UC Berkeley’s settlement with the Brandeis Center threatens free speech | Op-Eds

Ronald Cruz is an alumnus of Berkeley Law School and attorney with the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), representing the pro-Palestine student intervenors in Brandeis Center v. UC Regents.

On Nov. 28, 2023, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sued UC Berkeley, seeking to deem anti-Zionist speech “antisemitic,” thus justifying disciplinary action against it. Instead of continuing with litigation, UC Berkeley has agreed to a litany of barriers to pro-Palestinian speech as part of the proposed settlement.

Student intervenors, whom I represent on behalf of the United for Equality and Affirmative Action Legal Defense Fund and the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight For Equality By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, have objected to the settlement. Judge James Donato granted the student intervenors, all of whom are members of the student organizations relevant to the case the right to enter the case due to their personal stakes in the matter. These students oppose the expansionist policy of the Netanyahu government which has led to genocide in Gaza and slaughter in Lebanon and Iran.

BAMN and the student intervenors fought to get this hearing today so that their voices, those who will be directly impacted by the outcome of this case, will be heard. We demand that Judge Donato refuse to rubber stamp this settlement which risks discriminating against pro-Palestinian speech.

After a wave of Berkeley Law student organizations noted in their bylaws that they will not invite or host speakers who express support for Zionism, the Brandeis Center filed a lawsuit against UC Berkeley for its alleged lack of action in protecting the Jewish students and faculty members whom they claimed this endorsement of anti-Zionism discriminated against.

Now, the UC Board of Regents is attempting to finalize a deal with the Brandeis Center without consulting BAMN and the student intervenors.

Earlier this year, the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a ruling against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that equated anti-Zionism to antisemitism. If the courts decide to uphold this precedent set in Stand With Us Center v. MIT, then the Brandeis Center’s claims would be rendered baseless.

Instead, the proposed settlement requires UC Berkeley to continue using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, definition of antisemitism, which prohibits challenges to Israel’s “right to exist” as it does now. According to the IHRA’s definition, it is also antisemitic to compare Israel’s committing of genocide to the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis.

For the first time in history, more Americans sympathize with the Palestinians than with the Israelis in the current conflict. The growing Middle East war is increasingly at the center of American political life.

Yet in the face of this historic moment, when discourse surrounding Israel’s future and Palestinians’ right to self-determination teeters the line of acceptance and suppression, the UC Berkeley administration entered a settlement that would limit debate surrounding Israel on campus, especially when the IHRA’s definition can be interpreted to conflate critiques of Israel to antisemitism — a blurry boundary that could confer disciplinary action on subjective terms.

World renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappé has said he “will be unable to meet peers and students in UC Berkeley, for instance, to discuss (his) scholarly work” because he believes his work will be deemed antisemitic according to the IHRA definition.

The proposed settlement does nothing to challenge or restrain the right of pro-Israel students to invite soldiers who carried out the orders of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu to campus for a flashy event; but we predict it does prevent pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide protesters from speaking out when the these people come to campus and openly glorify mass murder.

The terms of the settlement would create a double standard for whose speech is permitted on campus. If you are a proponent of Israel’s current actions and its government, then you get free reign at UC Berkeley to speak and organize. If, however, you speak out in support of the Palestinians’ right to self determination and against the genocide in Gaza, then you are silenced and threatened with discipline.

It’s not surprising that the Brandeis Center, an organization who routinely sues educational institutions and holds combatting “anti-Israelism” as a core component of its vision, would demand UC Berkeley comply with the IHRA’s definition of anti-seminitism and protect Zionist speech.

But it is outrageous for the UC Berkeley administration, at the home of the Free Speech Movement, to take strides in line with the Brandeis Center’s efforts to chill free speech.

This deal, which could potentially restrict criticism of the Israeli government while Benjamin Netanyahu’s fascist regime continues to sign off on ceasefire agreements that they violate more than they adhere to, must not go forward. At this exact juncture, when the Middle East’s future is at stake, there must not be any threat to speech regarding what measures and solutions would have to be put in place to bring the multiple wars Israel is conducting to a conclusion.

We ask that UC Berkeley students attend the hearing and demand Judge Donato put a stop to this settlement deal. We will not be intimidated out of telling the plain truth and participating in the worldwide debate about what the future of the Middle East must look like. Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, anti-Zionist Jewish students and all pro-Palestine students should have a right to voice their objections to the genocide in Gaza and other parts of the Middle East. The student intervenors have a right to have their voices heard against the potential censorship through the threat of disciplinary action enacted by the UC Berkeley administration and the Brandeis Center.

Attend the court hearing in San Francisco today, April 30, to make clear that the movement will continue to fight to stop genocide and war, no matter what UC Berkeley and this court do.