OEOD of Asaf Ferber:
Day: Wednesday October 25, 2023
Time: Began at exactly 12:32 PM
Location: In front of Ring Road by the Flagpoles
During the Students for Justice in Palestine at UCI walkout on October 25th, as hundreds of those from the UCI community (professors, faculty, undergraduates, graduates, community members, and staff) chanted in solidarity, we were verbally harassed by two Zionist counter-protesters. One of these counter-protestors was found to be Asaf Ferber, an Associate Professor in Mathematics in the School of Physical Sciences at UC Irvine, who was yelling crude statements at those protesting such as “terrorists”, “f*ck you”, “f*ck you Palestine”, “cowards” and “nobody gives a sh*t about you”. A friend of his, Kamran Kalaei, joined and yelled “Go back to Gaza where you will be r*ped”.
At the beginning of the action, during the very first chant at 12:32 PM, Asaf began walking very fast toward the protestors with anger while chanting these crude statements. Immediately, the SJP safety team approached the professor to block him from attacking the protestors. An SJP safety member saw that Asaf was on a phone call, then when he saw Kamran approaching, he ended his call with him and waved him over to join and support him in disrupting the SJP protest. Everything mentioned is documented on video.
As Asaf got very close to the students of the safety team, he took out his phone to start recording us. When a member of the safety team took out his scarf to block the phone recording, Asaf grabbed the top of the student’s scarf and aggressively began shoving it down. He then started to walk along the edge of the circle of protestors, reaching his arm over the safety team members to record us further. At one point, Kamran aggressively walked quickly towards one member of the safety team with his arm held up at them.
Those present during this incident were the safety team, protestors, UCI faculty (Ellen Whitehead, Darlene Esparaza, and others whose names are unknown), Asaf Ferber, Kamran Kalaei, along with other onlookers.
As students started recording the agitators during this interaction, UCI faculty tried to block students from recording and told us to back away so they could stand in between, which ended up doing nothing to stop the counter-protestors from agitating the crowd. Many students participating in the protest started to feel scared and unsure of what to do at the site of this aggressive behavior from the counter-protestors, so the safety team held up their flags and scarves to prevent him from recording and agitating further. Faculty present did not provide much support in terms of understanding the severity of the situation or stopping the verbal harassment from the counter-protestors and aimlessly stood by. As Kamran stated his crude r*pe comment, faculty immediately came to the scene having heard his statement, some even confronting him about it. Darlene Esparaza, in specific, immediately walked over to the scene after the comment was said. One safety member made sure Kamrans comment was recorded and told the rest of the team to continue doing so to document the incident for their safety. Darnlene told him “no, no you do not need to film that” and the safety member responded that he did because Kamran was calling for rape. That same safety member then asked Darlene if she heard Kamran’s statement, she denied it saying “I didn’t hear it”, when it is very clear that she did. Video evidence exists to prove our claims.
The counter-protesters continued their agitation, aggressive behavior, and yelling of crude statements for thirty minutes. A student who was not participating in the protest intervened and spoke to them, after which they stopped yelling and lingered for another 10 minutes before leaving entirely.
Further Investigation:
Throughout the escalation of events this past month, many students have expressed they do not feel safe on a campus that fails to even recognize them as Palestinian students. After the incident and upon finding out that Asaf Ferber is a professor at the university, the attendees and students at large on campus didn’t feel safe after finding that there is a professor who verbally harrasses students. As previously mentioned, Asaf Ferber aggressively called protestors “terrorists” generalizing Palestinians and other Arab students, as well as Muslim students, with racist rhetoric, making these students feel especially unsafe on campus. In addition, the constant use of this comment labels all protestors, not just Arabs or Muslims, as terrorists simply for showing support for Palestine. Through the unprofessional, aggressive behavior and constant cursing at students, Asaf Ferber further added to the uneasiness and fear students were facing. Current and past students of his indicated that they feel uneasy and distressed that he is in such close proximity to them within campus spaces.
