Public Comment

Tonight, the External Affairs Committee of the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley voted unanimously to indefinitely postpone a bill condemning the academic boycott of Israel. 

Although the Resolution was titled “A Bill in Support of the Free Flow of Ideas and International Academic Collaboration,” in fact the resolution’s content largely denounced professors at UC Berkeley who organize in support of Palestinian academic freedom and attacked associations that have adopted academic boycott measures. The bill also ignored the widespread and systematic denial of the right to education for Palestinians living under Israeli laws. 

Critically, SB 11 mischaracterizes the campaign for academic boycotts as a threat to academic freedom and a boycott of all Israeli scholars on the basis of their nationality. As illustrated in a letter sent by members of the Asian American Studies Association, which has endorsed academic boycott, the campaign “in no way impinges upon the freedom of individual U.S., or Israeli, scholars to engage in intellectual exchange and scholarly collaboration, if this does not entail official sponsorship by Israeli academic institutions that are public institutions complicit with the illegal occupation and violations of human rights laws.”  

Other groups that have endorsed academic boycott, such as American Studies Association, have also explained that the boycott is structured to provide ways for Israeli scholars who resist the occupation to travel and exchange ideas without the aegis of Israeli academic institutions involved in violations of Palestinian rights. Beyond misrepresenting the academic boycott campaign, this bill also attempts to smear and dissuade principled speech in support of Palestinian rights.  

Liz Jackson, UC alumna, and Berkeley-based Staff Attorney with Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, noted that “The ASUC bill supposedly in support of the "Free Flow of Ideas" undermines the academic freedom it disingenuously purports to protect. Regardless of one’s views on the Israeli-Palestinian question,this bill targets core political speech of students and faculty. The bill is part of a concerted repression campaign, driven by right wing Israel advocacy organizations, and designed to intimidate those who advocate for Palestinian rights on campus. Palestine Legal has documented over 150 incidents of repression in 2014 alone. The intimidation campaign includes smear attacks, frivolous legal complaints, and unconstitutional legislative proposals to punish Palestine advocacy. This ASUC bill is the latest attempt to paint advocacy for Palestinians as discriminatory, when in fact, it is principled human rights activism and political debate that adds to the richness of campus life.” 

Finally, it must be noted that the issue of Palestinian rights is one that touches the Berkeley community deeply. One of the main targets of the bill, Dr Hatem Bazian, a senior lecturer at UC Berkeley, recalled, "As a campus community member, my own experience with Israeli dehumanization emerges from witnessing my mother stripped to her undergarment and searched in a room while standing next to her as a metal detector is used all over her body and mine at age 8 when crossing the border from Jordan for summer visit to the West Bank.”  

These experiences were echoed in the public comments and statements by students who highlighted the shocking barriers to educational access experienced by Palestinians.