You do not have to enroll in Gaza University to have a faculty that hates Jews. Just enroll in UC Santa Cruz.
“The same day that Harvard’s agreement was announced, the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) — also party to a recent agreement following a Federal investigation into charges of faculty antisemitism – made a different kind of announcement, which thumbed its nose at the US government and doubled down on condoning faculty antisemitism.
Prominently displayed on UCSC’s campus-wide Events page was an announcement for an Education Department talk subtitled, “Centering an Anti-Zionist Commitment in (Early Childhood) Teacher Education,” clearly suggesting the speaker would be advocating for instilling in children as young as pre-school age a hatred of Israel and its supporters.
The only thing missing from the announcement were the words “Jews not welcome here” – though that message came through loud and clear.
The Chancellor of this campus and their staff need to be fired. But, Newsom, a member of the Board of Regents, has been silent. His silence shows support for the Nazi like administration at Santa Cruz. Maybe Trump can stop funding this campus and that would get their attention. Let the DOJ bring civil right violation charges against the Administration and the Board of Regents. Let Newsom tell us why he hates Jews.
Anti-Zionist Faculty at UC Santa Cruz Defy the Law and Betray Jewish Students
by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, Algemeiner, 2/12/25 https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/02/12/anti-zionist-faculty-at-uc-santa-cruz-defy-the-law-and-betray-jewish-students/
Harvard University, responding to two anti-discrimination lawsuits threatening its Federal funding, recently agreed to acknowledge on its official website, “For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Conduct that would violate the Non-Discrimination Policy if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the policy if directed toward Zionists.”
The same day that Harvard’s agreement was announced, the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) — also party to a recent agreement following a Federal investigation into charges of faculty antisemitism – made a different kind of announcement, which thumbed its nose at the US government and doubled down on condoning faculty antisemitism.
Prominently displayed on UCSC’s campus-wide Events page was an announcement for an Education Department talk subtitled, “Centering an Anti-Zionist Commitment in (Early Childhood) Teacher Education,” clearly suggesting the speaker would be advocating for instilling in children as young as pre-school age a hatred of Israel and its supporters.
The only thing missing from the announcement were the words “Jews not welcome here” – though that message came through loud and clear.
Tellingly, this talk was also promoted on the website of UCSC’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapter, a group that shares the speaker’s “anti-Zionist commitment” and passion for expressing that commitment in educational spaces. It’s worth noting that more than 40% of the university’s Education Department’s core faculty have publicly allied themselves with this group, which was established a few weeks after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, massacre, mutilation, rape, and kidnapping of more than 1,400 Israelis.
UCSC’s FJP is one of more than 160 chapters of the FJP National Network, a project of the US arm of the Hamas-linked Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Established as the academic brigade of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, FJP is tasked with promoting an academic boycott of Israel, or academic BDS, urging faculty to boycott their school’s Israel-related programming, agreements, or projects, with the ultimate goal of eliminating Zionism and Zionists from academia.
Since its founding, UCSC FJP has diligently executed its marching orders, engaging in academic BDS-compliant behavior that has included: calling on faculty to cancel classes “in solidarity with Palestine” and praising graduate instructors for withholding students’ final grades to blackmail the university into boycotting Israel; co-authoring statements demanding the school cut all ties with Israeli universities, including popular study abroad programs, and boycott Jewish campus organizations such as Hillel; and rallying students and faculty to participate in an anti-Zionist march to disrupt a Jewish student-led “Unity Walk,” posting: “UCSC … Let’s make it clear — Zionism is not welcome on our campus.”
The Education Department is not the only UCSC academic unit with a significant number of faculty openly expressing an “anti-Zionist commitment.” Nearly half of the Anthropology Department’s core faculty are affiliated with FJP or have signed a public statement in support of academic BDS, as has one-quarter of the Literature Department.
