A new report from Amcha Initiative, a watchdog group that tracks antisemitism and anti-Zionism on college campuses, examines the prevalence of anti-Israel activism among faculty at three University of California schools.<\/p>\n
The report<\/a>, released Feb. 11, documents what it sees as harmful patterns at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UCLA during the 2023-2025 academic years. It asserts that a surge in on-campus hostility toward Zionism and Israel since the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, is linked to faculty and departments using \u201cacademic authority and university platforms to engage in anti-Israel activism.\u201d Such efforts, the report states, have \u201cfueled harassment, intimidation, and exclusion of Jewish and pro-Israel students.\u201d<\/p>\n Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, Amcha\u2019s co-founder and director who previously taught Hebrew and Jewish studies courses at UC Santa Cruz, said that this is the seventh study since the group\u2019s launch in 2012 that has focused specifically on faculty. She authored the study with Amcha co-founder Leila Beckwith, emeritus professor at UCLA.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve built a case looking at anti-Zionist faculty activism and how it\u2019s just so inconspicuously correlated with antisemitic activity on those campuses,\u201d Rossman-Benjamin told J. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t mean speech. I mean harassing Jewish students, vandalism, assault, denigration, suppression of speech \u2014 measurable actions that have been taken against Jewish members of the campus community.\u201d<\/p>\n A UC Berkeley spokesperson disputed the findings, saying they were derived using \u201cunreliable sources.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While public discussion often frames activism as student-driven, the report states, Amcha contends that faculty and academic departments play a central role by embedding political advocacy into courses, programming and official communications.<\/p>\n According to Amcha<\/a>, many faculty members have publicly endorsed academic boycotts of Israeli institutions<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel<\/a>, a primary organizer of this effort, charges that Israeli universities as \u201cmajor, willing and persistent accomplices in Israel\u2019s regime of military occupation, settler-colonialism, apartheid, and now genocide.\u201d It calls for academics to boycott \u201ccomplicit Israeli institutions\u201d by refusing any form of academic and cultural cooperation with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of June 2025, 171 faculty members at UC Berkeley<\/a> and 55 at UCSC<\/a> were reported to Amcha\u2019s database of faculty who have endorsed publicly accessible statements or petitions in support of an academic boycott.<\/p>\n \u201cAn academic boycott, unlike an economic boycott, actually calls for essentially denormalizing Israel, Zionism and Zionists on campus and in classrooms,\u201d said Rossman-Benjamin. \u201cThis hurts any student or faculty member who wants to study or learn about Israel, but it disproportionately hurts Jewish students and Jewish faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n Berkeley\u2019s cohort of academic boycott supporters is among the largest documented at any U.S. university, according to the report. During the 2023-2025 academic years, these boycott supporters chaired or directed at least 19 Berkeley academic units, including African American studies, the Arts Research Center, the Asian American Research Center and the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry.<\/p>\n At UCSC during the same period, several academic boycott supporters likewise held leadership positions, including as campus provosts and directors of academic units such as sociology, film and digital media, critical race and ethnic studies, the Center for Middle East and North Africa, and the Center for Racial Justice.<\/p>\n The report contends that when faculty who are in leadership roles that shape curricula support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, they can create one-sided programming and recurring activist messaging under academic authority.<\/p>\n The report also examines participation in Faculty for Justice in Palestine, and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, both of which Amcha describes as the \u201cvehicle for converting academic BDS ideology into recurring campus campaigns.\u201d These organized faculty groups coordinate anti-Israel advocacy, co-sponsor events, promote political messaging and mobilize support in ways that the report says shift academia toward advocacy rather than neutral scholarship.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was wrong with what was happening wasn\u2019t that it was anti-Israel,\u201d said Rossman-Benjamin. \u201cIt was inappropriate for any kind of political advocacy like that to happen in a public university, classroom or conference hall.\u201d<\/p>\n Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor of UC Berkeley, told J. in an email that the university disputes Amcha\u2019s claims and has an \u201cunwavering commitment to supporting a campus community where every individual can feel safe, respected, and welcome without regard for their origins, identities, beliefs, or perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWhile we appreciate this organization\u2019s dedication to confronting antisemitism, it is unfortunate that no apparent effort was made to seek information directly from the campus and\/or confirm information that appears to have been gathered from unreliable sources.\u201d<\/p>\n