Berkeley prof begins sit-in, will 'sleep, eat, and teach' from his office to protest anti-Semitism
'If my students feel that they cannot walk safely across campus without being bullied, then I will not cross campus either.'
A professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has begun a sit-in protest in his office as a way to fight back against a lack of action by campus administration against rising anti-Semitism.
Ron Hassner, a political science professor and Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies at UC Berkeley, began the protest last week as a way to push back against the administration, who many think isn’t taking enough action against anti-Semitism, according to the Jewish News of Northern California.
Hassner wrote in a letter to Chancellor Carol Christ and Provost Benjamin Hermalin on March 7 that he would sleep, eat, and teach from his office until they addressed a series of concerns.
“If my students feel that they cannot walk safely across campus without being bullied, then I will not cross campus either,” Hassner wrote.
Hassner told students that his door is open to anyone who needs to talk.
“I’m thinking that maybe by doing this — giving the students some hope, showing them that someone cares, the door’s open, there’s a light in the window, please come by, let’s talk — I can avert the next disaster,” the professor wrote.
Hassner told the outlet that he’s “sorely afraid” of what might happen during a pro-Israel protest on Monday morning when students are planning to walk through the Sather Gate, where pro-Palestine protesters have been for around a month.
Hassner’s protest comes after a student organization, Bears for Palestine, helped organize a protest to shut down an event that featured Ran Bar-Yoshafat, a pro-Israel speaker on Feb. 26. They succeeded in shutting the event down, and several Jewish students reported violent incidents.
Hassner is asking administrators to apologize to Bar-Yoshafat and invite him back to speak on campus. He’s also calling for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia training for faculty members and leaders of student organizations.
Danielle Sobkin, an organizer for the event and co-president of Bears for Israel, told the San Francisco Chronicle that one of the people in the mob grabbed a sophomore attempting to enter the event and called him a “dirty Jew,” also spitting on him.
Sobkin said that a senior was also shoved into an auditorium door by the protesters and a freshman was grabbed by her neck. Campus Reform previously reported that around 200 protesters mobbed the building, leaving windows smashed.
“If the university can’t get its grip around this, we are doomed,” Hassner said. “Jewish students will stop coming to this campus.”
A spokesperson for UC Berkeley told Campus Reform ”The University remains committed to fostering an environment conducive to robust free speech and in which all members of its community feel that they may engage in campus life without fear of harassment. The administration is committed to confronting antisemitism and holds Professor Hassner in great esteem and it is in conversation with him about his concerns.”
