UC Berkeley alumni Jessica Felber and Brian Maissy dismissed their lawsuit accusing the campus and UC system of failure to mitigate a hostile climate against Jewish students during demonstrations in March 2010, the campus announced Wednesday.
The lawsuit was settled with the agreement that the university will consider potential changes to its policies regarding campus protests after collecting campus opinion. Felber and Maissy will receive no monetary compensation or attorney reimbursements.
The suit stems from an incident during which Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Student Association established a mock checkpoint that included fake barbed wire and AK-47 firearms at a 2010 Apartheid Week event. The plaintiffs alleged that Husam Zakharia, campus alumnus and former leader of SJP, rammed Felber — who was a member of Tikvah Students for Israel — with a shopping cart. Felber consequently sought medical treatment and a restraining order against Zakharia.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs accused the university of failing to discipline the accused campus groups, to provide adequate security and to implement policies to prevent the hostile environment, ultimately “turn(ing) a blind eye.”
The legal complaint, filed in March 2011, was dismissed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in December 2011.
“The allegations in the Felber lawsuit and the strategy behind bringing the suit were carefully calibrated to defame and harass Arab and Muslim student groups at Cal,” said Mohamed Haimoud, president of Cal MSA, in a press release issued Friday by civil rights and student groups applauding the dismissal.
The two potential policy clarifications the university will consider under the agreement — though it is not obligated to implement either — are limiting imitation firearms in public areas of campus to only when “it would be obvious to a reasonable observer that the imitation weapon is not a real weapon” and requiring demonstrators around Sather Gate to allow an unobstructed path for pedestrians.
“We had no desire for any personal compensation,” Maissy said. “We just wanted the situation to change for students in the future.”
Maissy said the lawsuit was “not entirely successful” because by the time it was concluded, both plaintiffs had graduated and consequently did not have the same power to seek redress from the court.
According to Chief Campus Counsel Christopher Patti, the university will begin to publicize the proposed policy clarifications and invite public comment from the campus community once students return in the fall. The campus will then decide whether to adopt, modify or reject the proposed clarifications based on the feedback received.
Because of that limitation, Felber and Maissy’s lawyers — Joel Siegal and Neal Sher — released a Title VI complaint to the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Justice on Monday. After the court case, according to the complaint, “(they) have become acutely aware of, and have obtained substantial evidence demonstrating, a pervasive hostile environment towards Jews on the campus.”
Maissy said he hopes the complaint will lead to an investigation that will cause the university to take more action or lose federal funding.
“Cal SJP, Cal MSA and our civil rights partners will work to ensure that these complaints are dismissed and the legacy of U.C. Berkeley as the birthplace of free speech is protected,” stated independent ASUC Senator Sadia Saifuddin in Friday’s release.
In a press release issued Wednesday, the campus said the majority of the plaintiff’s allegations was constitutionally protected speech and that the university “had made extensive efforts to maintain an inclusive and respectful campus environment that is safe and welcoming for everyone.”
“The claim that there is a hostile environment for Jewish students at Berkeley is, on its face, entirely unfounded,” stated campus Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard in the release. “The campus takes great pride in its vibrant Hillel chapter, the broad range of other Jewish student groups, our world-class Jewish Studies program, and the recently created Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law at the Berkeley law school.”
But Sher maintains the Apartheid Week event “brings anti-Semitism to full glory.”
“The atmosphere that some of these Jewish kids have been subjected to (is) reminiscent of what went on in Nazi Germany in the 30s,” Sher said. “And the university has the capability to step in and to stop this, but it hasn’t in years.”
Read the full text of Siegel and Sher’s Title VI complaint below:
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Here’s
the truth, Berkeley activists–you’re only a symptom, not the disease. The
underlying pathology is a society that, shocked by a flock of Black Swans, has
lost confidence in its center. Under those circumstances, what was once on the
margins now creeps into the mainstream. Thus, a fanatic, obsessive Jew baiter
like yourself–retailing your offal about Jews, Zionists and Israel,
questioning the loyalty of American Jews, asserting the presence of
conspiracies that are more self-revealing about you than revelatory about the
subject, are now tolerated.
Yet, you remain intolerable.
The good news for Jewish people, especially those residing in Israel, is that
their fate is no longer in the hands of you and those of your awful ilk.
Whether you like it or not–and you don’t like it, and I’m delighted that you
don’t–for better or worse, the Jews now get to decide their own destiny.
A world managed by the likes of you is not too difficult to envision. One only
has to see the heaps of dead Kurds murdered by Turks, Sunni Syrians sniped down
by Butcher Assad, Copts murdered and raped by the MB and their military
sympathizers, and Iranian kids shot down in the streets of a dozen cities.
And what, pray tell, from Berkeley activists? Silence.
I can pardon the Jews for not wanting to be the objects of your
“humanity.”
if they are not getting (and according to the quotes in the articles, did not want) compensation to pay for lawyer fees, who is paying for it? most students wouldn’t be able to afford a lawsuit on their own dime
As with most human rights cases, the lawyers work pro bono. Neal Sher has worked a lot with Jewish rights groups, so I could see him taking on the case for free.
Did you ever hear the words “pro bono”?
A more accurate lawsuit would target the cozy relationship between zionists and the University
Tell us about this cozy relationship.
