A UC Irvine student Palestinian-support group begins the school year this month with a two-year probation for disrupting an event on campus featuring young veteran Israeli soldiers.

The campus chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine, SJP, faces disciplinary probation for two academic years. During that time, members must meet with the dean of students 12 times to discuss free speech issues and must also consult with a representative of the dean’s office before hosting or co-hosting any campus event.

This is not the first time SJP has been accused of disrupting an Israeli-related event. The group is appealing the administration’s decision and has filed its own complaint against UCI’s Students Supporting Israel.

Meanwhile, any further violations of the campus code of student conduct could lead UCI to suspend or revoke the student Palestinian organization’s status, university officials said.

“UCI welcomes all opinions and encourages a free exchange of ideas – in fact, we defend free speech as one of our bedrock principles as a public university,” read a statement issued last week.

“Yet, we must protect everyone’s right to express themselves without disruption. This concept is clearly articulated in our policies and campus messaging. We will hold firm in enforcing it.”

Kevin Brum, president of UCI’s Students Supporting Israel, said Monday: “This is not the first time SJP has tried to shut us down or trample our rights. We’re happy the university is taking it more seriously than they have in the past.”

Liz Jackson, staff attorney with Palestine Legal, an organization dedicated to supporting the Palestinian rights movement, said UCI’s decision is “not about the facts or the law. It’s a politically motivated choice to curtail the speech activities of students who stand up for Palestinian rights.”

“It’s clearly UCI that needs the lesson in free speech, not the students,” Jackson said in a statement. Individual students were not sanctioned, she said in an e-mail.

On May 10, the UCI Students Supporting Israel group hosted five former Israeli soldiers to campus. About a dozen people attended the program when about an hour into the event, as a Q&A was underway, a group of more than 30 members and supporters of the SJP group walked in.

At first, they were invited to participate and ask questions, as seen in videos posted online. The Israeli soldiers answered several of the questions about the conflict plaguing the Middle East but emotions soon began to flare. Shouted questions and clapping later dissolved into chants against Israel.

“You’re killing our people,” one woman screamed.

The forum with the soldiers took place the same week the campus Muslim Student Union and other organizations put on the annual “Anti-Zionism Week,” which includes marches with chants like “Long Live the Intifada.”

During the week, organizers erect what they call an “apartheid wall,” symbolic of the one built in Israel after terrorist attacks; it is viewed by Israelis as a security measure and by Palestinians as segregationist. “Anti-Zionism Week” organizers say they see the week as an opportunity to share their views on the conflict in the Middle East.

This year, the young Israeli veterans, part of a group called Reservists on Duty, attended every day to pass out their own literature and share their views on the conflict with passersby.

Palestine Legal has filed a complaint against Students Supporting Israel, saying the former soldiers invited to campus harassed the SJP group and their supporters.

Brum, of the Students Supporting Israel group, said the soldiers did not harass anyone. Instead, they were on hand to answer questions, challenge information written on the so-called “apartheid wall” and counter what he called lies propagated by the student Palestinian group.

“They have this whole week where they put up a wall and have a monopoly on the conversation,” Brum said.

Last year’s “Anti-Zionism Week” included a counter-event featuring a movie about Israeli soldiers. That movie event was disrupted by protesters and it created a firestorm of controversy, with dozens of organizations supporting each side and demanding the university act. Administrators eventually gave the SJP a warning letter, saying the group violated conduct policies.

There have been other conflicts. Most notably, in 2010, 11 Muslim students from UCI and UC Riverside were arrested and charged for conspiring to disrupt a speech by then-Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. The following year, a jury found 10 of the students guilty and they were sentenced to three years of probation, cut to one year if they served community service.