Under the settlement signed today, UC Berkeley has agreed to implement numerous policy changes, training requirements and oversight measures in order to respond to discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Campus will now clarify that reports of exclusion of Zionists will be evaluated to determine if the term is being used as a \u201cpretext\u201d for antisemitic discrimination. Zionism is not defined as a protected category under campus\u2019s antidiscrimination policy.<\/p>\n
Campus will also use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism to evaluate complaints, which critics have said allows for criticism of Israel to be conflated with antisemitism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cManifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity,\u201d the IHRA definition states. \u201cHowever, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IHRA\u2019s definition generally defines antisemitism as hatred towards Jews. Some examples of antisemitism include criticism toward Israel, such as one that states \u201cdenying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor\u201d is an example of antisemitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cUC Berkeley\u2019s acceptance of the IHRA definition is a profound betrayal of its founding principles,\u201d Bears for Palestine said in a statement to The Daily Californian. \u201cThis definition is used as a tool to silence the lived experiences of Palestinians and to criminalize student organizing against the ongoing dispossession and oppression of Palestinians in their homeland. By adopting this framework, Chancellor Rich Lyons and the administration are actively fostering a campus climate of anti-Palestinian racism.\u201d<\/p>\n
More broadly, the agreement includes mandatory antisemitism and anti-discrimination changes for students, faculty and staff, create a Title VI officer to oversee investigations and will conduct campus climate surveys specifically focusing on the Jewish community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UC Regents will also pay the Brandeis Center $1 million in legal fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis settlement reflects UC Berkeley\u2019s long-standing values and objectives when it comes to combatting abhorrent antisemitic expression, harassment, and discrimination when it occurs on the Berkeley campus,\u201d said campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof in a statement.<\/p>\n
Mogulof affirmed campus\u2019s \u201cpractice of rejecting calls for boycotts against and divestment from Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brandeis Center\u2019s initial complaint targeted multiple pro-Palestinian protests during the 2023-24 academic year that the Brandeis Center labeled as antisemitic harassment of Jewish and Israeli students.<\/p>\n
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