Kenneth Marcus, who under Trump all too briefly served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Ed, calls the move by nine student affinity groups and organizations at Berkeley’s School of Law to ban Jewish speakers to be “Jewish-Free Zones.”
Nine different law student groups at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law, my own alma mater, have begun this new academic year by amending bylaws to ensure that they will never invite any speakers that support Israel or Zionism. And these are not groups that represent only a small percentage of the student population. They include Women of Berkeley Law, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, Law Students of African Descent and the Queer Caucus. Berkeley Law’s Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, a progressive Zionist, has observed that he himself would be banned under this standard, as would 90% of his Jewish students.
Tellingly, the rationale for this was the familiar one of safe spaces.
“In the interest of protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus,” allies of the anti-Israel accepting its antisemitic rationale, “will not invite speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views or host/sponsor/promote events in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”
Safe spaces have become judenrein spaces. Much as they’ve become conservative-free, as they’ve purged women who believe in their own existence and anyone un-woke. Safety means total ideological tribalism and eliminating those who disagree.
And the free speech movement at Berkeley has become a no-free speech for Jews movement.
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who had previously come out against the entire category of restricting ‘hate speech’, has offered criticisms of the move, but if a dozen organizations had effectively banned black speakers from campus by say adding a code stating that they will only accept black speakers who think that slavery was wonderful, the response would be more than criticism.
This kind of thing is a straightforward case of disparate impact. And disparate impact has been used to sue universities, including Berkeley, before. Any restriction that effectively bars Jewish students from participating in a good deal of student life and restricts their career opportunities is an actual apartheid move that should be met with serious legal actions, not mere words.
Those who know history may remember the ‘Ghetto Benches’ that Jewish students in Polish universities were subjected to before the Holocaust. Nationalist student groups demanded that Jewish students be banished to ‘ghetto benches’. When the administration didn’t give in, they rioted and assaulted Jewish students. Eventually the administrations gave in and ghetto benches became widespread. A few courageous faculty members refused to go along, but most did. It was a preview of the Holocaust which would have as its epicenter not long thereafter the mass murder of Jews in Polish death camps.
History repeats itself.
medaber_emet says
Americans have evolved to become extremely stupid the outcome of it will be that they will destroy their own miserable house by their hands and by the hands of the Muslims
so the Muslim brotherhood are much smarter than the great American nation
this is very sad for all the world
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, it’s ridiculous for the US to criticize any country for cracking down on free speech, when this is the state of free speech in this country, from campuses to the DOJ going after ‘Right wing extremists’. Just like it’s ridiculous of the US to criticize any country for questionable elections after what happened in 2020
James Lincoln says
Yes, Infidel.
Under Biden, et al., the United States no longer holds the high moral ground.
Keith O says
A simple solution to this problem would be to find the little darlings who put their names and signatures to this document and sue them personally.
There is obviously enough legal precedent for this to be successful and it would send a nice message to these oxygen thieves.
Gary Fouse says
As a former UC (Irvine) teacher, I wrote a letter to Chemerinsky (He responded) basically telling him that he should not be surprised at this turn of events. Just as he did at the UC Irvine School of Law, he is running a law school that is devoted to liberal activism, including an association with the National Lawyers Guild (founded in the 1930s as a legal arm of the Communist Party USA). The NLG, like at UCI, has a student chapter at UC Berkeley.
Chemerinsky basically responded that the law school cannot prevent student groups like the ones that are causing the controversy. Nor can they prevent the NLG from forming a group at the school. Fine and dandy, but even though he has criticized the actions of the student groups, he should not be surprised. This is his law school. This is the way he has shaped it.
gravenimage says
Thank you, Gary.
milo minderbinder says
Gary Fouse says
Oct 3, 2022 at 8:45 pm
“Fine and dandy, but even though he has criticized the actions of the student groups, he should not be surprised. This is his law school. This is the way he has shaped it.”
…………………………………………………………..
Of course, this is happening, it’s by design. The “global elite” have their version of the Military’s Special Forces. They have selected the brightest young people, trained them, shaped and molded them into this “New World Order” mentality, and then, infiltrated them into institutions all over the globe.
It’s a “stealth jihad,” and it’s working. The majority of people on a global scale are unaware of what is happening right in front of their eyes. The bad guys are winning the battle; however, they won’t win the war.
In the meantime, batten down the hatches, the worst is yet to come.
“Our Own Little Hills”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/10/our_own_little_hills.html
gravenimage says
The Berkeley ‘No Free Speech for Jews’ Movement
…………………………………..
Just appalling–this is my own alma mater, and I had not heard of this.
Berkeley prides itself on bearing the leagacy of the free speech movement–not with vicious crap like this, its not.
brenrod says
All of those groups are supporters of the democrat party, duh!