Several student groups at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law have barred speakers who support Zionism at the start of the academic year.
The bylaw, led by UC Berkeley’s law students at Students for Justice in Palestine, declared that not inviting pro-Zionist speakers was “necessary for the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus.”
In response to the ban, American Jewish Committee united with 35 other Jewish organizations to condemn the action, calling it “unabashed antisemitism.”
A complaint was also filed against the university for their decision in the first complaint of its kind.
Arsen Ostrovsky, attorney, and CEO at International Legal Forum, chose to pursue the complaint, telling i24NEWS that “when they say no Zionists, what they really mean is no Jews.”
“What we are seeing here is a deeply profound act of discrimination against Jewish students,” Ostrovsky said.
He criticized the dean of the school for saying that “only a handful” of student groups were involved, pointing out that this sort of rhetoric would be unheard of for any other group.
Ostrovsky rejected the notion that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are different, claiming that they are one and the same, calling Zionism an “indispensable part of Jewish identity.”
