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<h1 class="reader-title">California professor under attack for
hosting Palestinian lawmaker</h1>
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<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/nora-barrows-friedman">Nora
Barrows-Friedman</a></span> <span class="field
field-blog">- </span><span class="field
field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-04-30T22:41:55+00:00">30 April 2018</span></span>
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<p>A UC Berkeley lecturer is under attack for hosting an
event with a Palestinian member of Israel’s parliament
who challenged Israel’s claim to be a democracy.</p>
<p>The campaign to punish Hatem Bazian in California
comes amid renewed attempts in South Carolina to
codify a definition of anti-Semitism which conflates
criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry.</p>
<p>On 17 April, Bazian facilitated an <a
href="https://www.crg.berkeley.edu/events/haneen-zoabi-israel-a-democracy-or-a-colonial-project/">event</a>
at UC Berkeley with <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/haneen-zoabi">Haneen
Zoabi</a>, a member of Israel’s Knesset.</p>
<p>Zionist students are calling for the university to
take disciplinary action against Bazian for hosting
Zoabi and defending the content of her speech.</p>
<p>This latest attack is part of “an ongoing series of
targeting BDS activists and individuals who continue
to do work on Palestine in the US,” Bazian told The
Electronic Intifada, referring to the boycott,
divestment and sanctions movement.</p>
<p>Haneen Zoabi is an elected politician who <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/no-chance-two-states-interview-knesset-member-haneen-zoabi/9760">advocates</a>
for Israel to give full, equal rights to all its
citizens.</p>
<p>She is one of approximately 1.5 million <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinians-israel">Palestinian
citizens of Israel</a>. They are the survivors and
their descendants of the 1948 ethnic cleansing of
Palestine. While nominally citizens with a right to
vote and be elected, they live under <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7771">dozens
of laws giving</a> them inferior status because they
are not Jews.</p>
<p>During her US speaking tour, Zoabi reportedly <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Arab-MK-Zoabi-Jews-not-entitled-to-self-determination-507309">called</a>
Israel’s claim to be a Jewish and democratic state
“absurd,” citing as an example Israel’s Law of Return
– which bars Palestinian refugees from returning to
their homeland solely because they are not Jews, while
granting citizenship to anyone in the world Israel
recognizes as Jewish.</p>
<p>She is one of a handful of politicians in the Israeli
parliament who challenge the state’s legalized
discrimination against its Palestinian citizens, its
occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria’s
Golan Heights, as well as the regular genocidal
rhetoric against Palestinians by Israeli leaders.</p>
<p>Because of this, she has faced <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/israel-bans-palestinian-lawmaker-haneen-zoabi-parliament">unrelenting</a>
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ben-white/incitement-intensifies-against-arab-mks-are-threats-encouraging-physical-attacks">attacks</a>
by her Zionist Jewish colleagues in the Knesset, the
Israeli <a
href="https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4178329,00.html">media</a>
and by Israel’s supporters abroad.</p>
<p>This week, lawmakers in the Knesset <a
href="https://www.jweekly.com/2018/04/26/mk-haneen-zoabis-trip-berkeley-sparks-knesset-hearing-cal-student-petition/">announced
plans</a> to hold a hearing on Zoabi’s <a
href="https://www.jweekly.com/2018/04/18/mk-zoabi-berkeley-must-liberate-americans-zionist-lobby/">remarks</a>
while in the US.</p>
<p>In a sign of the crackdown lawmakers who call for
equal rights are facing, the Knesset this month <a
href="https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/jabareen-files-case-with-high-court-to-participate-in-us-tour/">barred
another Palestinian member</a>, Yousef Jabareen,
from traveling to the US for a lecture tour sponsored
by Jewish Voice for Peace. Jabareen is challenging the
decision in court.</p>
<p>During the event at UC Berkeley, a group of Zionist
students protested Zoabi as she lectured by holding
posters next to her, with one claiming that she is
“complicit in terrorism.”</p>
<p>The students wore T-shirts bearing the word “Zionist”
in Arabic.</p>
<p>Students then <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/International/UC-Berkeley-students-call-for-removal-of-antisemiticanti-Israel-lecturer-552593">sent
a letter of complaint</a> to the university’s
chancellor, <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/tikvah.berkeley/posts/1870871959610131">demanding</a>
that Bazian face “immediate administrative action” for
promoting an event they described as “anti-Semitic.”</p>
<p>The Israel-aligned students also launched a petition
calling on the university to discipline Bazian.</p>
<p>The complaint alleges that Zoabi made “preposterous
claims” about Israel’s well-documented human rights
abuses and expulsion of Palestinians, and that Zoabi
“openly called for the elimination of Israel” –
apparently because she was advocating for a state that
does not privilege one religious or ethnic group over
others.</p>
<p>The group behind the smear campaign at UC Berkeley is
Tikvah, a Zionist campus group that has a long history
of smearing Bazian and Students for Justice in
Palestine.</p>
<p>Students for Justice in Palestine launched their own
<a
href="https://www.change.org/p/students-for-justice-in-palestine-at-uc-berkeley-defend-dr-hatem-bazian-and-palestinian-academic-freedom-at-uc-berkeley">petition</a>
to defend Bazian against “the mischaracterization,
bullying and blatant racism” of Tikvah and off-campus
Zionist groups “in their continued attempts to
suppress open discussion and honest academic analysis”
of Israel’s occupation.</p>
<p>More than 2,600 people have signed the petition in
support of Bazian.</p>
<h2>Ramping up</h2>
<p>Bazian said he has faced relentless accusations of
anti-Semitism meant to silence his criticisms of
Israel ever since he began teaching at UC Berkeley as
a graduate student in the early 1990s.</p>
<p>Zionist groups on and off campus may be ramping up
these tactics due to the pending confirmation of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kenneth-marcus">Kenneth
Marcus</a> to head the Department of Education’s
Office for Civil Rights.</p>
<p>Marcus will have the authority to open new
