UC Berkeley, through the DeCal student teaching program and the Department of Ethnic Studies, offers Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis, a graduate-student led course to “explore the possibilities of a decolonized Palestine.” Students will be required to present, “researched, formulated, and presented decolonial alternatives to the current situation.”
In other words, part of passing the “course” means you have to present a way to get rid of Israel. The entire premise is intellectually dishonest, historically false, and likely racist.
I propose to those who are nauseated by the premise of the “course” to participate on Tuesday evenings from 6:00pm-7:30pm in Valley Life Science Building 2011. Take the opportunity to provide students with real facts, studies, and research, without disrupting the proceedings. Use your legal rights to videotape the proceedings, even though the “course” materials say, “No electronic devices may be used during course. No photographs, videos or voice recordings are permitted.”
According to CA Education Code Section 66450-66452, the only prohibition on recording a lecture is for commercial purposes. The code reads, " “Commercial purpose” means any purpose that has financial or economic gain as an objective.” Recordings for personal use, for the purpose of analyzing the veracity of the material presented, or to post online for the world to see what is being taught at Cal — totally permitted.
Organized opposition to Israel on campus and a Jewish right to live in the land of Israel under their own jurisdiction are now part of the campus climate across the world. We can counteract that at Cal — and elsewhere — by generously supporting Jewish life and Israel programming with donations to Jewish orgs on campus.
We can also ensure that those who want to demonize and delegitimize Israel are fully exposed to the campus and world as lousy scholars who are cloaking their racism in academic pajamas.
Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis
2011 VLSB
Tu 6p-7:30p
University of California, Berkeley Fall 2016
Course Facilitator: Paul Hadweh
Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Hatem Bazian
The course falls under Ethnic Studies, ETH STD 198, which is Supervised Group Study and earns 1 credit. This program is offered through DeCal, a student-run democratic education program at the UC Berkeley.
