Student organization refused to let Jewish student attend meeting on Palestine
A Jewish student was barred from attending Muslim Students Association meeting due to his support for the State of Israel.
While the student remained in a virtual waiting room, classmates held a vote on whether or not to accept him, as one person was wary of ‘dialoguing with Zionists.’
A Jewish student was denied permission to join a club meeting because of his support for the State of Israel.
That is according to an Oct. 20 letter to University of California-Santa Cruz administrators from StandWithUs, a nonprofit organization.
StandWithUs is now calling for an investigation following the May 21 incident, when the student was allegedly kept in a Zoom waiting room during the Muslim Students Association’s virtual “General Body Meeting: Call to Action for Palestine,” which had a publicly available link.
[RELATED: WATCH: Individual shows hatred for Israel by EATING Star of David in front of classmates]
The letter details a transcript of the event coordinator rationalizes his decision to keep the student in the waiting room.
It reads:
“So I just wanted to be completely transparent with you all. I wanted to make sure this was a safe space for everyone to express their frustrations and talk about what’s going on…so I’ve been monitoring the waiting room and letting people in…and so right now there’s been a person in the waiting room since the beginning of the meeting and then they’re still there. And they’re someone I know they have posted on their Instagram like propaganda…basically they are pro Israeli government. And so I’ve kept them in the waiting room…”
Another student then suggested voting upon whether their Jewish classmate should be admitted. During the vote, one attendee said they “have no interest in dialoguing with Zionists.”
“MSA violated several university requirements for registered student organizations,” StandWithUs stated in their letter. “As a registered student organization at UCSC, MSA is required to affirm that its practices are not discriminatory and that its representatives accept responsibility for compliance with UCSC regulations.”
In a follow-up letter dated November 8, StandWithUs said that UC-Santa Cruz had forwarded their concerns to UCSC’s Office for Equity and Equal Protection and encouraged the student to file a formal complaint.
They again called on administrators to fulfill their obligations “under state and federal law and university rules and address those activities that contribute to a hostile campus environment and marginalization of Jewish students.”
Neither UC Santa Cruz nor the MSA replied to Campus Reform’s request for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
