Posted on 01/05/2024 6:52:21 AM PST by SJackson
In the wake of 10/7, the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, Ivy League universities have been taking heat for campus anti-Semitism. That has also been going on at UC Berkeley, once known as a bastion of free speech. Consider the case of Dan Kalb, an Oakland city councilman and climate activist.
On November 21, Kalb was slated to address undergraduates in an Environmental Problem Solving course, a class he had addressed before. This time, pro-Hamas students responded with a letter stating:
As an Oakland City Council member with a platform advocating for environmental and social justice, affordable housing, and universal access to health care, among other things, it is utterly disappointing and hypocritical for someone of your esteem to be in support of the apartheid state of Israel and the current and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
Students attacked Kalb for his “active role in retweeting and spreading pro-Israeli propaganda, which often equates pro-Palestinian voices as ‘anti-Semitic.’” The letter made no mention of Hamas atrocities, now acknowledged even by the New York Times. Adjunct professor Kurt Spreyer, instructor of the course, told Kalb the students might disrupt the class, so it was better that he not appear.
“If someone wants to go speak about climate change — they are an expert on climate change — what the hell does Israel or Zionism have to do with that?” Kalb told the Jewish News of Northern California. “Why not put a yellow star on our sleeve? How about we do that too?”
Kalb had been “condemning the murderous Hamas terrorists repeatedly,” and in his view “Hamas must be unequivocally condemned and, if possible, dismantled so this never happens again.” When Kalb saw people denying evidence of Hamas atrocities, he said, “That’s not anti-Zionism. That’s anti-Semitism,” and that problem “apparently is not exclusive to the law school.” In fact, UC Berkeley is being sued by Jewish groups and students over “longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism.”
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof has apologized to Kalb, telling the California Globe that “what happened in this class is not consistent with the university’s values” and “instructors are not supposed to rescind invitations for classroom speakers based on student disagreement with the speakers’ views.” Provost Benjamin Hermalin plans to use the Kalb case as “an opportunity to engage the community in a discussion about the importance of diversity of perspective and the dangers of censorship of any sort.”
For Glenn Ricketts of the National Association of Scholars, the apology was “the least they can do, indeed a requirement of basic decency.” On the other hand, the incident “indicates how far down the slope we’ve descended.”
The cancelation took place without comment from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appoints members of the University of California board of regents. Nearly two weeks after the October 7 attack, Gov. Newsom visited Israel and proclaimed “my heart is heavy for all innocent people under the crushing pressure of loss and grief, no matter which side of fence they quite literally find themselves on. So as I prepare to leave, I share these words: may the memory of those who perished be a blessing to the whole world.”
After his brief visit, the governor moved on to China, where he told reporters the visit strengthened his sympathy for Israelis reeling from the Hamas’ attacks. Newsom saw videos of “beheaded people, their bodies, lay there, dead,” and for the governor “It connects to an understanding of the emotion of the Israelis about the atrocities that occurred, and about the 1,400 lives lost. It’s not intellectual any longer.”
One day after 10/7, California Lt. Gov Eleni Kounalakis said in an X post, “the highly coordinated and barbaric attacks on Israellaunched by Hamas must stop immediately. All hostages must be released at once. We will stand with Israel as it defends itself. Hamas must and will be held to account for its atrocities.”
Kounalakis earned an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and remains an ex-officio member of the UC board of regents. At this writing, the Lt. Gov. has issued no statement on the cancellation of Dan Kalb and surging anti-Semitism on the Berkeley campus.
I dont quite see the verisimilitude in climate change being anti-semitism.
Authoritarian governments engage in purges and pogroms. The czars, Stalin, Hitler, Progressives. They are either liquidating the Kulaks, running death camps, or cancelling the Environmental expert for being Jewish. This is what authoritarians do.
So ... will they still vote for the Democrats? Yeah. That’s what I thought.
Though i don’t agree with it, this is sort of a win-win; pro-Pali’s stopping a speech by a climate loon.
BTTT
I think anti-white is a cover for antisemitism.
Leftist Jew cries when the tactics used against whitey are used against him and his. Maybe he will get his head straight.
As your country is being invaded by illegal immigrants that hate you as part of a government sponsored campaign of terror. Pull your head out of the sand.
“I think anti-white is a cover for antisemitism.”
No what has happened is that the Left has moved Jews from the oppressed minority category and placed them into the oppressor white category and the Jews don’t like this development. They seem to have been fine with it when it was directed only against non Jewish white males, and only reacted when it began to be directed against them. They are basically getting a taste of their own medicine now since it was Leftist academic Jews who promoted much of this warped ideology to begin with.
And let us not forget....GEORGE SCHWARTZ...ALIAS GEORGE SOROS IS A JEW!!!!!!
I hope he gets a whiff of what it is like to be TOTALLY HATED.
Back when it still existed I used to listen to shortwave radio, and the Communist stations made absolutely no distinction between Israel on the one hand and countries like Rhodesia and South Africa on the other. Of course, that didn't stop anti-Jewish "right wingers" from claiming that Israel was behind all those countries' troubles!
I hope he gets a whiff of what it is like to be TOTALLY HATED.
Since he's been bankrolling these pro-Hamas groups, I don't think he cares. And I think he knows he's already totally hated and he doesn't care about that either.
Wait a minute--you didn't think he was pro-Israel, did you?
The Cancel Culture Club fags have ripped Christianity apart with the help of the government. It’ looks like Judaism is next.
The left, at least on college campuses, is ready to embrace racism, hate and genocide. It was only a matter of time.
SOROS PRO ISRAEL??????
ARE YOU NUTS?
The universities love to tout “free speech” but everyone knows this simply means free speech for approved speakers, all others are cancelled.
I call BS. It is thoroughly consistent with the university's values. Cowardly hypocrites should have the stones to at least admit what they advocate. They are commie Jew haters, but don't have the guts to say it in front of a camera.
The climate loon should be staying at home and not using electricity anyway.
Lol.
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