Kenneth Marcus, the former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, described a move by some Berkeley Law groups to ban speakers who support the existence of Israel, effectively most Jews, as creating, “Jewish-Free Zones”.
Berkeley Law School dean Erwin Chemerinsky responded by arguing, “There Are No ‘Jewish-Free’ Zones on the UC-Berkeley Campus”.
What’s Chemerinsky’s comeback?
To state it plainly: There is no “Jewish-Free Zone” at Berkeley Law or on the UC-Berkeley campus. The Law School’s rules are clear that no speaker can be excluded for being Jewish or for holding particular views. I know of no instance where this has been violated.
Allow me to explain the controversy that sparked this misguided furor.
After that confident opening, Chemerinsky’s argument boils down to it hasn’t happened yet.
“A handful of student organizations—fewer than 10 out of over 100—initially adopted the by-law,” he writes.
That’s 9 out of over 100. Or somewhere in the neighborhood of 10%.
If 10% of student organizations (if even 1%) had adopted bylaws banning most black speakers, we’d be talking about nothing else for the next six months, resulting in multiple investigations, massive settlements and several books.
“Most importantly, no group has violated the Law School’s policy and excluded a speaker on account of being Jewish or holding particular views about Israel. Such conduct, of course, would be subject to sanctions.”
It takes a whole lot more to argue that Berkeley Law isn’t a “Jewish-Free Zone” than ‘No one acted on it yet”.
Chemerinsky can point out that the bylaws haven’t led to actual action, that we know of yet, but ridiculing concerns about discriminatory codes because they haven’t been, to his knowledge, enforced yet is a dishonest position.
“At this stage, all some student groups have done is express their strong disagreement with Israel’s policies. That is their First Amendment right. I find their statement offensive, but they have the right to say it. To punish these student groups, or students, for their speech would clearly violate the Constitution.”
Their speech isn’t at issue. They appear to have adopted bylaws that actually call for discriminatory activities.
“Student organizations signing the statement “will not invite speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views or host/sponsor/promote events in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”
This is speech in the same sense that “No Blacks Allowed” and “No Jews, No Dogs” is speech.
There’s an argument to be made there, but that’s not actual civil rights laws. And no other group has discrimination legalized against it in this manner.
Chemerinsky goes beyond just minimizing what’s going on to attacking the Jewish Journal and other” some media outlets” that “have brought it worldwide attention.”
He claims that he is “convinced it is because they have a narrative they want to tell about higher education generally—and Berkeley, in particular—being antisemitic. They wanted to use this incident to fit their narrative, even though the facts simply don’t support the story they want to tell.”
This is frankly despicable.
Chemerinsky has presented no contradictory facts. He’s spun the existing ones. He argues that it somehow shouldn’t be an issue if 10% of student organizations ban Jews and that it’s a non-issue until someone is specifically banned. Had 10% of student organizations committed to banning Asian speakers, without action having taken place, the response would be dramatically different.
In a previous interview, the dean, who is an anti-Israel leftist, had admitted…
“The reality is, the message is seen by many students as antisemitic,” Chemerinsky told J.
Chemerinsky, speaking to J., added that “to say that anyone who supports the existence of Israel — that’s what you define as Zionism — shouldn’t speak would exclude about, I don’t know, 90 percent or more of our Jewish students.”
Now Chemerinsky backpedals to claim that the measure seen by many students as antisemitic and which would exclude 90% of Jewish students is a non-issue created by the media.
This is what bad spin and a worse coverup of campus antisemitism looks like.
No Judenrein zones at Berkeley? Really? Did Chemerinsky have ghetto dorms built with yellow Jude stars on the doors? That sounds like his idea of equity, inclusion and diversity. I’m surprised the Jewish students aren’t forced to wear them.
I never did understand that one. A yellow star shaped exactly like the Jewish blue one, crossed lines and all, has been considered a beer star or brewer’s star in Germany since the Middle Ages. It has origins in alchemy – and beer -and is on my family crest. Those Bavarians have always liked their beer, even more than sauerkraut.
