Jewish groups sue California university system over ‘longstanding and unchecked’ anti-Semitism.

Jewish groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the University of California (UC) system, UC Berkeley and Berkeley Law School, arguing they have allowed anti-Semitism “for too long and unchecked” on campus. according to court documents.

UC Berkeley Law School Chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and 23 other student groups adopted an October 2022 bylaw that prohibited inviting speakers who support Israel as a form of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which encourages companies and organizations to cut any ties to Israel in protest of the alleged occupation of Palestine .

The Brandeis Center and the Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education say the law school and university system failed to protect Jewish students and have allowed groups like SJP to issue an “illegal ultimatum.”[s],” seconds to the lawsuit

“For over a year, student organizations at Berkeley Law have been enacting and enforcing policies that confront Jews with an unthinkable and illegal ultimatum: to deny an integral component of your Jewish identity, Zionism, or deny the same rights and opportunities enjoyed by other members of the campus community,” the lawsuit says. “While UC administrators have publicly acknowledged the fundamentally anti-Semitic nature of these policies, they have taken no action to address them.”

UC’s administration has recognized that the policies are harmful to students, but Jewish organizations argue that the “lack of action” to get rid of these policies betrays Jewish students and the university system’s “longstanding commitment to civil rights,” according to demand. They further claimed that the bylaws violate those of the university politics against discrimination, which prohibits “lawfully impermissible, arbitrary or unreasonable discriminatory practices”.

“The anti-Semitism in which Jewish students at Berkeley find themselves engulfed today did not begin on October 7,” said Kenneth Marcus, the current founder and president of the Brandeis Center and a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law. one Press release. “It is a direct result of Berkeley’s leadership repeatedly turning a blind eye to unfettered hatred of Jews…Berkeley, once a beacon of free speech, civil rights, and equal treatment of people regardless of race race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, etc. and sexual preference, is headed down a very different and dangerous path than the one I proudly attended as a Jewish law student.”

The Department of Education launched an investigation into the law school’s handling of the incident in December 2022. The department said in its announcement that it was investigating claims by Jewish students about the “hostile environment” on campus and continued recognition of the student groups that approved the statutes.

UC Berkeley and Berkeley Law did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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