowitz will speak at UCI on November 29, addressing some of the issues President Carter had raised. We are also pursuing other possibilities.

We intend to establish relations with student organizations at UCI, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and conciliation groups.

The Research committee we established over the summer will continue its activities, including analyzing campus hate events and statements.

We intend to work with the Administration and with the faculty Academic Senate to improve civility on campus.