[News] Judge dismisses claims of "anti-Semitic climate" at UC Berkeley

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Judge dismisses claims of "anti-Semitic climate" at UC Berkeley

<http://electronicintifada.net/people/dalia-almarina>Dalia Almarina
http://electronicintifada.net/content/judge-dismisses-claims-anti-semitic-climate-uc-berkeley/10780
6 January 2012

A lawsuit over alleged anti-Semitism at the 
University of California Berkeley has been dismissed in its preliminary stages.

The case was dismissed after a district judge 
determined that students had accused the 
university’s administrators of allowing an 
“anti-Semitic climate” to develop on campus failed to support their claims.

On 22 December in San Francisco, US District 
Judge Richard Seeborg ruled in favor of a motion 
to dismiss the lawsuit. In his ruling, Seeborg 
stated that “plaintiffs have failed to allege 
facts supporting a claim that defendants have 
violated plaintiffs’ legal or other 
constitutional rights or that they have legal 
duty to take further action to control the conduct of other persons.”

The lawsuit, which was filed on 18 May 2011 by 
Jessica Felber, a 2010 UC Berkeley graduate, and 
Brian Maissy, a current UC Berkeley student, and 
members of UC Berkeley’s Zionist student 
organization Tikvah, alleged that the activities 
of 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/students-justice-palestine>Students 
for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim 
Student Association (MSA) “threaten and endanger 
the health and safety of the University of California’s Jewish Students.”

The plaintiffs referred to the MSA, SJP and the 
Muslim Student Union (MSU) ­ an organization that 
actually does not exist on UC Berkeley’s campus ­ 
as “the anti-Semitic/anti-Israel MSA, SJP and MSU.”

The centerpiece of the suit was an incident that 
Felber claimed to have occurred in March 2010. 
Felber alleged that an SJP member rammed into her 
with a shopping cart as she demonstrated on the 
campus’ well-known protest area, Sproul Plaza, 
during “Israeli Peace and Diversity Week.” The 
suit went on to invoke a long list of other 
supposedly similar or related incidents in which 
the MSA, SJP and other Muslim student 
organizations from other UC campuses allegedly 
committed acts of violence and harassed Jewish students and individuals.


No coherent or plausible argument

The lawsuit was dismissed during the motion to 
dismiss phase, in which the judge rules on the 
assumption that all information presented by the 
plaintiff is true, requiring no discussion or 
investigation of the accuracy of the plaintiffs’ claims.

A portion of the lawsuit was examined under the 
First Amendment of the US Constitution. Seeborg 
stated in his ruling that nothing in the 
complaint “shows any deprivation of plaintiffs’ 
‘freedom of assembly’ at all. Additionally, from 
the facts presently alleged, it is far from clear 
that any person interfered with plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion.”

The judge added, “some courts have allowed public 
colleges to outlaw harassing speech and conduct 
that interferes with students’ rights, but 
schools have no legal duty to do so” 
(“<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/26/BA451MGUL5.DTL>UC 
Berkeley students’ anti-Semitism suit dismissed,” 
San Francisco Chronicle, 26 December 2011).

Another portion of the claims are brought under 
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. These claims 
were also dismissed though Seeborg’s ruling 
allows plaintiffs twenty days to amend (until 11 
January 2012). Seeborg’s ruling explains that 
plaintiffs’ claims fail to show that the events 
presented in the complaint had indeed interfered 
with students’ access to educational services.

Overall, the ruling reveals the completely 
ludicrous nature of the complaint and its 
frivolous use of the law. However, since the 
litigation excludes MSA and SJP as defendants in 
the suit, the organizations are provided no 
opportunity to respond to the allegations made against them.


Propagating false allegations

In general, the complaint links together the 
activities of all Muslim student groups as well 
as California SJP and SJP-National together as if 
the groups are officially and strategically 
coordinated with one another. The suit lists 
occurrences on the UC Berkeley campus alongside 
incidents on several other University of 
California campuses as evidence of the 
administration’s encouragement of SJP and MSA’s “campus terrorist incitements.”

In the official complaint, the plaintiffs claim 
that the alleged incident in which Felber was 
assaulted by an SJP member on Sproul Plaza was 
the product of the defendants’ failure to 
“effectively discipline the MSA and SJP for their 
pro-terrorist programs, goals and conduct” on the 
UC Berkeley campus as well as across the UC 
system. The complaint repeatedly refers to “the 
SJP, MSA and MSU,” claiming that the MSA is also 
known as the MSU, when in fact, there is no 
official strategic coordination between different 
chapters of the MSA or MSU nationally.

