U of California leaders adopt report condemning ‘anti-Semitic forms’ of anti-Zionism

(JTA) — A University of California board of regents committee adopted a set of principles on campus intolerance that condemned anti-Semitism and “anti-Semitic forms” of anti-Zionism.

The board’s committee on educational policy unanimously approved the 12-page document “Principles Against Intolerance” on Wednesday, declaring that anti-Semitism has “no place at the University of California.” The full board is expected to vote on the document on Thursday.

The document had been in the works for months and drawn strongly divergent responses over plans to include anti-Zionism as a form of discrimination. Some pro-Israel groups said the inclusion was necessary to protect Jewish students, while others said it was wrong to declare criticism of a political ideology to be a form of discrimination.

In the end, the regents compromised by modifying the document to denounce only “anti-Semitic forms” of anti-Zionism. The original document, submitted in January, had declared both anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism to be unacceptable.

Still, the move was widely hailed by American Jewish groups.

“We commend the UC Regents for taking action against hostility toward Jewish students on UC campuses,” said Janna Weinstein Smith, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Los Angeles office, and Sarah Persitz, the AJC’s San Francisco director. “We also applaud the Regents for pointing out that some individuals and groups pursuing a virulently anti-Israel agenda on UC campuses have crossed a threshold into discrimination against Jewish students.”

In September, the regents convened a working group in response to allegations of rising anti-Semitism in the U.C. system, a network of 10 public universities. In January, it issued a report calling on the regents and university leaders “actively to challenge anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination when and wherever they emerge within the University community.”

The final statement adopted Wednesday reads, in part: “Opposition to Zionism often is expressed in ways that are not simply statements of disagreement over politics and policy, but also assertions of prejudice and intolerance toward Jewish people and culture. Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said the full board of regents had voted on the document on Wednesday; it was only a board committee.