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Anti-BDS Posters Appear on U.C. Berkeley Campus; Management Responds
Hank Chapot
Friday April 22, 2016 - 11:05:00 PM
These anti-BDS flyers appeared on campus last week. Grounds personnel were told take them down and report to police. I blacked out the names. Management response below;
The following message is sent on behalf of Associate Chancellor Nils Gilman
Dear Campus Community: On Monday, April 18th, several hostile posters targeting members of the Muslim Student Association and the Students for Justice in Palestine student groups appeared on campus. The posters name specific students, and they seem clearly intended as a tactic of harassment and intimidation.[EDITOR'S NOTE: These red-baiting posters denounce the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, a campaign by Palestinians and other supporters both Jewish and non-Jewish to change Israel's policy toward Palestine. They bear the URL of horowitzfreedommovement.com, a project associated with ultra-conservative David Horowitz. When Horowitz, a self-described red diaper baby, was my classmate at UC Berkeley in 1960 he was an intransigeant ultra leftist, reflecting and amplifying the politics of his family of origin. A mutual acquaintance, another red diaper baby who grew up with Horowitz in the Bronx, told me that David's mother was the person who delivered the latest Stalinist message from door to door in the old neighborhood. Evidently his current posture is an over-reaction to his upbringing, perhaps more easily explained in Freudian than in political terms.]
In accordance with our well known 'time, place, and manner' rules, we have taken down the posters. UC Berkeley remains committed to combatting all forms of bias and discrimination, just as we condemn intimidation techniques that are at odds with the kind of respectful and inclusive environment we strive to create. We also fully support the UC Regents' recently-adopted statement on intolerance.
We thank those of you who have made reports to UCPD and to Ethics Point, and we exhort all in our campus community to use this opportunity to reinforce our values as a campus, and to report any further incidents.Nils Gilman
Associate ChancellorChief of Staff to Chancellor Dirks
