BUZZ
‘This act of repression is nothing new on campus. And we will not be cowed.’
The group Law Students for Justice in Palestine at Berkeley Law claimed it was forbidden from setting up a table at the law school’s Student Activities Fair because it still has a bylaw forbidding “Zionist speakers.”
According to the student paper The Daily Californian, a UC Berkeley spokesman noted “only registered student organizations receive tables at the law school’s activities fair,” and since the LSJP “has not yet fulfilled the requirements” it was thus denied.
The group set up a table anyway.
Earlier this year, UC Berkeley settled a lawsuit with the Brandeis Center over worries of antisemitism on campus. The settlement forbids the law school’s registered student groups from having bylaws that ban “Zionist” speakers and “those [who] support the idea of a Jewish political state.”
Law school Dean Erwin Chemerinsky noted groups “may continue to have policies as to who they will invite as speakers, including on the basis of viewpoint,” they just cannot have codified prohibitions on certain speakers.
The LSJP noted in a late-August Instagram post that it could not “in good conscience agree” to that part of the settlement.
It wrote “We are banned from participating because the Brandeis Center is telling Berkeley what to do. This act of repression is nothing new on campus. And we will not be cowed.”
In an Instagram post after the Student Activities Fair, the LSJP noted it brought its own table to the event, along with a message for the law school and Brandeis Center: “Zionism is racism.”
“Despite the @brandeiscenter settlement, we successfully talked to new students about how they can get involved in the movement for Palestinian liberation, the struggle against Zionism, which is a racist endeavor, and spread the message about Israel’s human right abuses against Palestinians,” the group wrote. “We will continue to organize on campus and will not be intimidated!”
The Instagram post contained photos of placards laid out on the LSJP table, including “There are no universities left in Gaza” and “64,000. That’s how many children Israel has killed or injured.”
Another, erroneously labeled an acronym, read “WCNSF – Wounded Child No Surviving Family,” referring to Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza.
The LSJP’s Asma Masude told the student paper her group “did not encounter any obstacles or backlash when tabling independently, and plans to ‘move forward with as much force as we can.’”
Masude claimed other student groups had had similar bylaws to the LSJP’s, but removed them due to the settlement agreement.
“We could not check that box honestly to confirm that we don’t have that policy,” she said, adding that the law school is “trying to stifle Palestinian advocacy and liberation.”
MORE: UC Berkeley rejected professor because she is Israeli: lawsuit
