The University of California-Berkeley is facing heightened backlash after a Palestinian Political Prisoners Day event included a speaker with a terrorism conviction.

Israa Jaabis, a failed car suicide bomber, was released from prison in November 2023 as part of a deal to return Israeli hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. Jaabis was convicted of attempting to set off a car bomb in 2015 during a traffic stop. The incident occurred near an area where Israeli soldiers would often gather and attempt to hitchhike. Jaabis and an Israeli officer, Moshe Chen, were severely burned during the attack.

UC Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the event organizers, posted Jaabis’ message to the students on Instagram.

“Firstly, I would like to thank [the students] for their attentiveness, for listening with their hearts. For many reasons, even their attendance is enough to make us feel — as liberated Palestinian prisoners — that there is someone who cares about us,” Jaabis said, according to the video’s English-translated subtitles.

UC BERKELEY SLAMMED AFTER ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP HOSTS FAILED SUICIDE BOMBER AS GUEST EVENT SPEAKER

UC Berkeley is facing backlash after a student event featured a convicted attempted car bomber. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

UC Regent Jay Sures told Fox News Digital that the event featuring Jaabis was “disgusting and abhorrent.”

“I think when you talk about in the larger context of the University of California, I can tell you, as one of just a couple of the Jewish regents, I’m very satisfied with the steps the administration has taken to try to curb antisemitism on campus. Having said that, there’s just going to be circumstances across the campuses, across all college campuses, where there’s going to be groups of people that are going to promote and justify and glorify antisemitism,” Sures said.

Sures noted that the event was put on by Students for Justice in Palestine, a far-left, rabidly anti-Israel group that has been suspended or banned from multiple universities, including Columbia University, American University and Duke University. He added that the group promotes “anti-Zionistic behavior” and said that there was “absolutely no doubt that anti-Zionistic rhetoric leads to antisemitism.”

“Under the First Amendment, these groups have the right to free speech. And that’s just part of what it’s like to live in a country where you have a First Amendment,” he said.

UC Berkeley Law recently told Fox News Digital that when it came to the event with Jaabis, its hands were tied.

“As a public university, UC Berkeley has a non-discretionary obligation to abide by and support the First Amendment in a completely content-neutral manner,” Alex Shapiro, assistant dean of communications, said. “We do not have the legal ability to sanction or censor constitutionally protected expression.

“However, as UC Berkeley has repeatedly informed the student body, if any campus community member feels threatened, they are encouraged to contact the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. OPHD provides support to those harmed, investigates all allegations, and the campus takes appropriate steps following any findings.”

Israa Jaabis, a Palestinian woman who spent eight years in Israeli prisons with severe burns, spoke about her captivity and freedom at the 3rd International Al-Aqsa Women’s Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, on Nov. 7, 2025. (Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

UCLA STUDENT COUNCIL CONDEMNS CAMPUS EVENT WITH FORMER ISRAELI HOSTAGE

Sures recently made headlines when he slammed the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC) after it issued a letter condemning an event featuring freed Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov. In a letter that was widely circulated online, Sures said that he was “disgusted and appalled” by USAC’s statement.

“While your letter expresses concern over a ‘troubling disregard for Palestinian life,’ it says nothing about the Israeli lives lost on Oct. 7th, including the shooting of many of Omer’s close friends. Nor does your letter mention the countless rapes and massacres carried out by Hamas on that day. It is as if none of that happened,” Sures wrote.

Shem Tov, in a statement to Fox News Digital, said the backlash to his appearance on campus reflected a broader unwillingness to hear perspectives that challenge existing narratives.

UC Regent Jay Sures told Fox News Digital that it was “disgusting and abhorrent” that a student group hosted a convicted failed car bomber. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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“If you are willing to silence a survivor of 505 days in captivity to protect a preconceived narrative, it’s worth pausing,” he said. “When a worldview requires you to override your own values, something is misaligned. The hope is that it’s the worldview that changes — because the values are worth keeping.”

Fox News Digital reached out to UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.