Three weeks after violence erupted at a private event organized by Jewish student groups at the University of California at Berkeley and protested by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the speech was delivered on Monday and published without issue.
Monday's event was significantly different from the one initially scheduled by several Jewish student groups for Feb. 26, when campus police evacuated the Zellerbach Theater after about 200 protesters forcefully entered the building.
UC Berkeley increased its police presence and hired private security for the event, which was held in Pauley Hall on campus, and closed the building to anyone who did not register. University faculty and staff wearing yellow and blue “Watcher” signs walked outside and through the building, along with others designated as peace ambassadors.
Jewish student groups, including Tikvah, Bears for Israel, and Students Support Israel, among other groups that describe themselves as Zionist organizations, rescheduled the event for Monday, saying it is essential for freedom of expression. The featured speaker was controversial Israeli military reservist and lawyer Ran Bar Yosephat. About 150 people attended.
After initially condemning the February 26 incident as a violation of the university's “most basic values” and commitment to free speech, Chancellor Carol Christ and Provost Benjamin E. Hermalin announced a criminal investigation into the violence. Campus police and the university's anti-harassment office are investigating reports of “overt anti-Semitic expression” and allegations of physical assault as hate crimes, Christ and Hermalin said.
Federal authorities have also launched their own investigations into allegations of discrimination at UC Berkeley since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas.
In a statement on social media on February 28, Bears for Palestine criticized the university and Jewish student groups for providing a platform to speakers like Bar-Josephat, and said Palestinian, Arab and other students also face ongoing harassment and threats.
“Our Palestinian community has been in a constant, insurmountable state of grief for the past 144 days, as the occupation continues to obliterate the Gaza Strip in its military campaign of genocide,” the group wrote.
In contrast to the February event, only a few demonstrators showed up carrying posters protesting Bar Josaphat and condemning the war in Gaza as genocide. One female protester managed to make her way into the event and interrupted Bar Josaphat about 30 minutes into his speech.
The protester shouted before she was taken outside: “Shame on you all.”
Sharon Knavelman, a sophomore, vice president of Bears for Israel and a member of the Students Support Israel board, attributed the quiet rhetoric to the university stepping up law enforcement.
“I think they have learned from their mistakes,” Knavelman said, adding that UC Berkeley should set “the tone for the rest of the United States on free speech, which we respect and allow everyone to come and share their point of view.” “As long as it is done in a peaceful and civil manner.”
