The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) student government has come under fire after condemning an event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, with UCLA Hillel accusing members of being “anti-Jewish," reports JNS.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council issued a letter to the university condemning an April 14 event featuring Shem Tov, which was organized by UCLA Hillel and co-sponsored by the university’s Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. The event, held on Yom Hashoah, was titled “505 Days in Captivity: Omer Shem Tov’s Testimony of Resilience."
Shem Tov, 23, was kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival during the October 7, 2023 attacks and held in Gaza for 505 days before being released in February 2025.
“While we affirm the humanity of all people impacted by violence, we reject the selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence," the USAC wrote. It also said that presenting Shem Tov’s testimony without wider political context “serves to legitimize and normalize these ongoing atrocities."
UCLA Hillel sharply criticized the student council’s statement in remarks to JNS.
The campus Hillel said the council members have “once again shown they are anti-dialogue, anti-learning, anti-truth, anti-student and anti-Jewish 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."
It added, “Omer’s story rang loudly and proudly on campus last week, as the world was observing Yom Hashoah - when we remind ourselves and our allies to never forget the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust," and continued, “How appropriate, then, that Omer was here to help remind UCLA of humanity in times of darkness."
A UCLA spokesman told JNS that the university “will review the process by which this letter was issued."
“The 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," the spokesman said.
UCLA is one of many US colleges and universities to have been in the headlines over an increase in incidents of antisemitism on campuses since October 7, 2023.
At least 25 people were arrested at UCLA in June of 2024, after setting up multiple pro-Palestinian Arab encampments on campus that police said were unlawful.
A day earlier, a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi at UCLA was assaulted by anti-Israel activists who called their victim a "Zionist pedophile rabbi," and told him to "go back to Poland."
In February of this year, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against UCLA, accusing it of turning a "blind eye" to antisemitism during student protests against Israel on its campus.