On his public facebook page, Asaf posted a video of the incident from the walkout clearly showcasing his acts of harassment, and mentioned his presence at the walkout with pride. His aggressive engagement with the attendees at the event and subsequent public posting of it adds to students’ concern of his continued presence on campus. Asaf’s comments clearly add to the anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic rhetoric being pushed around, and this has severe consequences on the community at large, leading to various types of harassment, assaults, and even murder/death. The UC institution prides itself on its inclusion and diversity, along with its protection of our First Amendment Rights to protest on this public campus. In a recent statement, Howard Gillman declared that UCI “stand[s] against any speech or actions that promote Islamophobia, because as stated in the Regents Policy, real harm arises from contemporary manifestations of historical biases, stereotypes, and prejudices, which is why all members of the university community have a responsibility to ‘foster an equal learning environment for all, in which all members of the community are welcomed and confident of their physical safety’’. If this is true, then we demand that UC Irvine take action to protect their students from Asaf Ferber, a professor who has proven he does not uphold these policies and puts his own students in danger with pride. We also demand that faculty present during the incident stand on the side of the students and protect us from this racist professor.
Asaf Ferber OEOD REPORT TEMPLATE
LINK TO SUBMIT REPORT:
https://uctitleix.i-sight.com/portal
Your involvement in the action: Complainant or Witness (if you feel you were further uninvolved from the incident)
Details of Incident:
Day: Wednesday October 25, 2023
Time: Began at exactly 12:32 PM
Location: Ring Road by the Flagpoles
Event: Students for Justice in Palestine at UCI walkout
Asaf Ferber’s Actions
- During the first chant at 12:32 PM, Asaf began walking very fast toward the protestors with anger
- Chanting the crude statements “terrorists”, “f*ck you”, “f*ck you Palestine”, “cowards”, and “nobody gives a sh*t about you” at us. SJP safety team approached the professor to block him from attacking the protestors.
- Asaf got very close to the students of the safety team and began to record us. A member of the safety team took out his scarf to block the phone recording. Asaf grabbed the top of the student’s scarf and pulled/shoved it down.
- He started to walk along the edge of the circle of protestors, reaching his arm over the safety team members to keep recording us.
- Could hear Asaf’s yelling from the back.
- The safety team continued to hold up their flags and scarves to prevent him from recording and agitating further.
- Asaf continued his agitation, aggressive behavior, and yelling crude statements for thirty minutes.
Include how you were affected by the incident as a member of the protest crowd. Ask that the university take action against this professor for the safety of the students.
Resources:
PDF of SJP at UCI’s submitted report
Instagram Post 1
Slide 1: Asaf & Kamran yell “terrorists” and “go back to Palestine” to the crowd of protestors
Slide 2: Asaf physically shoves down a safety member’s scarf
Slide 4: View of Asaf continuously yelling “fuck you” and other crude statements at the crowd
Slide 10: Faculty talking to Asaf
Instagram Post 2
Slide 1: Screenshot from Asaf’s facebook post where he boasts about harassing students at the action.
Slide 3 and 4: Screenshots of Asaf and Kamran from linked videos
Slide 5: screenshots of SJP’s OEOD report
*Your involvement in the action:
Complainant if you experienced the incident yourself
Witness if you feel you were further uninvolved from the incident
Respondent is the person who engaged in the incident (Asaf Ferber, Kamran Kalei)
*It is encouraged to write your name in the report if you are a UCI student for support of our case, however, if you are uncomfortable doing so, please report Anonymously.
*For Complainant, you can mention your name if you have experienced the assault yourself; if not, then you can mention SJP at UCI as the first name (put “unknown” for last name if so).
*For Respondent information, write out Asaf Ferber’s name.
*include location, date, and required details.
*enter supporting documents, which can be found here
*enter your uci.edu email address, or whatever you are comfortable with. If you are uncomfortable putting your email down, you may use ucisjp@gmail.com to do so (we can forward you your report once submitted)
Rank and File Irvine 
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