On February 18, over 100 students protested the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) administration’s February 12 decision to suspend two pro-Palestinian clubs from campus, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine (GSJP).

The interim suspension was in retaliation for a protest organized by the SJP, GSJP and UCLA Rank and File for a Democratic Union (UAW4811) on February 5 which targeted the multi-million dollar home of UC regent Jonathan “Jay” Sures.

The suspension will prevent both the SJP and GSJP from reserving space for meetings on campus, applying for student club funding, or affiliating themselves with UCLA, according to the UCLA Office of Student Conduct.

Additional disciplinary action could be levied against the SJP and GSJP once the review of the suspensions are complete.

Sures, who falsely claimed that he was targeted for his Jewish heritage, has consistently conflated protests opposing the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza as synonymous with support for terrorism and Hamas.

The GSJP stated on social media that regent Sures was targeted for protest due to his close affiliation to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)—which has slandered protests demanding a ceasefire as “antisemitic”—and his open support for the actions of the Netanyahu regime.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, which pathetically excused Elon Musk’s fascist Nazi salute during an event celebrating President Donald Trump’s inauguration as “an ‘awkward’ moment” and “not a nazi salute,” has supported the suspensions at UCLA, posting on X: “Protesters calling for the elimination of the state of Israel in front of the home of UC Regent Jay Sures is unacceptable. Law enforcement should fully investigate, and prosecutors should be charging those responsible. Our leaders need to put their foot down against such boldfaced bigotry – before the madness escalates further.”

Regent Sures is vice chairman and managing director of the United Talent Agency, which represents and has partnered with the ADL, and serves on the boards of governors for two laboratories that test and develop nuclear weapons for the US.

Sures is also a board member of the Los Angeles Police Foundation, which raises money for the LAPD, the same agency that was called out on February 5 to protect his Brentwood mansion from student protesters.

The February 12 suspension was announced via email, slandering the pro-Palestinian protesters for supposedly inciting antisemitic violence against Sures and his family.

The inflammatory and highly misleading campus-wide email was circulated by newly appointed UC Chancellor Julio Frenk, who began his tenure last month.

“At UCLA, there is always room for discourse and for passionate debate of different points of view…,” the email states, but, “What there should never be room for is violence.”

“No one should ever fear for their safety. Without the basic feeling of safety, humans cannot learn, teach, work and live - much less thrive and flourish. This is true no matter what group you are a member of - or which identities you hold. There is no place for violence in our Bruin community.” [emphasis in original]

The email concludes:

“Any act of violence undermines the foundation of our university. As a citizen of the world, I know that no one can promise a society free of violence. But as your chancellor, I can commit to you that whenever an act of violence is directed against any member of the university community, UCLA will not turn a blind eye. This is a responsibility I take most seriously.”

The hypocritical nature of this slanderous email is apparent to all who witnessed the violent attack by pro-Zionist thugs against anti-genocide student protesters on April 30, 2024, and the UCLA-backed police raid that followed on May 2, which left dozens of students injured, hundreds arrested and many more traumatized.

As of today, out of the mob of pro-Zionist fascists who brutally attacked the peaceful protesters, only one person, a local high school student, has faced any type of lawful repercussions for their actions.

Michael Chwe, a professor of political science who participated in the February 18 protest against the suspension, disagreed with UCLA’s decision to ban the SJP and GSJP and the sanctimonious tone of chancellor Frenk’s email.

“If you look at who actually experienced violence, it’s overwhelmingly our own students,” Chwe told the Daily Bruin, “and that was the fault of our university administration.”

“For them to be claiming that our students are violent is completely backward.”

Graeme Blair, associate professor of political science and a member of UCLA’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine, also called out the hypocritical nature of chancellor Frenk’s email in a written statement to the Daily Bruin.

“Just like in April, administrators today selectively deployed the charge of violence, not against those whose actions cause physical harm, but against those whose speech they dislike,” said Blair.

“Chancellor Frenk and the UC regents’ continuing complicity in genocide is violence. ... To call hanging banners on shrubs violence is a despicable distortion.”

The suspensions at UCLA follow similar suspensions waged throughout the UC system against the SJP at UC Santa Cruz, suspended until September 2026, and UC Irvine, suspended until November 2029.

Other suspensions outside of the UC system have occurred at the University of Michigan, George Mason University, Rutgers and George Washington University under the same false pretenses of combating antisemitic violence on college campuses.

The Socialist Equality Party and our youth organization, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, condemns the suspensions of the SJP and GSJP as well as the slanderous email concocted by chancellor Frenk.

We call on all workers, students and youth to come to their defense and openly defy the attacks on student’s democratic rights and the demonization of anti-genocide protesters.