investigations against students and faculty who are
critical of Israel while determining policies that
could stifle speech and political organizing on US
campuses.</p>
<p>Marcus, who has headed the Louis D. Brandeis Center
for Human Rights, an Israel lobby organization, is <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/how-trumps-new-civil-rights-enforcer-will-attack-civil-rights">known
for filing numerous civil rights complaints</a> to
the US Department of Education claiming that
universities fail to protect Jewish students by not
cracking down on Palestine solidarity activism.</p>
<p>Using a tactic Marcus pioneered, members of Tikvah
filed a federal <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/bogus-allegations-anti-semitism-create-real-climate-fear-arab-muslim-students-us/11563">complaint</a>
with the Department of Education in 2012 against the
University of California, alleging that the university
allowed “discrimination” against Jewish students to
occur by tolerating the “development of a dangerous
anti-Semitic climate on its campuses.”</p>
<p>The Department of Education <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/victory-campus-free-speech-us-dept-education-throws-out-anti-semitism">threw
out the complaint</a> in 2013 along with similar
claims filed against the University of California.</p>
<p>An earlier version of the same lawsuit was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/judge-dismisses-claims-anti-semitic-climate-uc-berkeley/10780">dismissed</a>
in 2011 by a federal judge who had determined that
Israel advocates failed to support their claims of
anti-Semitism.</p>
<h2>South Carolina censorship</h2>
<p>It is no surprise that Marcus’ Brandeis Center is <a
href="http://brandeiscenter.com/our-view-follow-south-carolina/">backing</a>
pending legislation to define anti-Semitism at public
colleges and universities in South Carolina to include
criticism of Israel and its state ideology, Zionism.</p>
<p>The measure would codify a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/campaigners-go-offensive-against-bogus-uk-anti-semitism-definition">discredited</a>
definition of anti-Semitism <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ben-white/israel-lobbyists-finally-concede-eu-has-ditched-anti-semitism-definition">pushed</a>
by Israel lobby groups in the US and Europe that
conflates criticism of Israel and Zionism with
anti-Jewish bigotry.</p>
<p>This definition is sometimes referred to as the “<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/state-department-definition-anti-semitism">State
Department Definition</a>” because a <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180117193205/https://www.state.gov/s/rga/resources/267538.htm">version
of it</a> was <a
href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/5ad7b4d470a6ad81ab1bb20c/1524085976920/FAQ+on+Definition+of+Antisemitism+4.18.18+.pdf">adopted</a>
by the US State Department.</p>
<p>Notably, the <a
href="http://jkrfoundation.org/about/kenneth-s-stern/">lead
author</a> of the original definition, former <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/american-jewish-committee">American
Jewish Committee</a> executive <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kenneth-stern">Kenneth
Stern</a>, has strongly <a
href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/should_a_major_university_system_have_a_particular_definition_of_anti_semit">opposed</a>
efforts to enshrine it in legislation, arguing that it
could lead to <a
href="http://jkrfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Stern-Letter-links-corrected.pdf">unconstitutional</a>
censorship.</p>
<p>Yet the South Carolina measure, which was added as a
rider on the 2018-2019 budget bill, <a
href="https://www.jta.org/2018/04/13/news-opinion/politics/south-carolina-set-become-first-state-define-anti-semitism-law">would
require</a> state-funded institutions to use this
definition when investigating alleged incidents of
anti-Semitism on campuses.</p>
<p>Its chief sponsor is state representative <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/alan-clemmons">Alan
Clemmons</a>, a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/bds-winning-admits-top-israeli-sabotage-strategist">self-described
Christian Zionist</a> who holds pro-Israel views so
extreme that he has attacked Jewish students who
criticize Israel as “anti-Semitic.”</p>
<p>If the legislation is enacted, students could face
“increased scrutiny, investigations, censorship and
possibly punishment for speech and activities that are
critical of Israel and Israeli government policies,” <a
href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/south-carolina-censors-palestine-advocacy">warned</a>
civil rights group Palestine Legal.</p>
<p>The law will “set up public colleges and universities
to be required to violate free speech rights,”
Palestine Legal’s Rahul Saksena told The Electronic
Intifada.</p>
<p>While recent <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/anti-bds-laws">state-based
legislative efforts</a> to suppress the BDS movement
also violate the First Amendment, Saksena warned that
“these efforts to codify the so-called State
Department definition of anti-Semitism will have a
much bigger and much more problematic impact in terms
of Palestine advocacy on the ground and on college
campuses in particular.”</p>
<p>Palestine Legal notes that similar efforts to codify
this definition of anti-Semitism into law have failed
due to constitutional concerns in the <a
href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2016/12/12/bill-aimed-at-censoring-palestine-advocacy-on-campuses-fails-to-pass-us-house">US
Congress</a> and in <a
href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2017/1/30/virginia-lawmakers-considering-unconstitutional-bill-aimed-at-censoring-palestine-advocacy-1">Virginia</a>.</p>
<p>In 2016, the University of California <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/pressure-forces-amendment-univ-california-intolerance-report/16141">adopted
a vague statement</a> linking anti-Zionism to
anti-Semitism, under pressure from Israel advocacy
groups.</p>
<p>Palestine Legal warned at the time that the wording,
part of a report on “intolerance,” would be exploited
by those seeking to censor criticism of Israel.</p>
<p>According to Bazian, Israel lobby pressure on the
University of California aims to criminalize speech
and restrict freedom of expression by faculty.</p>
<p>He said that challenging South Carolina’s pending
legislation, as well as the mounting attempts to
censor speech by faculty across the US, is “a
prolonged fight.”</p>
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