An Orange County jury on Friday September 23rd found ten of the so-called Irvine 11 students guilty of disrupting a public meeting and conspiring to disrupt a public meeting. The misdemeanor charges were brought over their actions during a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren on the campus of UC Irvine in 2010. Members of the Muslim Student Union stood up one after another during the speech, interrupting Ambassador Oren from speaking, and walked out, to be arrested. UC Irvine’s administration disciplined the Muslim Student Union by suspending its charter for one quarter and placing it on probation for 2 years even though they maintains that they, as a group, did not organize the action. However Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas picked up the case as a criminal matter, charging the individual students with conspiring to commit a crime and for disturbing a meeting. The case of the Irvine 11 has been seen as a test of how far students can go in their on-campus protest actions, and also of racial and religious discrimination faced by Muslim students on campuses. The ten UC Irvine students faced up to a year in prison, but ended up being sentenced to 56 hours of community service, fines, and probation.

Uprising is proud to present an exclusive interview with two of the 11 students, Osama Shabaik and Taher Herzallah who had an in-depth conversation with host Sonali Kolhatkar.

Watch the interview here:

Martina Steiner recorded this interview.