UC Berkeley supports Hamas's terrorist attacks - opinion

Students at the University of California, Berkeley feel terrified and isolated following interactions with the campus administration’s refusal to condemn Hamas terrorists for the murder of innocent civilians. This lays bare Berkeley’s desire to avoid controversy rather than support students affected by the tragedy in Israel. 

Our request is simple: UC Berkeley must issue a statement explicitly condemning Hamas terrorism. 

The administration’s refusal to recognize this blatant human rights abuse is indicative of their double standard when it comes to calling out terrorism against Israeli civilians. In the past, the university has had no qualms about issuing statements of support and solidarity for people in the United States and around the world experiencing tragedy and human rights abuses – from the Russian attack on Ukraine to the murder of Tyre Nichols. 

Silence speaks volumes 

Undeniably, the Israeli government has committed wrongs in the past against Palestinian people. The innocent people massacred, however, were not the Israeli government – they were civilians enjoying a music festival, grandmothers sleeping in their homes, and children playing in the street. The administration has made clear that this same standard and willingness to condemn terror does not extend to innocent civilians murdered in Israel by Hamas. 

Let’s consider a 10:44 p.m. phone call from the campus administrator, a professor, on October 11 to a student. The administrator, who is the department head of Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies and chair of the Chancellor’s Committee on Jewish Life, told the student that “You [the student] do not have any standing. You [the student] were not invited to these spaces.” He also verbally implied to the student that they were being bothersome by “[sending] too many emails.”

This individual represents the campus administration. At 11:28 p.m., the administrator ended the call but not before reverberating the age-old antisemitic trope: “Jewish students [at Berkeley] are far too privileged.” 

This incident, unfortunately, underscores a pervasive pattern that many have observed within UC Berkeley’s administration. Time after time, students have recounted instances where their voices were marginalized, their legitimate concerns brushed aside, and they were made to feel as if they were merely inconveniences in the grand machinery of bureaucracy.

UC Berkeley, a renowned institution of higher learning, prides itself on fostering an environment of intellectual growth, free speech, and advocacy. However, these repeated accounts of administrative indifference and attempts to silence students are starkly at odds with these principles. Instead of promoting an open dialogue and addressing legitimate concerns, there appears to be a worrying trend of suppressing student voices.

Student experiences, like with the department head of Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies and Chair of the Chancellor’s Committee on Jewish Life, add to the need of overhaul in Berkeley’s approach to student concerns, equity, and welfare. 

Per Title VI, the UC Berkeley administration has an affirmative obligation to protect Jewish students. Yet, over the last four days, the Berkeley campus administration has repeatedly denied requests from multiple students to make a statement condemning Hamas terrorism. Students have explicitly told the UC Berkeley administration – including the deans, provost, and chancellor – via email, meetings, and recorded video the terror they feel on campus. The university’s refusal to issue a statement has delegitimized our grief and hampered our ability to come together as a campus community.

Emails show students’ pleas for extensions and leniency from Berkeley professors while reckoning with mental health crises of grief and terror. These requests have been shrugged off with responses such as, “I will not grant your request for accommodation. It is not uncommon that something outside our control happens shortly before an exam that affects the outcome.”

Dozens of governments, corporations, and peer institutions have made statements explicitly condemning Hamas. This includes University of California President Michael Drake who issued a statement: “As the world learns more about the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas that have claimed so many innocent Israeli lives, our grief is compounded by the scores of people still missing and the escalating war that is causing greater casualties, both Israeli and Palestinian.”

Why won’t the University of California, Berkeley administration do the same? 

Currently, the Berkeley administration has sent campus-wide mass communication to students and alumni that omits the phrases “Hamas terrorism” and “innocent Israeli civilian lives lost.” The Berkeley administration’s explicit erasure of these phrases sets the tone on campus that these words – and students who say these words – are not welcome. The administration’s erasure of denoting “Hamas terrorism” against innocent Israeli civilians comes as protests have broken out around the world and in the United States celebrating Hamas and chanting “Gas the Jews.”

There have been an undisclosed number of submissions of the UC Incident Reporting Form for Harassment and Discrimination, and students have directly shared with the administration their experiences with antisemitism and corresponding fear. Despite the administration’s awareness of these antisemitic incidents as well as Jewish students’ appeals for relief, they have refused to act.

To illustrate: In a conversation with the provost on October 10, a student shared their feelings as a result of the administration’s silence. The student explained how the erasure of Hamas terrorism mirrors that of Holocaust denialism witnessed in 2023. The provost responded to the student along the lines of “I don’t know why you would think that.” When the student told the provost that his formal statements mattered, he responded that his words do not.

Furthermore, at UC Berkeley Haas, ranked as a top 10 MBA program, a large volume of emails sent to deans from current students and alumni, as well as a letter campaign, demonstrate the effort put into asking the dean to amend her statement. On October 10, Acting Haas Dean Jenny Chatman wrote to “Haas in the News” about “bloodshed and fear in the Middle East.”

Only after emails from students and alumni, a signed statement, and meetings did the dean along with her leadership team send an email on October 11 to current students and faculty – not alumni. Her email invited the community to a meeting on October 12 about “a community conversation at a difficult time.” Her fist line was “the terrorist attack Hamas launched on Israel on Saturday.”

The university has failed its students, failed to stand up against terrorism, and failed to acknowledge the hate which continues to grow not by the day, but by the hour. We implore the university to condemn Hamas terrorists, a recognized militant group that calls for the death of all Jewish people. 

Past generations have told us never again. We say, enough is enough.

Danielle Sobkin is a Berkeley undergraduate, class of 2024. Hannah Schlacter is a Berkeley Haas FTMBA, 2024.