Assaults towards College of California, Berkeley, college students sporting Israeli flags aren’t being investigated as hate crimes, stated a graduate scholar who claimed the scholars had been assaulted due to their Jewish identities.
“Jewish students were intimidated and they were aggressively approached and their personal property was attempted to be taken and they were verbally harassed because of an item they were carrying to convey and express their Jewish identity,” Hannah Schlacter, a Berkeley MBA scholar, instructed Fox Information. “Right now, the university and [the University of California Police Department], they’ve not declared those hate crimes.”
“More importantly, though, they’re not even investigating those crimes as hate crimes,” she continued. “This is about the fact that when there are issues and incidents affecting Jewish students on campus, I am not seeing the university enforce the policies in place.”
A lawsuit filed by the Jewish Individuals for Equity in Training and the pro-Israel Brandeis Heart accuses U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley Regulation and the College of California president for longstanding antisemitism on campus. (L: Fox Information Digital/ R: Getty Photos)
In two incidents, assailants aggressively tried to take Israeli flags from college students, shoving and cursing at them within the course of, movies reviewed by Fox Information present. In a single, a crowd gathered round a scholar draped in an Israeli flag who was struck within the head with a metallic water bottle.
The movies are a part of a lawsuit filed final week by the Brandeis Heart — a pro-Israel nonprofit — and Jewish Individuals for Equity in Training towards the University of California Board of Regents, the college president and different faculty officers for “longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism” on campus.
“Following the October 7 Hamas attacks, [the university] has erupted in on-campus displays of hatred, harassment, and physical violence against Jews,” the lawsuit states. The Jewish teams argue that courts should intervene to guard the civil rights of Jewish college students and school and finish “anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment.”
UC BERKELEY STUDENT DETAILS ANTISEMITISM ON CAMPUS SINCE OCT. 7:
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The scholar struck with the water bottle was Jewish, in response to the go well with, and the video reveals he was hit by a protester sporting a black and white keffiyeh, a conventional Palestinian headdress.
“To date the police department has received a single report of alleged violence, the one involving the water bottle,” Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof instructed Fox Information in an announcement. “The university is taking this very seriously, and the student has been offered support.”
Schlacter claims the college violated its coverage by not investigating the water bottle assault as a hate crime. However Mogulof denied allegations of mishandling harassment claims.
“If evidence gathered during the police department’s ongoing investigation indicates it was a hate crime, that is how it will be charged,” Mogulof instructed Fox Information. “We reject completely any claim that reports of harassment or discrimination filed by Jewish students are treated differently than others.”
Each pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations have taken place on the U.C. Berkeley campus for the reason that Oct. 7 assaults. Many demonstrations have been met with counter-protests. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Picture)
The College of California Police Division didn’t return a request for remark.
One other video, nonetheless, reveals two protesters grabbing a scholar’s Israel flag, accosting him as they attempt to take it. One assailant was sporting a shirt with “DESTROY WHITE SUPREMACY” written on the entrance and cursed at onlookers.
The lawsuit detailed further incidents, comparable to pro-Palestinian activists disrupting a Jewish scholar group’s prayer service and one other occasion the place pro-Palestinian advocates blocked the primary entrance to the college.
As a public college, Berkeley would not have the authorized authority to cease demonstrations or expressions that others would take into account offensive, Mogulof stated.
PRO-ISRAEL ADVOCATES DESCRIBE WITNESSING ANTISEMITISM SINCE OCT. 7: ‘DON’T REALLY FEEL SAFE’
There has additionally been ongoing vandalism that includes antisemitic messages, Schlacter instructed Fox Information.
“We’ve had two Jewish students physically assaulted on campus when expressing their Jewish identity via holding an Israeli flag to convey their national origin,” Schlacter stated. She accused the college of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination primarily based on race, colour and nationwide origin.
“We are seeing on U.C. campuses violence and a failure to respond to the violence,” Schlacter added.
U.C. Berkeley is already dealing with an ongoing U.S. Department of Education investigation over alleged Title VI violations. The probe was launched in December 2022 after Jewish college students complained that 9 scholar organizations’ pledge to not invite pro-Israel audio system to campus created a “hostile environment,” Jewish Insider reported.
Moreover, she and the lawsuit argued that the Berkeley Regulation Faculty broke college coverage because it hasn’t stopped some scholar teams from excluding members primarily based on their beliefs in Zionism.
Protesters maintain a “FREE PALESTINE” banner after the U.C. Berkeley soccer staff beat Standford College. (David Madison/Getty Photos)
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In November, College of California President Michael V. Drake, M.D. introduced a variety of system-wide initiatives that “focus on student support and campus safety to improve the climate on campus in light of recent events in Israel and Gaza,” College of California spokesperson Ryan King instructed Fox Information in an announcement.
Different faculty campuses have confronted related scrutiny over antisemitism on campus. Since Oct. 7, the Division of Training, for instance, has opened Title VI discrimination investigations into Harvard, Columbia and Cornell universities, in addition to the College of Pennsylvania.
To observe the total interview with Schlacter about antisemitism at Berkeley, click here.
Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video. Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
