UC Berkeley offers English Lit course says Hamas is a "revolutionary resistance force combating settler-colonialism"

This is a 1971 Chinese propaganda poster that says on the left "LONG LIVE MARXISM, LENINISM & MAO ZEDONG THOUGHT" and on the right "Proletariat of the world, unite!"

It is also the profile picture of UC-Berkeley graduate student Christián González Reyes.

Reyes is the co-creator of a class that was scheduled for this coming spring called "Leninism and Anarchism: A Theoretical Approach to Literature and Film." its course description, since removed, said:

With the US-backed and -funded genocide being carried out against Indigenous Palestinians by the Israeli Occupying Force, many have found it difficult to envision a reality beyond the one we are living in today. At the same time, we have also seen a rise in global socialist (and in particular Leninist) movements that are actively combating this destructive imperial agenda. From the Hamas revolutionary resistance forces combating settler-colonialism to a continuous anti-imperialist politic by Cuba, Vietnam, Venezuela, China, DPRK, and various Indigenous and First-Nation peoples across the Americas, there continues to be a commitment to anti- imperialism and anti-capitalism in what has been termed the Global South ...

This is not a politics course. It is a comparative literature course. Yet that doesn't stop the instructor from engaging in spreading antisemitic and anti-Western ideologies. 

Berkeley responded to criticism:

In response to a query from Ynet, Berkeley said, "The matter is being addressed. The original course description was changed.” A university official added, " While we can’t, as a matter of law comment on personnel issues, generally speaking we take our policies that prohibit using the classroom for political advocacy very seriously. If/when there is reason to suspect those policies are being violated we respond quickly." When pressed on specific actions taken, the university cited privacy laws as a reason for withholding further details.

Someone had placed this course description on Berkeley's website. There is no way graduate students could put u course material descriptions without the literature department signing off on it. It isn't like Reyes posted it on his personal Facebook page - this went through some vetting before being published.

What UCB takes very seriously is the threat of bad PR, not the issue of classes that are clearly meant for political indoctrination. 

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