The Jewish community of UCSD was worried (https://www.change.org/p/condemn-ucsd-chancellor-pradeep-khosla-for-knowingly-enabling-an-unsafe-campus-environment when the University of California, San Diego Chancellor Khosla knowingly allowed Taher Herzallah (https://www.stopantisemitism.org/antisemite-of-the-week-7/taher-herzallah-the-hateful-heckler to speak on campus and even sponsored him through the division of Arts and Humanities. Sadly that worry has grown to distraught as the Chancellor sent a university wide email blatantly saying that antisimetic speech is (“disappointedly”) welcomed on campus as so: 

“It is a great disappointment that some speakers on our campus may choose to exercise their right to free speech by advancing antisemitic points of view, and while those speakers have a right to be heard, they do not have a right to be free from criticism” 

There’s a gross difference between a student presenting antisemitic viewpoints and a university sponsoring an outside speaker to spread antisemitic viewpoints. Chancellor Khosla chose to support an antisemitic speaker, with multiple previous arrests at other campuses, over taking action to protect the safety and well-being of UCSD’s Jewish students. Not only that, but he justified it as Free Speech even though it goes against the Fighting-Words Doctrine of University of California passed in 1989. 

There has been a dramatic rise in antisemitism since 2020 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-61228552 Khosla is undermining the safety of hundreds of Jewish students under the facade of freedom of speech and using his position to protect and encourage similar activity in the future. A speaker like Mr. Herzallah, who publicly defended the statement, “Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the yahood [Jews]… Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them," should have no place on campus. The Jewish students of UCSD don’t deserve a chancellor that, after a swastika was found in the library bathroom of the campus and 3 arts and display pieces showing jewish pride were vandalized, sends out a campus wide email explicitly saying that such behavior is appropriate and legal (which again under the University of California Fighting-Words Doctrine it is not). 

UCSD says it is committed to the safety of its students so it should call to immediately cancel this planned speaker. Chancellor Kholsa should not ask Jewish students to risk their physical or mental safety that will be threatened by this speaker's violent rhetoric that will create an environment of harassment against Jewish students. We appreciate UCSD's focus on allowing all political viewpoints on campus, but not all speech is protected by the First Amendment nor should it be supported by the university. Speech that endangers others or goes against the university’s sole purpose (to educate). Please sign this petition to support that Chancellor Kholsa revoke his previous message and take actions to care for the safety of Jewish students on campus