But first prize goes to the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department (CRES), 85% of whose core faculty, including the department chair, are either members of FJP, have expressed public support for academic BDS, or both. Several CRES professors brazenly display their “anti-Zionist commitment” on their office doors, visually accosting Jewish students with a bevy of anti-Zionist propaganda that includes posters reading “Anti-Zionist Vibes Only,” “From the River to the Sea” and “WHY THE F*** DO MY TAXES PAY FOR ISRAELI HEALTHCARE AND PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE?”
Even more disturbing are whole departments that have institutionalized their “anti-Zionist commitment,” with CRES again leading the pack.
In 2021, CRES issued a statement pledging departmental allegiance to “the struggle for Palestinian liberation” and bringing academic BDS into their teaching and research. Soon after the October 7 Hamas attack, CRES issued a statement blaming Israel for Hamas’ atrocities, cancelled classes to protest Israel’s defensive actions, and held a teach-in promising to help graduate teaching assistants “contextualize the unfolding genocide in Gaza” in their classrooms. CRES also publicized an invitation for faculty to join the newly established FJP chapter, which remained on the departmental homepage until recently.
This academic year, despite efforts by the UC Regents to curb departmental abuse, CRES has continued to express its “anti-Zionist commitment” with impunity. The department’s Fall 2024 newsletter opened with a message from the CRES chair stating, “I want to linger on the joyful note we ended last academic year after feeling uplifted by the … conviction of our students and faculty fighting to free Palestine from a globally supported genocide.” And in addition to offering a new course on “Palestine” taught by a professor who has endorsed the call to bring academic BDS into her classroom, CRES has been showcasing the anti-Zionist activism of faculty and students.
Unfortunately, Jewish students at UCSC who identify with Israel don’t only have to worry about the professors who teach them, but also those serving as administrators tasked with providing student support, including several academic and residential provosts who have endorsed an academic boycott seeking to purge Zionism and Zionists from campus life.
An even graver threat to Jewish students is the UCSC Academic Senate. Tasked with reining in faculty abuse, it has instead defended and amplified it. An FJP-authored resolution intended to shield anti-Zionist faculty from accountability was overwhelmingly passed by the Senate. Perhaps the fact that 20% of its Executive Committee has either expressed support for academic BDS or affiliates with FJP has something to do with the Academic Senate’s abdication of this crucial shared governance responsibility.
Given UCSC’s unbridled faculty antisemitism, it’s no surprise it ranks 4th worst in the nation on AMCHA Initiative’s Anti-Zionist Faculty Barometer, receiving a “5 – Extreme” rating. Without serious intervention, UCSC’s institutionalized “anti-Zionist commitment” and the antisemitism it incites will only worsen.
Here’s what needs to happen:
First the implementation of academic BDS and its promotion by UCSC faculty or groups like FJP must be banned. A terrorist-linked boycott that shuts down the academic freedom and educational opportunities of students and faculty and incites virulent antisemitism has no place on a college campus.
Second, professors who abuse their positions to engage in anti-Zionist activism must be sanctioned. While faculty are free to engage in political activism on their own time and dime, guaranteeing they will not bring their political commitments onto campus and into their classrooms or administrative offices should be a requirement of continued employment at the university.
Third, departments that believe working towards dismantling the Jewish state is part of their core disciplinary mission should themselves be dismantled.
Fourth, an Academic Senate that screams loudly to protect the academic freedom of anti-Zionist faculty but loses its voice entirely when it comes to prosecuting those same faculty members’ abuse has forfeited the privilege of shared governance.
Fifth, UCSC officials who are unable to curb faculty antisemitism and comply with the law should be replaced.
And finally, if UCSC refuses to change course, the Federal government should make good on its promise to revoke funding from schools permitting institutionalized antisemitism.
UCSC has sent a clear message: Jewish students who identify with the sole Jewish state — as a large majority of Jews do — are unwelcome. The question now is whether lawmakers, donors, and the public will allow a publicly funded university to function as an incubator for faculty-led antisemitism — or finally demand real consequences.
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin is the director of AMCHA Initiative, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism at colleges and universities in the United States. She was a faculty member at the University of California for 20 years.
