UC Regent Jay Sures slammed a virtual appearance last week by a failed Palestinian suicide bomber at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sures, who is Jewish and the vice chairman of United Talent Agency, called the event “disgusting and abhorrent.”
“I think when you talk about in the larger context of the University of California, I can tell you, as one of just a couple of the Jewish regents, I’m very satisfied with the steps the administration has taken to try to curb antisemitism on campus,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Having said that, there’s just going to be circumstances across the campuses, across all college campuses, where there’s going to be groups of people that are going to promote and justify and glorify antisemitism,” the super-agent added.
The accused bomber, Israa Jaabis, spoke to Berkeley law school students for a “Palestinian Political Prisoners Day” event on April 20, drawing applause as she said the crowd “makes us hopeful that there remains some humanity.”
“That there is someone to support us in the future, delivering our message to the international community, and amplifying our call to liberate Palestinian prisoners, as well as to liberate all societies from servitude and from bigotry, which produces populations complicit in perpetrating inhumane laws,” she said.
Jaabis was accused of trying to ignite a gas tank in Jerusalem after she was stopped by an Israeli police officer. A subsequent explosion severely disfigured Jaabis and burned the officer.
Sures said the group hosted the event, Students for Justice in Palestine, promotes “anti-Zionistic behavior” that leads to antisemitism.
He acknowledged that the organization had the right to host Jaabis.
“Under the First Amendment, these groups have the right to free speech,” he said. “And that’s just part of what it’s like to live in a country where you have a First Amendment.”
Just last week, Sures ripped a group of “lunatic” members of UCLA’s student government after their condemnation of an on-campus appearance from Hamas hostage Omer Shem Tov, who survived 505 days in Hamas captivity.
Sures issued a letter saying he was “disgusted” and “appalled” by the students slamming Shem Tov’s visit. The students had said the event “obscured the broader reality of ongoing state violence.”
“Like many University leaders, I am disgusted and appalled by the Council’s recent statement condemning an on-campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov,” Sures said.
“Rather than hearing the perspective of a 23-year-old peer abducted by terrorists at a music festival and held hostage by Hamas for 505 days, those of you who voted for the letter of condemnation chose not to listen at all,” he added.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Sures to the University of California Board of Regents in 2019.