I meant Star of David.
My favorite story is how administration workers in the main building for such on campus escaped when demonstrators occupied the ground floor. I had a girlfriend who worked there, she showed me around her workplace once. I forget the name of the building now.
Anyway the workers didn’t like being trapped in the building when a crowd of demonstrators occupied the ground floor and kept the workers from leaving the building. So the administration had an escape route developed, where the workers would go up to the 4th floor or whatever it was, and escape via the roof. Fortunately they could get to another building that way.
That’s crazy, man! It goes to show how f’ed up leftists are. The proles they pretend to defend are the people they always hurt, and frankly, hold in misplaced contempt.
I was a facility manager for years and years and directed masses of common people. I never saw them as anything but fellow human beings.
It’s time to leave. Make aliyah now to save your children. Nefeesh B’Nefesh will help you. www.nbn.org.il
Nothing has changed. Jew-hatred has not changed. Don’t make your children live with these people. Come to Israel.
“The reality is, the message is seen by many students as antisemitic,” Chemerinsky told J. -that is because it is antisemetic
So, everybody but Jews can have a country?
Apparently.
They want us back to where we were for 2000 years.
Homeless, outcast, The Other, perfect scapegoats for all the ills in the world, and perfect victims for their evil atrocities.
No group has ever had such hatred and evil visited on them, and for absolutely no reason.
And it’s coming around yet again.
2000 years ago Jews had a country and an army and pride. They ant us back in death camps. 2000 years ago Jews wouldnt have written articles. Theyd have taken up arms and defended themselves.
What the left and its allies, the communists, Muslims, nazi’s, facists, ect. ect. ect., don’t like and has been written for a few thousand years is, the world, is, going to be ruled from Jerusalem and the one on the throne, is, going to be, a Jew.
What they really don’t like, is, nothing they can do is going to change that, nothing. The one world order is the last shot they will ever have at stopping that reality, like everything else they have done, that too, will, fail.
The speaker sounds like a self hating apologist Jewish man.
How will the Dean know when they never actually invite a Jew to speak? Does he really believe people who haven’t attended his school are that stupid?
Very easy remedy….
Expel the students responsible as being racists; same as firing a person from a job.
Watch what happens when they get kicked out and have to reapply to another school or it comes out in media the reason for expulsion. No 6 figure starting salaries, no cushy summer internships, etc…
Chemerinsky is channeling the “Mostly Peaceful Demonstrations” meme. The same meme is used to allow progressive criminals off with no punishment. They may have raped, pillaged, and plundered, but most of the time they were doing other things. A progressive isn’t guilty unless they spend every minute of every day committing crimes. A conservative is guilty even if they haven’t committed crimes.
How can progressive Jewish political leaders stay silent about this when they have an aneurysm every time one of their people (Muslims, Minorities, rioters, Blacks, Migrants, Hispanics, Feminists, etc.) gets even a gentle rejoinder from anyone? Republicans should say something, but they don’t stand up for anybody or anything, so it is harder to criticize them for ignoring this destructive and anti-social behavior.
If progressives (aka liberals, or two-faced weasels-whatever) are so hypocritical and believe in situational ethics then who can count on them? Why should anyone lay down their lives to defend them?
I don’t see anywhere that the 10% of organizations account for anything less than 75% of the student population. We have no idea how many students this 9% of anti-Semite organizations influence. Does Chemerinsky have a clue what he may be saying?
Vat ve lack is numbers, ve compensate vid enthusiasm, snappy uniforms, goosestepping, and frequent use of ze blackjack.
Ve are a popular movement. One peep from you and you vill zee the price of unpopularity.
Ve know how to vin arguments vid overwhelming persuasion. Ven ve convince dem, dey stay convinced.
Ridiculous. The fact is Berkley is a hotbed of racist ideologies and the mental gymnastics of apologists like this can only be described as Goebbelesque. These people forgot about the violence they tried to visit up those who wishe to hear Milo Yiannopolis a few years back. Yes they simply don’t have the power yet to bring in the rail cars and to install the showers but they want to!