With the deft addition of three small words, University of California Regent Norm Pattiz defused rising tensions Wednesday over whether UC would declare “anti-Zionism” -opposition to the state of Israel – an official form of discrimination at the famously free-thinking school. In January, it issued a report calling on the regents and university leaders “actively to challenge anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination when and wherever they emerge within the University community”.
Advertisement
They both affirm the university’s commitment to free expression and specifically address situations akin to past incidents that caused many to fear anti-Semitism on UC campuses was growing. A UC Board of Regents panel is scheduled to vote Wednesday, March 23, 2016, on the declaration drafted by a committee after an earlier version by UC President Janet Napolitano’s office did not explicitly condemn prejudice against Jewish people.
The document attacks discrimination broadly, but its introduction highlights hateful conduct experienced by Jewish students – a problem some Jewish organizations and leaders say intensified over the last few years during the hotly debated Israel divestment resolutions on UC’s campuses.
“You can speak out against the Iran and is policies”, he said Wednesday.
Still, the move was widely hailed by American Jewish groups. “I was told when I was taking someone into the Lords that some on the other benches made comments quietly in the back: ‘Who’s the Jew boy bringing into the House now?'” he said.
A committee of the university’s Board of Regents voted unanimously on Wednesday to send what is being called a “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance” and a report summarizing the context for it to the full board for consideration.
“This is an active debate among Jewish students that’s being hijacked by outside groups for a political advocacy gain”, said David McCleary, a Jewish UC Berkeley graduate student who is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, which opposes the new resolution.
That condemnation departs significantly from a draft released last week that equated anti-Zionism generally with anti-Semitism and drew sharp criticism from some faculty members and others.
“What an important day for Jewish students in California, nationally and internationally”, director Tammi Rossman Benjamin said in a statement. Student governments at five campuses and the system-wide University of California Students Association have called on the university to sell its stock in companies doing business with Israel. These groups focused their arguments on protecting free speech and academic freedom, despite the fact that they routinely act in direct opposition to these critical values.
Lord Levy, who served as the former Prime Minister’s Middle East envoy and is one of the party’s leading Jewish figures, said that he had been “shocked and horrified” by the comments of two party members, one of whom was expelled and one suspended, following anti-Semitism allegations.
The report outlines 10 points prohibiting discrimination. It also includes concerns raised about bias directed at Muslims, African Americans, immigrant-rights supporters and the LGBT community.
Advertisement
Dianne Klein, UC spokeswoman, told the media that the report on intolerance was not university policy but rather it reflected regents’ belief that tolerance and disapproval of anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination are critical values for the university. “If they don’t make that clear then I will start to question myself and actually question my being a Labour peer and a proud member of the Labour party”. “People should be exposed to new talk and new ideas”.
