CU leaders adopt resolution condemning student group that targeted Jewish regent

University of Colorado Regent Ilana Spiegel speaks during a regents' meeting on June 20, 2024, about a protest that was organized at her home earlier in the week. (Screenshot)

The elected officials who oversee the University of Colorado system adopted a resolution that called out what it termed “antisemitic” and “racist” speech and condemned a student group that organized pro-Palestinian protests at the homes of two of the officials, one of whom is Jewish.

The CU Board of Regents passed the resolution 9-0 during a meeting Thursday.

The resolution , introduced by Regent Ken Montera, was drafted in response to a protest that occurred at the home in Superior of Chair Callie Rennison on June 1 and another at the home in Arapahoe County of Regent Ilana Spiegel on Sunday .

Both protests were organized by Students for a Democratic Society-Denver. The group has demanded divestment from Israel, which it accuses of genocide, and has organized other pro-Palestianian activities, such as an encampment at the Auraria campus in Denver, since the beginning last year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“While the right to free speech guarantees any speaker’s right to express even the most hateful, divisive, racist speech, it does not protect the speaker from judgment by the public for expressing such speech,” the resolution says, adding that during the protests at the homes of regents, “SDS repeatedly called for ‘Intifada.’ Calls for ‘Intifada’ are calls for violence and murder against the Jewish people, are antisemitic, and are racist in nature.”

In comments during the meeting, Spiegel said, “Targeting me and my family, American Jews and descendants of Holocaust survivors, at my personal home was and is blatant and brazen and dangerous antisemitism, which we cannot tolerate.”

She added that “the Jewish people are not a monolith” and have varied political views, including about the state of Israel.

“I hope that we can all agree that the amount of suffering happening in our world right now is unbearable,” she said. “It should go without saying that I believe the loss of one innocent life is too much. That includes Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, Christians, Arabs and atheists. Every single human being.”

In response to a request for a comment from an SDS-Denver leader, the organization emailed unattributed remarks to Newsline.

“SDS is disgusted at the CU Board of Regents’ resolution and condemnation of SDS,” the organization said. “According to the CU Board Authorization, the board is charged constitutionally with the general supervision of the university and the exclusive control and direction of all funds of and appropriations to the university. It is because of this position of power that we have targeted the Regents for protest.”

The email disputed the charge that “intifada” is a call for violence against Jewish people.

“Intifada is an Arabic word that roughly translates to ‘shaking off.’ This term is commonly used to describe the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation for the past 76 years,” it said. “We do not support the murder and displacement of any people; the same cannot be said of our Regents.”

In an interview with Newsline after the resolution vote, Rennison said she and her husband were at home during the protest in her neighborhood. She called the experience “very surreal.” She said protesters voiced “ hateful, horrible chants, including ‘globalize the intifada,’ ‘from the river to the sea,’ asking how many babies I had killed that day.”

“My great fear is that many people in my community felt terrorized and afraid. Some took their children and left,” she said, adding that she personally felt physically threatened.

Many neighbors formed a counterprotest and protected her property, she said.

“At any moment it definitely felt like it could turn and get really ugly and that people were going to get hurt,” Rennison said.

Members of Hamas, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Israeli forces responded with airstrikes and ground operations in Gaza, where more than 37,000 Palestinians reportedly have been killed and others have suffered displacement, malnutrition and other humanitarian crises.

The slogan “from the river to the sea” is used by some opponents of Israel to call for its violent destruction, but for others it’s a call to end oppression in Palestinian territories.

“I think in this context, ‘From the river to the sea’ is clearly meant as calling for bad things to happen to Jewish individuals,” Rennison said. “I know in other contexts that it might have other meanings, but in this context, when they’re marching around in front of my house with my face on giant ‘wanted’ signs, saying that I’m responsible for genocide and other things, then this context, it is clearly a hostile statement to make to the Jewish people.”

Khalid Hamu, an SDS organizer, told CBS News during the protest at Spiegel’s home, “SDS has nothing but love for the Jewish community. You know, we always like to chant, ‘Judaism yes. Zionism no.'”

A coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism released a statement Thursday supporting the CU resolution.

“This has gone way beyond a conversation about the First Amendment,” Stefanie Clark, co-founder of coalition member Stop Antisemitism Colorado, said in a statement. “There is a time and a place for protest, and to bring this level of vitriol and intimidation to the home of elected officials and their families clearly crosses the line.”

Other coalition members include JEWISHcolorado, ADL Mountain States, StandWithUs, Israeli American Council, and American Jewish Committee.

Editor’s note : This story was updated at 8:34 p.m., June 20, 2024, to include statements from Chair Callie Rennison and a coalition of groups that fight antisemitism.

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