This tactic of mis-naming and mis-grouping sought 
to blur the lines of national, cultural, 
religious, ideological and political association 
to the end of constructing an imaginary rivalry 
between Muslims (used in the lawsuit as a 
“catch-all” including Palestinian solidarity 
activists of all backgrounds, all people of 
“Middle Eastern” origin, Muslims of all ranges of religiosity) and Jews.

In the context of this fabricated rivalry, all 
criticism of Israeli policy is anti-Semitic and therefore illegitimate.

Additionally, the suit alleges that SJP is the 
“militant arm” of the MSA, while in fact there is 
no formal coordination between the two groups 
other than co-sponsorship of some campus events.


Myth vs. reality about student solidarity groups

SJP has close relationships with numerous 
progressive student groups. During Cal SJP’s 
“divestment drive” in the Spring of 2010, 43 
student organizations signed on 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/berkeley-moral-victory-despite-divestment-vote-loss/8809>in 
official support of a student senate bill that 
sought to divest University funds from Israel.

Furthermore, SJP itself is not a “Palestinian 
activist group” as the complaint states. Its 
members are from a wide range of backgrounds, the 
majority of which are non-Arab and non-Muslim. In 
general, the leadership of SJP in the past five 
and a half years of its existence as a registered 
UC Berkeley student organization has reflected a 
majority of non-Arab and non-Muslim individuals, 
though the demographics shift from year to year.

The suit also conflates “Jewish” with “Zionist” 
in claiming that “anti-Zionist” equals 
“anti-Semitic,” disregarding the existence of the 
anti-Zionist Jewish voice ­ a voice that has been 
strong within SJP since its registration with the 
Associated Students of the University of California in the spring of 2005.

Of course, this abuse of the legal system in 
suppressing Palestinian solidarity activism both 
on and off university campuses is nothing new. 
Only after twenty years were charges against the 
Palestine solidarity activists dubbed the “LA 8” 
dropped for allegedly raising money for the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/pflp>Popular 
Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

In 2001, the US government used the courts to 
shut down the Holy Land Foundation, formerly the 
largest Muslim charity in the US, and the group’s 
founding members 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/holy-land-5>remain 
imprisoned on terrorism charges.

<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/dr-sami-al-arian>Dr. 
Sami al-Arian remains under house arrest to this 
day, awaiting a judge’s ruling on charges of 
criminal contempt based on his humanitarian relief and advocacy work.

And most recently, the court system has been used 
to convict a group of students at UC Irvine ­ 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/irvine-11>known 
as the Irvine 11 ­ of conspiracy charges for 
exercising their most basic first amendment 
rights when they protested the speech of Israeli 
ambassador Michael Oren in February 2010.


Students not deterred

Despite intimidation, student groups across the 
country and the around world continue to speak 
out against injustices and repression at home and 
abroad. From the efforts of students to realize 
the Palestinian call for 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds>boycott, 
divestment and sanctions (BDS) to the Occupy 
movement within which the slogan “Occupy (fill in 
the blank), not Palestine” has arisen.

The endless list of demonstrations and victories 
for BDS and the Palestinian solidarity movement 
include numerous student campaigns and actions.

In May of 2010, DePaul University’s Student 
Government Association 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/depaul-vote-sabra-hummus-victory-human-rights/10010#.Ts_cCHNW7Gg>passed 
a resolution to replace Sabra hummus products 
with an alternative brand in campus dining halls. 
One co-owner of Sabra provides financial support 
and supplies to two Israeli military units 
implicated in human rights abuses, the Golani and Givati brigades.

On 26 October, 2011, 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/video-students-organize-mass-walk-out-targeting-israels-token-arab-spokesperson>a 
walk-out at the University of Michigan left 15 
audience members in the room to hear a speech 
given by Israeli deputy consul Ishmael Khaldi. 
And in the UK, the National Union of Students 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ben-white/uk-student-body-slams-universitys-ahava-link>unanimously 
passed a motion demanding an immediate end to 
King’s College London’s involvement in an 
EU-funded research project with the Israeli 
cosmetics firm Ahava in November of this year.

No less can be expected of university students 
across the globe in the Spring of 2012 with the 
upcoming 8th annual 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-apartheid-week>Israeli 
Apartheid Week (IAW), an action that gains 
presence on more campuses every year. In 2010, 
the first IAW was organized in the occupied West Bank.

As has been the case throughout history, students 
will remain at the forefront of movements for 
change despite attempts to discourage and 
brutalize. The Palestine solidarity movement is no exception.

Dalia Almarina is a Bay Area native. She is a 
recent alumnus of Cal Students for Justice in Palestine.




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