The University of California, Berkeley, acknowledged discriminating against an Israeli academic in a legal settlement announced on Wednesday.
Dr. Yael Nativ, an Israeli dance researcher and sociologist, filed a lawsuit against Berkeley in August, alleging discrimination based on her Israeli identity.
The lawsuit said that Nativ had been a visiting professor at Berkeley, teaching a course about contemporary Israeli dance, prior to the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel and had been invited to return to the campus, but that Berkeley rescinded the offer after the start of the Gaza war.
The university’s discrimination office investigated and found that Nativ had been discriminated against because she was Israeli, according to the legal complaint filed in a California court. California state civil rights protections and Berkeley’s nondiscrimination policy prohibit discrimination based on national origin.
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a legal advocacy group that often represents Jews in cases of alleged campus discrimination, represented Nativ in the lawsuit.
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The settlement announced on Wednesday included the requirement that Berkeley’s chancellor, Rich Lyons, apologize to Nativ for the discrimination.
“I respect and appreciate Dr. Nativ’s decision to settle this case. She is owed the apology I will provide on behalf of our campus. We look forward to welcoming Dr. Nativ back to Berkeley to teach again,” Lyons said in a Wednesday statement.
Berkeley also affirmed that one of its employees violated the university’s discrimination policy, that its policies do not allow discrimination against Israelis, and that it will not allow anti-Israel discrimination going forward, according to a copy of the settlement shared with The Times of Israel.
Berkeley will pay Nativ $60,000 in damages and agreed to invite her back to teach at the university, the settlement said.
Berkeley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Anti-Israel protesters set up tents in front of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, California, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Nativ taught a course on contemporary dance in Israel in Berkeley’s theater department in the 2022 spring semester. The course went well and Berkeley encouraged Nativ to apply for a teaching role for another semester, the lawsuit said.
In August 2023, she applied to teach the same dance course, but in November 2023, weeks after the Hamas attack, administrators told her that her application had been rejected.
A Jewish faculty member told Nativ that she believed the rejection was “politically tinged,” and a faculty member in the theater department who had previously encouraged Nativ to apply indicated that the decision was political.
“My dept cannot host you for a class next fall,” the faculty member told Nativ in a WhatsApp message. “Things are very hot here right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here.”
Anti-Israel protest tents set up in front of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, California, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Nativ responded, saying she was “sad and broken” and disappointed in the hostility from American academics, and asked the faculty member to encourage campus dialogue, but did not receive a response.
After Nativ went public with the incident and Berkeley received complaints, the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination opened an investigation.
In September 2024, the office said it had concluded that Nativ was discriminated against due to her national origin, and asked her to respond. Nativ asked for an apology, an invitation to teach again, and resources to help faculty and students deal with racism and antisemitism.
Nativ repeatedly asked for updates in the following months, but the university did not take any action, leading her to file the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleged national origin discrimination under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, failure to prevent discrimination under the act, and national origin discrimination under the California Education Code.
The lawsuit was one of dozens filed around the country related to antisemitism and anti-Zionist activism on college campuses.
Both Israel’s supporters and its opponents are battering universities around the country with allegations of discrimination based on the campus responses to anti-Israel protests.
American Jews have filed most of the lawsuits, alleging antisemitism, but Israelis have also filed some cases due to alleged discrimination based on their national origin.
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