Or tell us about the cozy relationship beween the Saudis and the university. What does a ten million dollar donation get you ? Its not just the “Sultan” room. The Saudis have “invested” over 140 million dollars in the American educational sysytem. That kind of money buys influence- never doubt it.
The rabid Zionist fanatics in Berkeley have committed many recent acts of violence and vandalism targeting Arabic ancestry people.
The lawsuit should have been against UC for harboring violent Zionists!
Tell us about these acts of violence and vandalism.
vandalized sjp’s signboards 4 times (including drawing swastickas with islamic crecent). several times tikvah members torn have torn down sjp flyers (on video). some psycho zionists pulled a taser on a sjp flashmob on durant last february (check the dailycal story).
Something happens off campus by non students, and the Jewish students on campus are held responsible? That’s disturbing.
i don’t think anyone is blaming uc Jewish student for the durant flareup, are they? the original post mentions rabid Zionist fanatics in Berkeley. definitely the more rabid confrontational zionists are off campus (I guess I’m assuming it was off campus Zionists who vandalized Michael Lerner’s house several times, though i guess it could be a student.)
Hmm. Looking at the daily cal story, it appears that the ” psycho zionists” were threatened with a club. And no students and no taser was involved.
SJP isn’t just “Arabic ancestry people”. And looking at the video- which appears to be older white people blocking telegraph, there were not “Arabic ancestry people” involved with that either. I dont recognize anyone from SJP in the video. And maybe just maybe pepper-spraying someone who approaches you screaming and cursing and carrying a club isn’t racism- maybe its common sense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfwgw2uoRF0
thanks for posting my video. just so you know that Daily Cal article was written within 24 hours of the flashmob incident and only reflects information that came from the cops who took statements from the guys who got pepper sprayed. which is why the article made no mention of them telling us to leave the scene before we get our asses kicked by guys who around 6 ft tall. i’m surprised the article mentioned the guy with the giant stick you saw in the video. just so you know that guy was about 6″3.
And you are equating pulling down flyers (if that really happened & IF it was done by Tikfah!) to ramming a shopping cart into a girl? Boy, your parents did a swell job on “moral equivalence”!
you mean, “And you are equating pulling down flyers (if that really happened &
IF it was done by Tikfah!) to ramming a shopping cart into a girl (if that really happened and IF it was done by SJP).” right? If they both turn out to be true then clearly there is no moral equivalence. But, boy, didn’t your parents teach you to scrutinize evidence?
You mean do your research like any good Cal student?
U have a computer and internet. I informed you of the occurrance of violent acts against non-jewish middle easterners. Do you want me to spoon feed you reality like you are a baby?
Do your own damned research…unless
being Uninformed in the only defense you have for your voluntary
ignorance.
So you are saying that you don’t have any examples. You are just being one of the paranoid d-bags whining about zionists fanatics, but you have no real examples. “here you go” was actually helpful by giving examples. WM you are the type of person that makes people want to donate to Israel, because the other side seems like they are lying.
name these acts
lolol, garbage w/o merit gets dismissed.
“The atmosphere that some of these Jewish kids have been subjected to
(is) reminiscent of what went on in Nazi Germany in the 30s,” Sher said.
CONCLUSION: NEAL SHER IS DELUSIONAL OR LYING.
Yeah, those swastikas going up around campus were all in his head, right? (and please don’t tell me the symbolism was meant to suggest that Jews, themselves, behave like Nazis and therefore deserved it).
Sicko.
uh, and what is the price of tea in china? the disgusting swastikas you’re referring to have nothing to do with the mock checkpoints or sjp or any of the claims in this lawsuit that are supposedly creating this climate. the only reason that the students filing the lawsuit see the checkpoints as an attack on them as Jews (if they, in fact, really believe that and aren’t just playing a cynical legal pr war) is because they can’t disassociate criticism of a state actor’s policies with their own ethnic identity. imagine if the french claimed to be persecuted as french people when the world turned against their occupation of algeria. delusional is exactly right.
Uh, just FYI, the price of tea is approx 3,000 yuan…just so you can get a bit educated. But about the swastikas…you can’t have Arabs yelling “death to the Jews” & an Israeli flag witn a swastika on it and then tell us to “disassociate” it with being Jews? And BTW, the French WERE denounced AS French due to Algeria! Besides….stupid analogy. If the Muslims had to endure as much venom as Jews do on campuses there would be vigils, and laws passed. Next time you see an Israeli flag witn a swastika in the middle don’t tell me they aren’t attacking Jews!,
i actually buy all my tea from china, so i don’t need the price quotes, but thank you. i’ve been to several of these mock checkpoints and seen other such events on sproul and have never heard anyone (arab or otherwise) yelling “death to the Jews” so I don’t know what you are talking about. Yes, the French were denounced as French because they brutally occupied another people for years, and that’s fitting to the extent that any people should be held accountable for what their democratic government does. i asked you to imagine not the reality (that they were denounced) but the preposterous scenario that they claimed they were being persecuted by this denunciation. that’s what would be delusional, and that’s exactly the kind of delusion that some Israelis and Zionist fellow travelers in the US are engaged in. they are trying to convince us that somehow criticizing a brutal policy of occupation is tantamount to persecution of the Jewish people. Perverse logic, especially given the sheer number of Jews involved in this denunciation of occupation.
No, idiot, thenj
No, idiot, the judge said they could resubmit w/o “prejudice”…but I wouldn’t expect ypu do understand THAT word!!