Berkeley,
CA
– Antisemitic posters have been appearing around the
University of California, Berkeley campus ever since a course exploring how Israel might be destroyedwas first
suspended and then reinstated early last week.
The syllabus, titled “Palestine: A Settler
Colonial Analysis,” was decried by a campus watchdog group as “a classic example of antisemitic
anti-Zionism.”
One of the offending posters referred to the coalition of 43 Jewish, civil rights
and educational organizations that had written an open letter expressing concern about the
course and disappointment in UC Berkeley’s vetting process, calling the
groups “advocates for a foreign state”
who “seek to control our freedom of speech and academic expression.”
It also claimed that the Israeli government was directly involved
in the initial suspension of the course.
Another poster derided the large US military-aid deal recently
signed with Israel, snidely telling “non-Jews” that they had better “pay up and
shut up” in the face of “Jewish bullies.”
In an email to the
university community on Thursday, the UC Berkeley administration responded
to the anti-Jewish rhetoric in the posters, saying, “The language used
violates our Principles of Community, as well as the Regents’ Principles
Against Intolerance,” and assuring that the school had “instructed
that the posters be removed.”
“We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure we have
a campus climate that is safe, welcoming and respectful for all,” the statement
read.
Anti-Zionist poster at UC Berkeley.
UC Berkeley said it rescinded the suspension of the course last
week after its syllabus was purportedly changed. However, a close examination
of the new syllabus by The Algemeiner revealed
only minor changes, and found that the same anti-Zionist literature will be
studied as previously listed.
The language of the course
description was also modified to remove the admission that the course would be
“exploring the possibility of decolonization,” as originally stated. It now
says that the program will involve researching “a range of political
alternatives” to “achieve justice for all.”
Paul Hadweh, the course
facilitator, admitted to anti-Israel website Electronic
Intifada that revisions to the syllabus were mere “cosmetic changes” and no
adjustments had been made to the course material.
“The changes are just clarifications
to the course description, its objectives and the final project,” he said.
