The dean of Berkeley's law school is known as an ardent supporter of free speech, but he came under fire after pro-Palestinian students disrupted a celebratory dinner party for about 60 students at his home. It became personal for me.
Law School Dean Irwin Chemerinsky hosted a dinner Tuesday night in his backyard in Oakland, California. The party was planned as a community-building event open to all third-year law students, and there were no speeches or formal activities.
However, Malak Afaneh, a third-year law student and Palestinian activist, took to the stage with a microphone and began speaking.
As she begins to speak, Mr. Chemerinsky, a prominent constitutional law scholar, can be seen shouting, “Get out of the house!” You are our guests! ”
Catherine Fisk, another law professor at Berkeley and Mr. Chemerinsky's wife, can be seen holding Mr. Afane's arm in her arms, pulling the microphone away and trying to pull the student up a few steps.
Afane and other student protesters described Fisk's fight for the microphone as a disproportionate and violent response. Students have the right to speak at university meetings, they said.
Chemerinsky said the university paid for the dinner. But he said the students, who brought their own microphones and amplifiers, do not have such free speech rights at dinners where speaking is not scheduled in private residences.
Chemerinsky has previously supported the speech rights of pro-Palestinian students, including the right to block them from speaking in Zionist groups. But this incident shows how the war between Israel and Hamas has intensified and complicated the free speech debate. As pro-Palestinian students disrupt sit-ins and events on campuses across the country, some administrators, under pressure from donors and politicians, are cracking down on unruly behavior and arresting students. He has been suspended from school.
The moment was particularly difficult for the University of California, Berkeley, long a hotbed of left-wing activism and home to the free speech movement of the 1960s. Amid ongoing protests over the Middle East conflict, some Jewish students and alumni have criticized university authorities for allowing activities that veer toward anti-Semitic speech.
About 15 protesters returned to Chemerinsky's home Thursday night for another student dinner, and this time they remained outside for about 90 minutes, Chemerinsky said.
“They held up signs and had drums,” he wrote in an email message. “They stood in front of our house singing songs (some of them quite aggressive) and beating drums.”
In February, a Berkeley event featuring an Israeli speaker was canceled after a crowd of protesters broke down the door, which President Carol Christ called “an attack on the university's core values.” Stated. Last month, Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the House Education Committee investigating anti-Semitism on campus, sent a letter to university officials requesting documentation and information about Berkeley's response to anti-Semitism. requested.
Chemerinsky said he was the subject of an anti-Semitic leaflet distributed earlier this week. The leaflet featured a caricature of Mr. Chemerinsky holding a bloody knife and fork and read: “No dinner with Zionist chemicals while Gaza is starving.”
“I never expected to see such blatant anti-Semitism,” he wrote in a statement to the law school community after the initial protests. I am Jewish. “
The Berkeley chapter of Law Students for Justice in Palestine, of which Afaneh is co-president, did not respond to requests for an interview. But Camilo Pérez Bustillo, head of the local chapter of the National Lawyers Union, who consulted with Afane before the protest, said Chemerinsky was not excluded because he is Jewish.
“He was targeted because he did not take public positions on urgent issues. This is America's complicity in the ongoing genocide,” Perez-Bustillo said.
Chemerinsky's dinner on Tuesday took place on the last day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. As Ms. Afaneh and Professor Fisk took to the microphone, Ms. Afaneh said, “We refuse to break our fast against Palestinian blood,'' as the university system transfers billions of dollars to weapons manufacturers. he accused.
“I have nothing to do with the activities of the Unification Church,” Fisk said. “This is my home.”
Mr. Fisk threatened to call the police, but he did not. After she let go of the microphone, Afane and about 10 other law students left peacefully and the dinner continued, Chemerinsky said.
“I am deeply disappointed that some students are rude enough to come into my home and backyard and use this social gathering for political purposes,” Chemerinsky wrote. Fisk, through Chemerinsky, declined to be interviewed.
Many pro-Palestinian supporters say now is not the time for civility, as the death toll from Israel's bombing of Gaza exceeds 30,000, according to Gaza health authorities. The students called on Chemerinsky, who calls himself a Zionist, to condemn what they called an ongoing genocide and to demand that the university divest from companies that support Israeli military operations. I asked for it.
After the dinner altercation, the Palestine Justice Law Student Chapter called for the resignation of Mr. Chemerinsky and Mr. Fisk, and called for a Palestinian studies program centered on “settler-colonial resistance and the right of return.” . ”
University of California System President Richard Reeve and Berkeley Chancellor Ms. Christ supported the couple.
“I am appalled and deeply disturbed by the events that occurred last night at Dean Chemerinsky's home,” Christ said in a statement Wednesday. “While our support for free speech is unwavering, the use of social gatherings in private residences as a venue for protest is unacceptable.”
Chemerinsky said he invites first-year law students to a backyard welcome dinner to foster a sense of community. The dinner was held over three nights, with about 60 students attending each time, Chemerinsky said. The event was for third-year students whose traditional welcome dinner was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The dean said he believes in this tradition so much that when he bought the house in 2017, he made sure the backyard could accommodate a crowd.
“I never could have imagined that this would become such a divisive and flashpoint,” he said, adding: “It's an ugly moment.”