University of California, Los Angeles: Center for Israel Studies Moves Former Israeli Official’s Speech Online

On February 27, 2024, UCLA’s Nazarian Center for Israel Studies planned to host the in-person lecture, “Israel and the Middle East after the October 7 Massacre: Threats, Challenges, and Hopes,” featuring former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni. After UCLA’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter announced its plan to protest the event, the Nazarian Center moved the event to Zoom to “avoid any disruptions.” FIRE wrote the Nazarian Center on April 10, explaining UCLA has a constitutional duty to provide sufficient security to ensure invited speakers may safely speak without significant disruption and urging the Center not to capitulate to those who threaten to disrupt scheduled events in the future. After UCLA’s response argued that moving the event online was not a heckler’s veto because it allowed Livni’s lecture to reach a larger audience, FIRE wrote UCLA again on June 3, to explain that a move online in response to critics’ reactions limits how Livni and her faculty host may communicate messages—and still effectuates a heckler’s veto regardless of UCLA’s subjective view of the preferability of online events.