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Jewish Civil Rights Group Challenges UC Berkeley Motion to Dismiss Antisemitism Lawsuit
Aftermath of pro-Hamas group’s occupation of a University of California, Berkeley administrative building. Photo: Michael Wai Lee via Reuters Connect
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on Wednesday filed a legal brief challenging the University of California, Berkeley’s (UC Berkeley) motion to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of failing to address antisemitism on campus.
The Brandeis Center is the plaintiff in the suit, which it brought in November to prove its contention that UC Berkeley willfully refused to discipline student efforts to expel Jews from campus groups and pressured Jewish students and faculty into denouncing Zionism after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.
The complaint provided several examples of antisemitic harassment and exclusion on campus before Oct. 7, however, including a bylaw banning Zionists speakers that 23 Berkeley Law groups adopted in Sept. 2021; campus groups Women of Berkeley Law and the Queer Caucus requiring support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel to join its ranks; and the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law, and Justice banning Zionists from submitting articles and speaking at its events.
Jewish students, the Brandeis Center added, were victims of a double standard, being the only minorities not protected from discrimination by the university’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.
UC Berkeley argued in a motion to dismiss the case, filed in February, that its anti-Zionist students were exercising their First Amendment right to free speech and that not disciplining them was “consistent with long-established constitutional principles.” It added that it has not had sufficient time to address the issue and said the Brandeis Center’s “claims should be dismissed.”
Now, the Brandeis Center, in addition to challenging the motion to dismiss, has amended its original complaint, arguing that antisemitism at Berkeley is worse than when it first sued it and that the school’s attempt to dismiss the suit is audacious.
“Amazingly, the UC Berkeley Regents have the nerve to claim that they shouldn’t be held accountable because they haven’t had enough time to investigate the situation,” Brandis Center founder and chairman Kenneth Marcus said on Wednesday. “It’s been now more than half a year since their system president admitted that they have a problem, and yet they haven’t had enough time? When the university makes this sort of argument to a court of law, their opposition brief is the least of what needs to be dismissed.”
Rachel Lerman, the Brandeis Center’s vice chair and senior counsel, noted that several months after the complaint was filed UC Berkeley saw an event which it later described as a “black mark” on its history. In February, a mob of hundreds of pro-Palestinian students and non-students shut down an event at its Zellerbach Hall featuring Israeli reservist Ran Bar-Yoshafat, forcing Jewish students to flee to a secret safe room as the protesters overwhelmed campus police.
Footage of the incident showed a frenzied mass of anti-Zionist agitators banging on the doors of Zellerbach. The mob then, according to witnesses, eventually stormed the building — breaking windows in the process, according to reports in The Daily Wire — and precipitated the decision to evacuate the area. During the infiltration of Zellerbach, one of the mob — assembled by Bears for Palestine, which had earlier proclaimed its intention to cancel the event — spit on a Jewish student and called him a “Jew,” pejoratively.
“UC Berkeley’s inaction has had consequences: Jewish students on campus continue to be physically assaulted spat at, and subjected to discrimination,” Lerman said. “UC Berkeley cannot abdicate its legal obligation to create a campus environment that is free from harassment and discrimination. The Brandeis Center will continue to use legal recourse to stand up for Jewish students and faculty at UC Berkeley and across the country.”
UC Berkeley has denied the Brandeis Center’s allegations, arguing that the school has “long been committed to confronting antisemitism, and to supporting the needs and interests of its Jewish students, faculty, and staff.” A school spokesperson has cited as evidence the school’s establishment in 2019 of a “groundbreaking” Antisemitism Education Initiative.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish Civil Rights Group Challenges UC Berkeley Motion to Dismiss Antisemitism Lawsuit first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.
According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.
In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.
The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.
Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.
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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen
The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.
Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.
Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.
Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.
Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.
“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”