The statement ignited a firestorm. The student government has drawn ire from a sitting University of California regent, the campus Hillel, and its own president, who accused a faction of student leaders of passing the resolution with underhanded methods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The controversy comes as UCLA continues to face scrutiny under the Trump administration\u2019s campus antisemitism push, much of it tied to student protester actions after Oct. 7. UCLA is currently facing a lawsuit<\/a> from the Justice Department over what the administration said was the fostering of a hostile work environment when protesters took over sections of campus and sought to bar \u201cZionists\u201d from entering; the school has also settled<\/a> a $6.13 million lawsuit with Jewish groups over the same instances.<\/p>\n \u201cI am disgusted and appalled by the Council\u2019s recent statement condemning an on-campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov,\u201d Jewish UC regent Jay Sures, a leading Hollywood talent agent, wrote in a lengthy open letter<\/a> published earlier this week. \u201cTalk about a missed opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n UCLA\u2019s Hillel, together with the campus\u2019s Israel Studies center and its Student Supporting Israel club, hosted Shem Tov for an event earlier this month coinciding with Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The school\u2019s Jewish chancellor Julio Frenk, who has been outspoken about his commitment to combat antisemitism<\/a> on UCLA\u2019s campus, attended the talk<\/a> with his wife.<\/p>\n Shem Tov, 24, was abducted from the Nova music festival by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and held captive in Gaza for 505 days. His parents co-founded the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli group that advocated for the hostages\u2019 release during the war. Since his release he has spoken widely on college campuses and in other venues, including to Turning Point USA<\/a>, the conservative group.\u00a0<\/p>\n A previous campus stop by Shem Tov, at Duke University, also caused controversy<\/a> when comedian Jerry Seinfeld introduced him by saying pro-Palestinian protesters were worse than the Ku Klux Klan.<\/p>\n The UCLA campus seen Nov. 19, 2025. (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n The UCLA student government letter opposing Shem Tov\u2019s talk said the event was \u201celevating a single narrative, absent of critical political and humanitarian framing.\u201d It also condemned the school\u2019s Israel Studies center for hosting the talk, writing, \u201cUniversities must not be complicit in the production or amplification of one-sided narratives that erase systems of oppression and occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n In an Instagram post<\/a>, Hillel at UCLA and Students Supporting Israel jointly accused the student board of antisemitism.<\/p>\n \u201cMembers of UCLA student government (USAC) have once again shown they are anti-dialogue, anti-learning, anti-truth, anti-student, anti-Jewish and antisemitic in condemning our beautiful event last week with Omer Shem Tov, a young man kidnapped from a music festival and held, tortured, and treated inhumanely as a hostage and human slave by Hamas in Gaza for over 500 days,\u201d the groups wrote.<\/p>\n Sures\u2019s note had more pointed criticisms of the student government\u2019s stance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOmer Shem Tov is not a representative of the Israeli government,\u201d he wrote, later adding, \u201c\u2018You claim you want balance in programming and more than \u2018a single narrative\u2019 from speakers at UCLA. Balance, by definition, inherently involves equal consideration of more than one point of view. By condemning this speaker\u2019s public appearance on our campus, your words and actions make clear you have no interest in balance at all. That is the biggest double standard of all.\u201d<\/p>\n In his talks<\/a>, Shem Tov often describes his experience of psychological torture in captivity and concludes that his Hamas captors had \u201cno humanity.\u201d He has described carrying hundreds of boxes of food aid from the United Nations into Hamas\u2019 tunnels in Gaza, saying that Hamas was taking the rations for its own members. At a recent Harvard talk, Shem Tov also said of Gaza\u2019s non-Hamas citizens, \u201cI\u2019m sure there is some who wish for peace and want peace. But I can say this: the majority of them, the majority of them, they want to eliminate us.\u201d<\/p>\n In his own statement<\/a>, student body president Diego Bollo said he and several other council members, including one who had been involved in promoting the Shem Tov event, had not been present at the meeting where the letter was drafted and voted on.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is my belief that the councilmember who introduced this letter chose to bring it forward on a day when [the member who promoted Shem Tov] was not present and therefore unable to offer her perspective as someone with knowledge of the organized event featuring Omer Shem Tov,\u201d Bollo wrote. <\/p>\n He and the other student leadership also fielded public comment opposing the letter at a subsequent meeting, and Bollo said he would review \u201cour internal processes for drafting and releasing public statements.\u201d<\/p>\n UCLA\u2019s own statement backed the groups that had hosted Shem Tov, saying, \u201cThe event\u2019s message was one of resilience and respect for human rights and dignity \u2014 a message we support.\u201d The school\u2019s statement<\/a> added, \u201cThe condemnation of such a peaceful event to share a story of resilience in the face of extreme suffering is antithetical to the values of our Bruin community.\u201d<\/p>\n Passover may be over, but your chance to support independent Jewish journalism isn’t. Help JTA keep reporting the stories that define our era.<\/p>\n \n\t\tOne-time \tChoose an amount to donate<\/p>\n \n\t\t$72$180$360$500\t<\/p>\n \tSupport Us<\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"UCLA](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2246924633.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n\t\tMonthly\n\t<\/p>\n