A bylaw signed onto by 9 student groups would ban anyone supporting Israel’s right to exist from speaking. Gee, I wonder how this will affect the UC Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies?
The Daily Cal (h/t Marcin W) In the name of “protecting the ‘safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus,” nine UC Berkeley School of Law student groups will not invite speakers who have “’expressed or continued to hold’ Zionist views or support pro-Israel events.” So announced the Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, or LSJP, in mid-August, The Daily Californian reports.
In a statement, the LSJP said “We have encouraged student groups to boycott the apartheid state [Israel] and not lend platforms to speakers who support the Zionist project of genocide and apartheid. The student organizations that have democratically voted to adopt the bylaw have done so in rejection of the Zionist ideology and in solidarity with Palestinian students at Berkeley Law.”
In response, the Jewish Students Association at Berkeley Law said “In considering which organizations to join, students should not be forced to choose between identifying as either ‘pro-Palestine’ and thereby ‘anti-Israel,’ or ‘pro-Israel’ and thereby ‘anti-Palestine.’” The nine groups’ stance is part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement.
UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky noted his concern about the ban and free expression in an August 25 email, saying “To me, a law school should be a place where all views should be expressed, and to say that we’re not going to invite speakers with a particular viewpoint is inconsistent with that.”
INN The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) denounced an “antisemitic, anti-Israel bylaw” promoted by Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). “In essence, student groups that endorse this bylaw agree to exclude speakers who simply support Israel’s right to exist,” ZOA President Morton Klein said in a statement.
“It’s unconscionable that Berkeley Law has so feebly responded to this obvious effort to marginalize Jewish and pro-Israel students and prevent them and others from speaking on campus and telling the truth about Israel, the only genuine democracy in the Middle East,” Klein said.
Linda Rivera's says
In the name of “protecting the ‘safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus…
“We have encouraged student groups to boycott the apartheid state [Israel] and not lend platforms to speakers who support the Zionist project of genocide and apartheid.
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EVIL, WICKED, SATANIC Perpetrators ACCUSE their Innocent Jewish Victims of the Terrible Crimes that they are Guilty of.
andrewblackadder says
So basically those people against Jewsish studies or Jewish speakers are the same people that do not want peace in any shape or form…. right?.
So these students are advocating for WAR….
What a different place UC Bezerkely has become since the late 1960s.