Berkeley Law’s students have institutionalized an ancient ideology of hate, incorporating it into the legal DNA of their major identity groups.
For all the resistance that Berkeley’s enablers have generated, the facts are undisputed and indisputable. Berkeley Law’s students have institutionalized an ancient ideology of hate, incorporating it into the legal DNA of their major identity groups. In doing so, they have embodied this bigotry in a dangerous new form of silencing and exclusion.
As Berkeley’s administration has conceded, nine Berkeley Law student groups amended their bylaws this academic year to prohibit Zionist speakers. It is important to be perfectly clear about what this means. An expert on real estate law would not be permitted to impart real estate expertise to any of these groups if they also support the existence of one Jewish state among 22 Arab countries in the Middle East. An expert in Title IX could not come speak to the women’s law group if they also support the right for Jewish liberation after thousands of years of anti-Jewish persecution and annihilation. An expert in the legality of gay marriage or gender discrimination employment law could not speak to the LGBTQ+ group.
More than 80% of Jews support the existence of Israel as the Jewish homeland. They might also strongly object to Israel’s policies on settlements, they might firmly advocate for improved Palestinian rights, but if they so much as support a two-state solution, they would be banned by these groups. Make no mistake, these are Jew-free zones, i.e., platforms or podia forbidden to Jews.
It is absurd to defend this, as Chancellor Christ and Dean Chemerinsky have done, as “less than ten groups out of 100.” Yes, nine is less than ten. These groups, however, represent wide swaths of the law school, including Berkeley Law’s women, Asian and Pacific Islander, African American, LGBTQ, and Middle Eastern student populations. To insinuate that this is less than ten percent, now that is misleading.
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