Berkeley Law Dean Chemerinsky claims that there are no “Jewish-free zones” at the university because the majority of student groups have not changed their bylaws to exclude Zionist speakers.
If the Berkeley Law administration considers the fact that “only” some student organizations currently have a policy of excluding Jews as a serious defense, then the “anti-racist campus” has a much bigger problem that extends beyond antisemitic student organizations.
Eight Berkeley Law student groups at the behest of Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP) including the Berkeley Law Muslim Student Association, Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, Womxn of Color Collective, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Queer Caucus, Community Defense Project, Women of Berkeley Law, and Law Students of African Descent agreed to a policy that creates judenfrei (Jewish-free) spaces on campus.
Only by renouncing a belief deeply held by most Jews, their connection to their indigenous homeland and support for the Jewish state’s right to exist, would Jews be allowed to participate.
The creation of a litmus test that requires members of a protected group to disavow an integral part of their Jewish identity before participating in university activities and opportunities is a matter of overt discrimination, not protected speech.
Even a single space at Berkeley Law adopting such a policy of excluding Jews, or any other protected group, is one too many. That this even needs to be said is shocking.
As antisemitism continues to grow at alarming rates, CAMERA on Campus calls on the Berkeley School of Law to actively enforce longstanding anti-discrimination policies that have long protected minorities.
