UCLA’s high official has condemned a 9/11 occasion hosted by the faculty that includes a variety of controversial audio system — together with the protection lawyer for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The varsity’s chancellor, Julio Frenk, mentioned in unique remarks to the California Submit that he supported longtime UCLA professor Judea Pearl, who tore into the college for internet hosting the lawyer representing the jihadist behind the execution of his journalist son, journalist Daniel Pearl.
“Judea Pearl is a deeply valued member of the UCLA group, and I’ve profound respect for him, for the reminiscence of his son Daniel, and for his decades-long dedication to combating antisemitism, terrorism and hatred,” Frenk mentioned.
“The brutal homicide of Daniel Pearl was an act of unspeakable evil, and I help Judea and his household. We additionally mourn the hundreds of lives misplaced from the terrorist assault on September 11, 2001, in addition to the struggling of numerous households and communities.”
He went on to blast occasion, which coated two days and likewise included an look by a Yale professor who labeled post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts “racist.”
“UCLA’s values are clear. We reject antisemitism and terrorism in all their kinds, and we consider our campus have to be a spot the place the dignity of each member of our group is revered,” Frenk continued.
“Nothing about this occasion on the UCLA Faculty of Regulation, which we don’t endorse, adjustments or qualifies these commitments.”
Daniel Pearl was decapitated by Mohammed in Pakistan in 2002 after being lured there for a supposed interview with an Islamic scholar. Considered one of Mohammed’s attorneys, Melanie T. Partow, was set to talk on the occasion on Friday.
Frenk advised the occasion — which invited no victims of the assault, however welcomed leftist audio system, together with one who mentioned Israel “must be attacked”— had given voice to the incorrect friends.
“Tutorial freedom doesn’t require us to be impartial about antisemitism or terrorism,” mentioned Frenk, who turned UCLA’s seventh chancellor in January 2025.
“Talking at UCLA ought to by no means be mistaken for the college’s approval, endorsement, or acceptance of a person’s viewpoints, or our establishment’s indifference to the ache their presence could trigger members of our group.
“On this case, I perceive why Professor Pearl and others are deeply damage. Judea’s voice, and the historical past behind it, should be heard with the seriousness and humanity they demand.”
Judea advised The Submit that he was bowled over by the occasion.
“Colleagues inform me that, sadly, UCLA Regulation Faculty is responsible of such observe: Weaponizing the painful days of 9/11 and 10/7 to advertise hateful ideologies,” he mentioned.
He added: “Having misplaced a son to such an ideology, I stand ashamed of my college.”
The educator added that he felt any 9/11 occasion ought to commemorate victims of the assault.
“A September eleventh occasion must be used to commemorate the victims of that assault: Harmless People,” he mentioned.
Partow is a civil rights and worldwide human rights litigator, based on her lecturer biography on the UC Irvine Faculty of Regulation. She clerked on the Worldwide Prison Courtroom and just lately made headlines for issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Partow has represented Mohammed since no less than February 2020 and is a “certified member of the Navy Commissions Protection Group Civilian Legal professional Pool for the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.”
She was scheduled to talk on a panel titled “Torture, Rendition, and Detention: The Erosion of the Rights Regime submit 9/11” that can give attention to the “elevated counterterrorism authority” the US and different international locations have proven following the fear assaults.
Different audio system included Yale professor Aslı Ü. Bâli, who as soon as referred to counterterrorism as a “racist gravy prepare”; Hussam Ayloush, director of the California Council on American-Islamic Relations, who as soon as in contrast Israel to Nazi Germany and mentioned it “must be attacked,” and College of Minnesota legislation Faculty professor Amna Akbar, who as soon as known as Luigi Mangione’s alleged homicide of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson a “spectacular act of protest.”
The tone-deaf occasion comes as UCLA has confronted lawsuits from the Trump administration over allegedly failing to handle antisemitism on campus or defend Jewish college students and Israeli staff.
9/11 victims lambasted the occasion.
“It’s completely absurd,” Jim McCaffrey, an FDNY lieutenant on the time of the assaults who responded to the Twin Towers, advised the California Submit. “They’re pointing fingers on the victims. We’re the unhealthy guys for being attacked. It’s mind-boggling. What’s happening in academia?”
Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son, Christian, 28, died at Floor Zero, requested: “Can’t 9/11 households get a break?”
“Loopy individuals say loopy issues,” she added, saying her blood boils that 9/11 perpetrators like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed haven’t been dropped at justice. “Allow them to say it one other time.”
UCLA Regulation describes the occasion as inspecting the “enduring legacies of 9/11; the methods the authorized and political structure of the post-9/11 period continues to form up to date debates about race, migration, surveillance, struggle, expertise, policing, and worldwide legislation; and assume collectively about tips on how to chart a greater path ahead.”
The symposium was additionally set to debate “the continuing genocide in Gaza” and “White Christian nationalism.”
The occasion marks the most recent controversy surrounding UCLA, which was sued by the Trump administration in February over claims of vile antisemitic acts on the college — together with dying threats, swastikas scrawled on college buildings and a statue depicting a pig holding a Jewish star and a bag of cash.
In Might, the Division of Justice’s Civil Rights Division sued the college, alleging the college allowed college students to create “Jewish exclusion zones” and assault their Jewish classmates after the Oct. 7 assaults.
A month earlier, the UCLA scholar authorities condemned an look by Omer Shem Tov, an Israeli man taken hostage and tortured throughout 505 days in captivity.
“Whereas we affirm the humanity of all individuals impacted by violence, we reject the selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader actuality of ongoing state violence,” the UCLA scholar affiliation mentioned of the occasion, held on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
UC Regent Jay Sures slammed the UCLA scholar authorities, saying he was “disgusted” and “appalled” by the group’s stance.
The college beforehand appeared to defend its 9/11 occasion, telling the Washington Free Beacon that the legislation college “has a longstanding dedication to educational freedom and to fostering a variety of scholarly inquiry.”
“Occasions organized by a person UCLA Regulation program, facilities, or institutes — and the views expressed — don’t indicate endorsement by UCLA Regulation, and neither the language of this symposium nor the views of its audio system must be understood as representing the college as an entire,” the spokesman mentioned. “UCLA Regulation doesn’t assessment or approve these decisions, nor does the college withdraw invites as a result of a speaker or viewpoint is delicate or controversial.”
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