Community Commentary:

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is outraged that a speech by Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, was disrupted Monday by students at UC Irvine (“Students could be expelled for UCI protest,” Feb. 11). We encourage the university to act.

Eleven students, most of them enrolled at UCI were arrested for disrupting the speech, then released. We hope that the university leadership uses this as a “teachable moment.”

UCI has had a long history of anti-Israel activity. There is a very active Muslim Student Union that has vehemently sponsored anti-Semitic events and speakers for many years. AJC has noted to UCI leadership in the past that, while academic freedom allows the bringing of controversial speakers to campus, the leadership must do more to use its own free speech rights to denounce hatred.

But the disruption of a speech is an even more serious transgression, one that gets to the heart of academic inquiry. These 11 students interfered with the capacity of their classmates to learn. If they wanted to make their point, they could have distributed leaflets, asked tough questions, maybe even walked out in unison as a protest.

The administration must make sure this type of tactic is not used again. It must, therefore, penalize these students in a way that demonstrates that, regardless of how committed students feel on a particular issue, their passion does not give them license to disrupt others from learning.

UCI leadership needs to underscore that, while it welcomes students with whatever views, it will not tolerate anti-academic bullies.

MIKI SHOLKOFF, board president of the AJC’s Orange County chapter, lives in Newport Beach. RABBI MARC DWORKIN, AJC’s Orange County director, lives in Irvine.