RSS
We Are Jewish Students Suing UC Berkeley for Antisemitism; Will Next Semester Get Better?
We are Jewish students at UC Berkeley. On November 28, we sued Berkeley for antisemitism.
Protecting free speech and addressing antisemitism is not a zero sum issue. Left alone, hostility towards Jews leads to discrimination and violence against others. Free speech can’t survive in this environment. Therefore, tackling antisemitism is the first step in restoring free speech.
UC Berkeley’s antisemitism is rooted in a rigid ideology: Jews are oppressors.
At our school, Jew-hate is green-washed as social justice. To belong, Jews must renounce their identity or else be shunned.
In October, Jewish students at Berkeley were told that there was no threat to their safety, but that they should “avoid becoming targets.”
In another email, our antisemitism concerns were questioned, given that Berkeley has a Jewish “provost, at least one other Jewish cabinet member, at least five Jewish deans, and hundreds of Jewish faculty.” Under this logic, Berkeley cannot have sexism. We have a female chancellor, female police chief, and multiple female deans and department heads.
As the semester went on, our fears only intensified.
Two Jewish students were physically assaulted on campus, one week apart. Berkeley has kept both cases “active,” yet refuses to investigate them as hate. The university suggested we seek counseling and make academic flexibility requests. They also sympathized for anything that happened which may have been “offensive.”
Even when we were told to “f*ck off” by classmates, the university stayed silent. When we feared grading retaliation and the pressure to hide our Jewish identity, the university offered no recourse. And when Jewish teachers received e-mails calling for their gassing, the administration was — you guessed it — nowhere to be found.
In December, a Jewish student was robbed and left the note: “F*ck Jews. Free Palestine. From the river to the sea.” Berkeley failed to call this anti-Jewish hate. Previously, Berkeley had no qualms about specifying anti-trans and anti-Asian American hate.
Berkeley is not equipped for the intimidation that Jewish students encounter in the wild. During a protest this semester, students walked through a river to get to class.
The university must know that this is out of control. Perhaps that is why we are sent to Jewish spaces for belonging: to offset the Jewish-free zones on campus.
Berkeley is home to Jewish institutes and museums, Hillel and Chabad, and the Antisemitism Education Initiative. Recently, administrators have joined Jewish students for Shabbat and Hanukkah. This is where we are safe to be Jewish.
How is this different from a Jewish ghetto? Instead of dealing directly with antisemites, Berkeley has manufactured Jewish pockets on campus.
To break the harassment, Berkeley must stop excusing raw antisemitism as “anti-Zionism.”
Berkeley must recognize that for many Jews, Israel and shared Jewish ancestry is inherent to identity. Just as the police investigated an anti-kosher incident as hate, the same goes for Israel. Otherwise, we must hide our identity when anti-Jew hate is ignored. This contradicts Berkeley’s “free exchange of ideas” principle.
Long-term fixes will require Berkeley to re-evaluate its governance and culture.
Berkeley’s decentralized governance model means that the Academic Senate has more power than deans. As a result, a minority dominates decision rights, stifling pluralism and discouraging dissent. Checks and balances are necessary to counter this polarization, as no structures currently offset this lopsidedness. Administrative decisions are made in silos. Consistent procedures and accountability expectations are inhibited when each situation is treated differently.
For example, in a lecture, engineering students were indoctrinated by their teacher’s 18-minute diatribe on the linkage between their student struggles and Palestinians’. Nevermind that Berkeley previously sent multiple rounds of forceful communication discouraging classroom political indoctrination.
Students were told “[Berkeley] is looking further into this.” These words are cheap. Weeks later, the teacher hosted a teach-in focused on technology and Israeli apartheid. Evidently, behavior continues, guised as peace. Berkeley must take disciplinary action to hold staff accountable.
Repairing Berkeley’s culture comes next. The university’s diversity, equity, inclusion and justice efforts lack pluralism.
Berkeley’s Antisemitism Education Initiative should be included in initiatives that already include anti-Black racism and Islamophobia. Furthermore, centers formed for inclusion should not exclude people.
When Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute blamed “power structures” for the Israel-Gaza War, they conveniently omitted Islamism. The institute’s website also spotlights Islamophobia, but not antisemitism too. This double standard is glaring.
Only by addressing broken governance and campus culture can students’ education be unburdened by discrimination.
Hannah Schlacter is a second year MBA at UC Berkeley. Danielle Sobkin is the daughter of Soviet refugees and a first-gen student. Both are members of Jewish Americans For Fairness in Education (JAFE), a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against UC Berkeley for antisemitism.
The post We Are Jewish Students Suing UC Berkeley for Antisemitism; Will Next Semester Get Better? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.