On April 23rd at noon Pacific Time, the University of California Merced will host a Zoom event featuring Ms. Leila Khaled, titled “Free Speech Palestine.” This event is co-sponsored by San Francisco State University’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED), as well as the University of California Humanities Research Institute.
Ms. Khaled is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a classified foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department since 1997. Her name became known to the public due to her role in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969. The hijackers mistakenly believed that former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, then the Israeli Ambassador to the US, was on board the plane.
A year later, in 1970, Ms. Khaled attempted to hijack yet another plane. This time it was the Israeli El Al Flight 219. Luckily, this attempt was thwarted by Israeli security. Following this attempt, Ms. Khaled was arrested by British authorities, but was later released in an exchange for hostages.
In mid-September of 2020, Ms. Khaled was scheduled to speak at a Zoom event at San Francisco State University. Due to public pressure, Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook all prevented the conference from taking place on their platforms, citing compliance with U.S. export control, sanctions, and anti-terrorism laws.
Ms. Khaled has no academic credentials, whatsoever. Her only claim to fame is that she has hijacked TWA and El Al Airplanes. The fact that she is invited to speak at scholarly forums just underscores the incredible bias within academia against the state of Israel and the Jewish people.
This is something that EMET has constantly been working on. Right now, we are working with a Congressional office to make sure that the Executive Order of December 11, 2019 of the previous administration remains a priority for the Biden administration. This Executive Order gives Jewish and Zionist students the same constitutional protections as Black, Hispanic, LGBT and handicapped students under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
EMET now asks you, once again, to use the power of your keyboards and voice. We urge you to email the Chancellor of the University of California Merced, Juan Sánchez Muñoz, at [email protected] or call the University at (209) 228-4400. Please stress, when contacting the Chancellor, that we cannot allow terrorists and supporters of terrorism into the mainstream society. It is unacceptable to give a public platform to supporters of violence and illegal activities.
