You remember UCI's Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez? You remember time he equated one person's hate speech, as another's education? Or the time he condoned the exclusion Jewish students from a tolerance rally?

This time Daniel Tedford from the Daily Pilot has Gomez on record applauding MSU speakers for curbing the tide of an otherwise deteriorating national debate:

"The deterioration in discourse nationally and what we see in some of these speakers is not conducive," said UCI Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Manuel Gomez. "It is just rhetoric coming back and forth at each other. My hope would be to get authentic dialogues going with discussion revolving around differences, not to agreement, but to understand different perspectives."

Again an amusing (albeit "intelligent") perspective for Gomez, especially since MSU speakers like Muhammad al-Asi has attacked Jews as lowlife ghetto-dwellers, and Norman Finkelstein, for his part, has demonstrated he has little tolerance for dissenting voices.

On a final note, Tedford balks at calling the Wall exhibit a militant objection of a Jewish state. Though he knows full well that the MSU's festivities aren't about conceivable legal reforms.

Here is the full article:

Wall casts shadow on UCI

Students regard the display recently put up at UCI by the Muslim Student Union.

Display created by Muslim Student Union features mock security wall in protest of Israel's policies; vice chancellor laments lack of dialogue between Muslim, Jewish student groups.

By Daniel Tedford

Updated: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 5:11 PM PDT

Students walking through the middle of UCI's campus this week will witness free speech at work. Various groups -- pro-Israel, pro-Zionist, pro-Palestinian and others -- are inviting speakers and staging rallies to portray their own version of truth, their opinion on the conflict happening within Israel as two cultures continue to clash.

And standing at the middle of these protests is a wall, a replica of the one that borders Israel and Palestine. The wall, built by the Muslim Student Union, depicts violence against Palestine, anti-Zionist sentiments and the flag of Israel, blood-stained, soaring above.

Both the Muslim Student Union and Jewish groups on campus continue to host events and speakers this week dedicated to differing opinions on the issues between Israel and Palestine, anti-Semitism, and UCI's role in both. The groups claim the events raise awareness and provide information for the student body, but the question on some people's minds is whether their efforts serve to antagonize each other more than they promote the peaceful exchange of ideas.

"The deterioration in discourse nationally and what we see in some of these speakers is not conducive," said UCI Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Manuel Gomez. "It is just rhetoric coming back and forth at each other. My hope would be to get authentic dialogues going with discussion revolving around differences, not to agreement, but to understand different perspectives."

Gomez added the university does not "support, endorse, or sponsor" any of the events taking place on campus between the groups.

The university has been called into question for allowing some of the politically themed events on campus, as some groups have called the Muslim Student Union's message one of hate and some of their speakers and actions anti-Semitic.

Gomez said the university is following state and national policies for freedom of expression, but said that if, at any point, someone's rights were violated, the school would intervene.

The Muslim Student Union called its week of events "Never Again? The Palestinian Holocaust." Some students have spoken out against the name, calling it an insult to the Jewish Holocaust.

But Muslim Student Union spokeswoman Nida Chowdhry said the name is in reference to a quote from Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense Matan Vilnai and isn't trying to imply a holocaust is happening. Rather, she said, the title presents the concern that the region is moving in that direction.

Jewish community leaders, like Kevin Schmelzlen of the Zionist Organization of America at UCI, believe the Muslim Student Union has overstepped its freedom of speech boundaries with protests and speakers because their anti-Zionism sentiment is anti-Semitic, he said.

"Most of the reasons people say they oppose the state of Israel, it has anti-Semitic reasons behind it," the 19-year-old Schmelzlen said.

While Schmelzlen said the idea of the events this week is to offer differing opinions, he rejected the idea of hosting events with the Muslim Student Union to foster debate.

"We shouldn't want to speak with terrorist supporters," he said. "I am not going to co-host an event with speakers who want to destroy our people."

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com