Pro-Palestine students disrupt dinner at home of UC Berkeley law school dean: 'This is my house!'
'I am enormously sad that we have students who are so rude as to come into my home, in my backyard, and use this social occasion for their political agenda,' said the dean.
Students at the University of California, Berkeley Law School disrupted a dinner for third-year students at the home of Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine President Malak Afaneh got up during the dinner on Tuesday evening at Chemerinsky’s home with a microphone and began to condemn the university’s investments in companies that produce weapons in Israel.
Shortly after Afaneh got up to speak in front of where other students were having dinner Chemerinsky’s wife, law professor Catherine Fisk, attempted to take the microphone out of her hand, saying “This is not your house, this is my house.”
This longer video of the confrontation at Dean Chemerinsky and Professor Fisk’s home shows in more detail just how insufferable these students are.
And Chemerinsky has confirmed it’s a private residence (see below), which, as you can see, they were asked to leave repeatedly. pic.twitter.com/ojbaK1fnuM— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) April 11, 2024
”This is my house! The First Amendment doesn’t apply,” Chemerinsky can be heard saying. “If you don’t want to be here, leave my house!”
[RELATED: UC Berkeley is latest subject of congressional investigation into campus anti-Semitism]
Afaneh responded saying that the National Lawyers Guild told her that their actions were protected by the First Amendment.
According to the Canary Mission, Afaneh posted a picture to Instagram in June 2022 with the caption “Red kuffiyeh for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine only.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine said that Fisk “physically assaulted” Afaneh, calling it an “attack on Palestinian, Muslim, and Pro-Palestinian students.”
Chemerinsky wrote in a statement on the university’s website that the incident was “ugly and divisive.”
”On April 9, about 60 students came to our home for the dinner. All had registered in advance. All came into our backyard and were seated at tables for dinner. While guests were eating, a woman stood up with a microphone, stood on the top step in the yard, and began a speech, including about the plight of the Palestinians,” Chemerinsky wrote. “My wife and I immediately approached her and asked her to stop and leave. The woman continued. When she continued, there was an attempt to take away her microphone. Repeatedly, we said to her that you are a guest in our home, please stop and leave. About 10 students were clearly with her and ultimately left as a group.”
”The dinner, which was meant to celebrate graduating students, was obviously disrupted and disturbed. I am enormously sad that we have students who are so rude as to come into my home, in my backyard, and use this social occasion for their political agenda,” he added.
Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine previously called for students to “boycott” the dinners Chemerinsky was hosting with third-year students.
The original graphic, which has been deleted, depicted blood on the utensils that Chemerinsky was holding.
Here’s what it looked like when they first posted it: pic.twitter.com/vaKtmewHxa
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) April 11, 2024
Chemerinsky wrote in his statement that the dinners would continue on Wednesday at Thursday, but security would be present and “Any student who disrupts will be reported to student conduct and a violation of the student conduct code is reported to the Bar.”
Campus Reform reached out to UC Berkeley, Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, and the National Lawyers Guild for comment.
