UC Berkeley probes Jewish professor over confrontation with anti-Israel student

[question everything]

The university of California, Berkeley has initiated an investigation against Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of its law school, following a discrimination complaint filed by a pro-Palestinian student who was expelled from the Jewish professor's home during a festive faculty dinner.

The student, Malak Afaneh, filed the complaint with the university's Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination after the incident at the dean's home in early April. During the dinner, Afaneh stood up, produced a wireless microphone she had brought from home and made a speech about the war in Gaza and Ramadan at the home of Dean Chemerinsky and his wife Prof. Catherine Fisk.

The the incident, which has gone viral, shows Dean Chemerinsky visibly angered, demanding that the student leave his home. Shortly thereafter, his wife joined him. She wrapped her arm around Afaneh’s shoulder and repeatedly asked her to leave their home. Professors Fisk and Chemerinsky hosted a private dinner for law students in their backyard. Afaneh, a graduate law student, registered for the event.

The subsequent incident sparked controversy and debates about free speech, particularly as Prof. Chemerinsky has been one of the most vocal advocates on campus for protesters' right to self-expression. Following the incident, Afaneh posted a statement on Instagram, accompanied by the viral video, claiming she was attacked. She alleged that Prof. Fisk grabbed her by the neck, chest, shirt and hijab, and attempted to remove her from their home along with her husband, due to her Muslim faith.

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h1tpdsam0

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This is a definition of Chutzpah - being a guest and then disrupting the event.

[Ace Rothstein]

1. The fact that he's under investigation is a joke.

[msongs]

2. due to her muslim faith yeah right due to her being a rude person is more like it nt

[NBachers]

3. I'm sorry, you don't go to a faculty dinner at the Dean of the Law School's house, a Jew for that matter, and pull off a

putrid planned stunt like this and face no consequences. Lame, tawdry, and undignified.

Where are the days when shit like this would get you kicked out of school?

[JI7]

4. What a fucking joke. It's all recorded and the student is total piece of shit

[Cha]

6. YES!

[Cha]

5. What the bloody hell! I remember this.. Now prof Chemerinsky

is being "investigated"?!

"Expelled".. Is that what they're calling asked to politely to Stop Crashing our dinner party? These fuckers.

Orwellian Twilight Zone

[RandySF]

7. I'm neither Jewish nor Muslim

but it feels like universities are holding Jewish students and staff to a higher level of scrutiny.

[Mossfern]

9. That's not unusual

par for the course.

[Tickle]

8. My heart aches for

the Jewish community.

[Mountainguy]

10. Berkley is a state school...

They probably have to investigate when a complaint is made.

Hopefully it's quick and the student is expelled after Chermerinsky is cleared.

Anything less and the faculty at the law school should resign in protest.

[yardwork]

11. These people have overplayed their hand.

By the end of this nobody is going to have any respect for them. From the article:

“I was attacked because we live in a world where Zionist administration and the world as a whole views Palestinian bodies as constructed to die, while white ones are expected to live.”

However, another, longer video revealed more nuance about the incident. Toward the end of the nearly three-minute video, Fisk tells Afaneh, “We agree with you about what’s going on in Palestine.”

Chemerinsky said that the investigation into Afaneh’s complaint is a standard response and added that in the days leading up to her protest, Afaneh was involved in posting a cartoon, widely considered to evoke an antisemitic blood libel, in public areas on campus and that he and Fisk had asked Afaneh to leave many times.

(I deleted the ugly antisemitic cartoon this woman has been spreading around campus: Antisemitic portrayal of UC Berkeley Law School dean Erwin )

“It is disturbing that the student who posted a blatantly antisemitic flyer and then deliberately disrupted a dinner party at my home, and refused to cease the disruption or leave when asked repeatedly to do so, then had the audacity to file a complaint with the campus that she was mistreated,” he said.

[intheflow]

12. Wow, apples and oranges.

It’s one thing to advocate for free speech in public, and it’s something else to be expected to tolerate bigotry in your own home. What’s so hard about knowing the difference between the public and private sphere? I bet this law student gets sparked by the court.

[Jedi Guy]

13. Alternate headline:

UC Berkeley graduate law student is stupid, doesn't understand free speech or trespassing, and is also a rude piece of shit

[yardwork]

14. How embarrassing for Berkeley.

I thought their admission standards required smart people.

[Sympthsical]

15. They've been tolerating antisemitism for years

I've been discussing it with others for ages - well before October 7th.

They've never pushed back in any forceful manner, because then these radical students scream that the administration is anti-Muslim and white supremacist. And people in Berkeley would rather see their homes set on fire than be accused of racism in public. It's a fate worse than death.

So they've just let these radicals do whatever while Jewish groups and students have been forced to hunker down and bear it. Because they're privileged, ya know. By the calculus of idiot oppression marxists.

However, I think with the incident with this professor, they finally went a step too far. The stupid is on video, widely seen, and no one anywhere (except maybe some of the newly minted First Amendment simplists I suddenly see everywhere) thinks free speech in someone's private home is an actual thing.

"I came into your home and yelled at you and your guests. And then you asked me to leave?! Racist!"

You know why she takes that approach? Because it's worked with the university in the past. Very well, and for far longer than people want to admit.

[yardwork]

16. Well, that's intolerable.

It's time for all of us to start speaking back. Thank you for your informative posts on this subject.

The emperor has no clothes.

[Celerity]

17. The student is the one in the wrong here. She has no case.

[tritsofme]

19. Who in their right mind would ever hire this ignorant entitled little prick?

Hopefully no one.