In a rare rebuke, UC Regent Jay Sures, a vocal supporter of Jewish students and critic of pro-Palestinian activism, is sharply criticizing UCLA student government leaders amid the growing controversy over the campus visit of a freed Israeli hostage held by Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Saying he was “disgusted and shocked” by the graduate student government’s recent statements protesting an on-campus event featuring former Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, Shur. A letter to student government leadersSaid that “the failure by some student leaders on your council to listen and accept the views of those with whom they disagree” is “disappointing and dangerous.”
Sures’ message, written on official UC Board of Regents letterhead, is a rare formal response to a student government action within the university system, whose governance he oversees as part of the powerful 26-member UC Board of Regents. Sures sent a letter to the student government on Friday, obtained by The Times, saying he spoke as an “individual regent” and not “for the entire board.”
The growing controversy stems from a statement from the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association. The council this month published a report “condemning” Campus Hillel for bringing Tov to speak at an April 14 event associated with Yom Hashoah, the annual commemoration of the Holocaust.
In that statement student leaders said the event was a “selective platform” of Israeli voices – with no Palestinian counterpart – that would “legitimate and normalize” Israel’s war in Gaza and the bombing of Lebanon.
This statement caused immediate outrage in the Jewish community, leading to articles in Jewish and Israeli publications throughout the United States and Israel, accusing the student government of anti-Semitism. At UCLA, Hillel and another group, Students Supporting Israel, said in a statement that “members of the UCLA student government have once again shown that they are anti-dialogue, anti-education, anti-truth, anti-student, anti-Semitic, and anti-Zionist.”
In his Friday statement, Sures, who is Jewish, said students were held to a “double standard.”
UC Regent Jay Sures speaks at an event in Beverly Hills in 2024.
(Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for UCLA)
“You claim you want balance in programming and more than a ‘single narrative’ from speakers at UCLA. By definition, balance inherently involves equal consideration of more than one viewpoint. By condemning this speaker’s public appearance on our campus, your words and actions make clear that you have no interest in balance,” he wrote. He wrote, “This is the biggest double standard of all… This in itself is not a matter of condemnation – that is absolutely their right, but the haste to do so without considering the viewpoints of others is deeply disappointing.”
Graduate student government leaders regularly pass resolutions, most of which do not make the news. Last year, UCLA held an event in support of recognizing National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Another called for more campus support for students who have children.
The proposal for a hostage speech program also brought an unusual formal response from the university.
UCLA said leaders “will review the process by which this letter was issued. Condemning such a peaceful event to share a story of resilience in the face of extreme suffering is contrary to the values ​​of our Bruin community.” Wednesday’s statement said UCLA Chancellor Julio Frank and his wife, UCLA professor Felicia Knoll, were in attendance and that the event took place “without any disruption.”
The issue has also divided student government members.
In an interview, UC graduate student president Diego Bolo said the letter was issued without his knowledge or input and that five members of the 15-member Council of Student Government were involved. not in attendance At the April 14 meeting, in which he was also present, it was unanimously approved. He said another official added this item to the agenda of the meeting that day.
Bellow said, “I greatly value free speech and free expression on our campus. I have worked throughout my tenure to ensure that the university supports all student groups in hosting a wide range of speakers and programming.” “Free speech is a principle on which I do not compromise – regardless of the nature or subject of any incident.”
Bellow said the letter “reflects a lapse in oversight on my part as president” and said he was initiating a review of Student Government’s internal policies for drafting and issuing public statements.
The Times contacted several council members who voted in favor of the letter and did not receive a response.
Tov, 23, was captured after Hamas militants attacked the Nova music festival in southern Israel. He was freed in a prisoner exchange in February 2025. In addition to Hillel, the event was sponsored by the UCLA Yunus and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.
Shure has also been targeted by pro-Palestinian student activists, who vandalized his house last winter in a protest they said was against UC financial investments tied to Israel and its war in Gaza. Shures accused the students of focusing their attention on him because he is Jewish. The vandalism led to Frank suspending the official student group status of two Students for Justice in Palestine organizations.
The Israel–Hamas war of 2023 has been at the center of ongoing activism and controversy at UCLA, including a pro-Palestinian camp that escalated in the spring of 2024 and was violently attacked on April 30 and May 1 that year.
The Trump administration has argued in lawsuits against UC and in letters to UCLA that those student activists were anti-Semitic. Last year, it used those arguments to revoke more than $500 million in research grants and demand a $1.2 billion fine from the university.
The grant was later reinstated by a federal court order and, in a separate case, the terms of the fine were blocked. UC President James B. Milliken has said that the university is open to dialogue with the Trump administration, but will “never compromise” on its independence, governance, values, and academic freedom.
The university has faced lawsuits from pro-Israel Jewish students and faculty, as well as pro-Palestinian students over how it has responded to Israel and Gaza-related protests.
