UC Regent Criticizes UCLA Council on Hostage Speaker Event

University of California Regent Jay Sures sharply criticized leaders of UCLA's Undergraduate Student Association Council on Friday for issuing a statement that condemned an on-campus event featuring Omer Shem Tov, a 23-year-old former Israeli hostage who endured 505 days in Hamas captivity.

Sures, who serves as vice chairman of United Talent Agency and was appointed to the UC Board of Regents in 2019, sent the letter on official regents letterhead to the council, which represents more than 29,000 undergraduates. In it, he described himself as "disgusted and appalled" by the council's action, calling it a missed opportunity for students to hear from a peer who was abducted during the October 7, 2023, attack on a music festival in southern Israel. Shem Tov was kidnapped by Hamas militants at the Nova festival, where many attendees were killed, and held underground in Gaza until his release in a February 2025 prisoner exchange.

The event, titled "505 Days in Captivity: Omer Shem Tov's Testimony of Resilience," took place on April 14 without disruption and was organized by UCLA Hillel and the YS Nazarian Center for Israel Studies to coincide with Yom HaShoah, an observance of the...