UC Berkeley Law prof calls on universities to speak out against pro-Hamas rhetoric
‘Although college campuses are much quieter this fall than they were last spring, some of the anti-Israel language at some schools is frightening in its celebration of Hamas’s violence,’ the professor wrote.
‘Does anyone think the [campus] officials would be silent if there was a Ku Klux Klan gathering on a college campus celebrating white supremacist violence?’ he continued.
A University of California, Berkeley professor recently wrote an op-ed calling on leaders in institutions of higher education to denounce pro-Hamas activism.
Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the Berkeley School of Law, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on Sunday titled: “College Officials Must Condemn On-Campus Support for Hamas Violence.”
“Although college campuses are much quieter this fall than they were last spring, some of the anti-Israel language at some schools is frightening in its celebration of Hamas’s violence. What feels different is the repeated glorification of the Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 people last year on Oct. 7 in a surprise attack,” the article starts.
[RELATED: FBI urged to investigate Columbia student group for allegedly endorsing violence]
Chemerinsky mentions that, one day after the one-year-anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, anti-Israel activists at UC Berkeley set up signs saying: “Israel deserves 10,000 October 7ths” and “Long live Al-Aqsa Flood,” referencing Hamas’s official title for the massacre.
He also referenced the actions of anti-Israel groups at other universities, such as Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which called the Oct. 7 massacre a “moral, military and political victory.” The Anti-Defamation League claimed that more than 100 colleges and universities saw rallies that glorified the Oct. 7 massacre, Chemerinsky notes.
He writes that such protests “were largely the celebration of the coldblooded murder and torture of innocent civilians,” and condemned higher education leaders for their “silence,” stating: “Does anyone think the officials would be silent if there was a Ku Klux Klan gathering on a college campus celebrating white supremacist violence?”
Mentioning the plight of Jewish students, he states that they “understandably fear that the celebration of violence can too easily lead to violence.”
He warns college and university officials that a failure to act could lead to ramifications under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and calls on them, “at the very least,” to say: “Those who have praised the terrorism of Hamas on this campus have the right to express their views. But we, as campus officials, have the duty to say that celebrating murder, rape and taking hostages is deeply offensive and fundamentally inconsistent with what this university stands for.”
Anti-Israel groups have routinely engaged in rhetoric promoting violence and praising terrorist attacks.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, for example, published a Substack post on Oct. 3 calling a terrorist shooting of civilians in Tel Aviv a “significant act of resistance.”
Activists at the University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania wrote that “Death to Israel” is a “moral imperative” following Israel’s taking out of terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Maura Finkelstein, a former Muhlenberg College professor, was let go after she shared a quote that told followers to “[s]hame [Zionists]. Do not welcome them in your spaces.” She had previously written an article excusing Hamas and saying that calling it a terrorist organization is caused by “deep racist Islamophobia.”
Campus Reform has reached out to UC Berkeley and Professor Chemerinsky for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
