UC Berkeley regulation faculty pupil Malak Afaneh, left, and regulation professor Catherine Fisk tussle as Afaneh makes an attempt to make a press release on Palestinians on the house of Fisk and her husband, regulation faculty dean Erwin Chemerinsky. The incident befell April 9, 2024, in Oakland.
(Maryam Alhakim)
What was speculated to be a celebratory dinner at a dean’s house for graduating UC Berkeley regulation college students on Tuesday changed into an indignant confrontation over the Israel-Hamas struggle, free speech and accusations of anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish hatred.
A number of dozen regulation faculty college students have been invited to the Oakland house of Faculty of Regulation Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and his spouse, regulation faculty professor Catherine Fisk, for the primary of three dinners they deliberate to host. The occasion, which befell within the couple’s yard backyard with white-cloth-covered tables and college students seated amongst lemon timber, was to acknowledge the work of regulation college students and supply a chance to get pleasure from informal time with the 2 distinguished professors.
However the dinner rapidly devolved after a Palestinian American regulation pupil who was invited stood up in entrance of visitors and tried to offer a speech about Palestinians dying in Gaza and her need for the college to divest from firms concerned in Israel’s struggle and its occupation and blockade of Palestinian lands.
Chemerinsky approached the coed along with his arms folded and shouted at her: “Please depart. No. Please depart. Please depart.” Fisk grabbed away the coed’s microphone, whereas saying, “It’s not your own home. It’s my home. And I need you to depart.”
The coed who spoke, Malak Afaneh, stated that Fisk assaulted her and that her free speech rights have been denied.
Chemerinsky, who’s Jewish, says that the incident is the newest in antisemitic assaults on him and that free speech doesn’t prolong to his house. The college, which has been embroiled in months of protests over the Israel-Hamas struggle, is standing behind the dean.
“I’m appalled and deeply disturbed by what occurred at Dean Chemerinsky’s house final evening,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ stated in a press release. “I’ve been in contact with him to supply my help and sympathy. Whereas our help without spending a dime speech is unwavering, we can’t condone utilizing a social event at an individual’s non-public residence as a platform for protest.”
In an interview, College of California President Michael Drake referred to as the incident “very unlucky.”
UC Board of Regents Chair Wealthy Leib stated he condemned the coed’s actions and referred to as it “deplorable…. The people that focused this occasion did so just because it was hosted by a dean who’s Jewish. These actions have been antisemitic, threatening, and don’t replicate the values of this college.”
The occasions have been caught on a number of movies by pro-Palestinian activists who have been current.
A video exhibits Afaneh, who was wearing a jean skirt, a white “divest” shirt with a black-and-white keffiyeh round her neck and a crimson hijab, getting up from her desk and standing in entrance of the seated visitors. After providing the normal Islamic greeting in Arabic and translating it to English as “peace and blessings upon you all,” she says, “Tonight we’re gathered right here within the title of commemorating our closing few weeks as regulation college students. Tonight can be the final evening of the holy month of Ramadan the place hundreds of thousands of Muslims all over the world quick.”
“Please depart!” Chemerinsky says after the phrases “gathered right here.” The video exhibits him standing a number of toes away from Afaneh as he shouts. “That is my home. You might be my visitor. You’re my visitor. Please depart my home,” he says.
The clip then pans to Afaneh to indicate that Fisk has approached her from behind and grabbed the microphone and Afaneh’s shirt. Fisk’s arm is on Afaneh’s proper shoulder and at instances seems to the touch her neck.
“This isn’t your own home! It’s my home!” Fisk says. The video exhibits Fisk taking a look at one other lady who’s with the demonstrator and saying, “Get her to depart my home!”
An argument ensues amongst Afaneh, Chemerinsky, Fisk and the opposite lady, additionally a regulation pupil.
“You aren’t welcome,” Fisk says to Afaneh, suggesting she could name the police. Afaneh replies, “You possibly can name the police.” Fisk says, “I don’t desire to.” She then tries to take the microphone from Afaneh, who doesn’t let go of her grip and is pulled just a few steps up a small set of stairs.
“Forty thousand individuals are dying,” Afaneh says at one level to Fisk within the video, which is slightly below three minutes lengthy.
“I can’t cease that,” Fisk says.
A Palestinian-American pupil is saying she was assaulted and denied free speech rights when she tried to discuss the deaths of Palestinians throughout at regulation faculty dinner at UC Berkeley Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s house on Tuesday. The dean, who kicked out protestors, says they don’t have free speech rights on his non-public property. A Jewish man, he has accused activists of being antisemitic. (Maryam Alhakim)
The video later exhibits Chemerinsky chatting with a unique pupil, pleading for activists to depart. “There’s a genocide happening,” a pupil tells him. “Then don’t come right here!” Chemerinsky says.
9 activists organized the protest as half the regulation faculty’s College students for Justice in Palestine chapter. They left shortly after the argument, in accordance with either side.
In an interview Wednesday, Afaneh stated that she felt assaulted by Fisk and that she was contemplating submitting fees, however would first seek the advice of with attorneys.
“The aggression with which she ran at me after I stated ‘as-salamu alaykum.’ She noticed my hijab and keffiyeh, and that was a threat for her,” Afaneh stated.
Fisk didn’t reply to an e-mail in search of remark. Chemerinsky, a constitutional regulation professional, launched a press release Wednesday and responded to a reporter’s questions.
“The home is privately owned by my spouse and me. The mortgage is our names. It’s on a avenue in Oakland. It’s not owned by the college, on college property, or in any approach paid for by the college,” Chemerinsky stated in an interview with The Instances. “It’s non-public property, and the 1st Modification merely doesn’t apply there. Nobody has the fitting to come back into my home, or yours, and disrupt a dinner. As a matter of constitutional regulation, that is completely clear.”
Chemerinsky has been a vocal critic of pro-Palestinian activists at Berkeley and a frequent goal of their exercise because the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and Israel’s ongoing struggle in Gaza. Chemerinsky stated he’s being singled out as a result of he’s Jewish.
“Final week, there was an terrible poster, on social media and bulletin boards within the regulation faculty constructing, of a caricature of me holding a bloody knife and fork, with the phrases in giant letters, ‘No dinner with Zionist Chem whereas Gaza starves,’” he stated within the assertion. “I by no means thought I’d see such blatant antisemitism, with a picture that invokes the horrible antisemitic trope of blood libel and that assaults me for no obvious purpose apart from I’m Jewish.”
That is not the primary battle in latest months involving the regulation faculty. Within the fall, a professor ignited controversy when he printed an opinion piece within the Wall Avenue Journal titled, “Don’t Rent My Anti-Semitic Regulation College students.” College students and alumni petitioned Chemerinsky to take motion in response. Chemerinsky stood up for the professor, saying he was defending free speech even when folks discover it “deeply offensive.”
The dean stated dinners scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday would proceed.
“I hope that there might be no disruptions…. However we can have safety current,” Chemerinsky stated in the assertion. “Any pupil who disrupts might be reported to pupil conduct and a violation of the coed conduct code is reported to the bar.”
Employees author Teresa Watanabe contributed to this report.
