A report from Defending Education (DE) shared exclusively with Townhall, shows that over 170 professors at the University of California, Berkeley pushed anti-Israel viewpoints.
The disturbing report from DE shows several faculty attacking Israel in communications to each other.
The report shows that many of the comments and initiatives that spread this sentiment originated with Ussama Makdisi, who serves as a “Professor of History and Chancellor’s Chair at the University of California Berkeley.”
Makdisi was apparent about his views in communications with other staff (via DE):
On October 13, 2023, assistant adjunct professor Dzovinar Derderian invited Makdisi to a lecture. He responded: “I wanted to go to this but I’m now flying to Houston for a teach in on Gaza. We each do what we can to avert what is really genocide. Incredible. And the liberal West is so brazen about supporting Israel.”
Additionally, DE reviewed a letter titled “UC Berkeley Faculty Statement of Solidarity of Palestinians.” This letter stated the following:
“We faculty members and scholars at UC Berkeley stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza facing genocidal Israeli state violence. We stand in solidarity with our fellow educators in occupied Palestine who have renewed their call for international academic institutions to stand with, and not against, the subjugated, brutalized, displaced, and terrorized Palestinian people [...] We refuse to remain silent as we watch a systematic genocide underway, supported by the United States government.”
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DE noted that the letter went on to attack other Berkeley staff members who support Israel. The letter was signed by more than 170 Berkeley faculty, including Makdisi. These faculty work in a wide array of departments, including Ethnic Studies, English, History of Art, African American Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, Education, Sociology, and Public Health.
Additionally, DE received curriculum from a history class taught by Makdisi that attacked “Zionism” and insisted that Israel was built on stolen land. The curriculum has over 700 pages of content.
"It's hardly a surprise that internal documents and teaching materials reveal a rabid anti-Israel bias — it seems fair to ask why the federal government continues to fund radicals who inflame and even participate in anti-Semitic activities on campus," Erika Sanzi, director of outreach at Defending Education, told Townhall.
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