Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Law Students for Justice in Palestine

Monday, August 29, 2022

Berkeley Law student groups pledge not to invite any Zionists to speak

Student organizations at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law are facing backlash from their own dean after adopting a statement that pledges to not invite any Zionist or pro-Israel speaker to give lectures.

Law Students for Justice in Palestine at Berkeley Law made an Aug. 21 post on Instagram stating that nine other student organizations have adopted a "pro-Palestine bylaw" that states they "will not" invite speakers who support Zionism or "the apartheid state of Israel."

"In the interest of protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus, [insert organization name] 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," the bylaw states.

There are no similar rules barring terrorists, or Nazis, or people who want disco to come back.

Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky emailed the groups, saying,

I want the Law School to be a place where all views can be expressed and where all of our students, staff, and faculty feel included and that they belong.
... It is troubling to broadly exclude a particular viewpoint from being expressed. Indeed, taken literally, this would mean that I could not be invited to speak because I support the existence of Israel, though I condemn many of its policies.
The principles of community for the Berkeley campus stress that we are committed to ensuring freedom of expression and dialogue that elicits the full spectrum of views held by our varied communities. As part of Berkeley’s Antisemitism Education initiative the campus has created a video which explains why singling out the state of Israel for special condemnation, or questioning the very legitimacy of its existence, is considered by many Jewish students to be a form of Antisemitism.

In fact, this rule would mean that no current or past Supreme Court Justices could be invited to speak at these groups. Neither could nearly all members of Congress and every single senator.

The idea that law school students enthusiastically support limiting free speech and "protecting" adult students from hearing opinions they might disagree with is almost more troubling than their obvious antisemitism.

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