"We're not asking the university to infringe on anyone's free speech rights, but our contention all along is that the chancellor has his own free speech rights, and for whatever reason, he's refusing to exercise them," said Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA's Center for Law and Justice. "He can come out and condemn the speech as hurtful and anti-Semitic."
A university spokeswoman says it has no comment.
Authorities arrested 11 Muslim students earlier this month for interrupting a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.
Tension around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has spilled onto campus at several other universities lately as well.
Pro-Palestinian students have disrupted speeches by prominent Israeli speakers at Oxford University, in England, at the University of Chicago and at UCLA.
But tension has simmered between Jewish and Muslim student groups for years at UC Irvine, and discourse between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students has been particularly vitriolic.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
