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<h1><font size=4><b>Judge dismisses claims of "anti-Semitic
climate" at UC
Berkeley</b></font></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/dalia-almarina">Dalia
Almarina</a> <br>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/judge-dismisses-claims-anti-semitic-climate-uc-berkeley/10780" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/content/judge-dismisses-claims-anti-semitic-climate-uc-berkeley/10780<br>
</a>6 January 2012 <br><br>
A lawsuit over alleged anti-Semitism at the University of California
Berkeley has been dismissed in its preliminary stages.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
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
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/students-justice-palestine">
Students for Justice in Palestine</a> (SJP) and the Muslim Student
Association (MSA) “threaten and endanger the health and safety of the
University of California’s Jewish Students.”<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
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.<br><br>
</font><h2><b>No coherent or plausible argument</b></h2><font size=3>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.<br><br>
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.”
<br><br>
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”
(“<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/26/BA451MGUL5.DTL">
UC Berkeley students’ anti-Semitism suit dismissed</a>,” <i>San Francisco
Chronicle</i>, 26 December 2011).<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
</font><h2><b>Propagating false allegations</b></h2><font size=3>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.”<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
In the context of this fabricated rivalry, all criticism of Israeli
policy is anti-Semitic and therefore illegitimate.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
</font><h2><b>Myth vs. reality about student solidarity
groups</b></h2><font size=3>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
<a href="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</a>.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/pflp">Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine</a>.<br><br>
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
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/holy-land-5">remain
imprisoned on terrorism charges</a>.<br><br>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/dr-sami-al-arian">Dr. Sami
al-Arian</a> 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.<br><br>
And most recently, the court system has been used to convict a group of
students at UC Irvine
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/irvine-11">known as the
Irvine 11</a> of conspiracy charges for exercising their most basic
first amendment rights when they protested the speech of Israeli
ambassador Michael Oren in February 2010.<br><br>
</font><h2><b>Students not deterred</b></h2><font size=3>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
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds">boycott, divestment and
sanctions</a> (BDS) to the Occupy movement within which the slogan
“Occupy (fill in the blank), not Palestine” has arisen.<br><br>
The endless list of demonstrations and victories for BDS and the
Palestinian solidarity movement include numerous student campaigns and
actions.<br><br>
In May of 2010, DePaul University’s Student Government Association
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/depaul-vote-sabra-hummus-victory-human-rights/10010#.Ts_cCHNW7Gg">
passed a resolution to replace Sabra hummus products</a> 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.<br><br>
On 26 October, 2011,
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/video-students-organize-mass-walk-out-targeting-israels-token-arab-spokesperson">
a walk-out at the University of Michigan</a> 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
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ben-white/uk-student-body-slams-universitys-ahava-link">
unanimously passed a motion</a> 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.<br><br>
No less can be expected of university students across the globe in the
Spring of 2012 with the upcoming 8th annual
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-apartheid-week">
Israeli Apartheid Week</a> (IAW), an action that gains presence on more
campuses every year. In 2010, the first IAW was organized in the occupied
West Bank.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<i>Dalia Almarina is a Bay Area native. She is a recent alumnus of Cal
Students for Justice in Palestine.<br><br>
<br><br>
</i></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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