"IRVINE – A Facebook page simply calls them 'the Eleven.' A newly created graphic, based on a Register photograph, depicts a student among the protesters raising his right index finger defiantly as he's escorted out by a campus police officer.
The rhetoric surrounding the protesters who disrupted a speech by an Israel's ambassador to the United States Feb. 8 has escalated. University officials face a difficult decision on whether to discipline the students, and if so, how severely. UCI prides itself on its diversity of cultures, religions and political views"Jewish groups have for years accused the school of being overly tolerant of what they call anti-Semitic hate speech, and they say the Feb. 8 protest is only the latest outrage. Ambassador Michael Oren had been invited to campus to speak about Israeli-U.S. relations, but his lecture before about 500 people at the Student Center was interrupted 10 times by students denouncing Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Earlier that day, UCI's Muslim Student Union had issued a statement condemning the decision to invite a "public figure who represents a state that continues to break international and humanitarian law ... ."
After the 10th interruption, the event deteriorated further as a large group of students walked out of the conference room to jeers – and, the protesters allege, threats – by Oren's supporters. Eight UCI students and three UC Riverside students were briefly detained in another room before being released, after Oren had finished his speech. A planned 30-minute question-and-answer session with Oren was scrapped.
