Ethnic Studies does not politicize a neutral curriculum; it is provides an historical corrective to the simultaneous absence and caricature of Arab Americans, Palestinians included, that already exists in the curriculum.

The Trump administration’s executive order on antisemitism signals a repressive state action—in effect, setting policy by executive fiat—and an increasingly hostile limit on speech. It will give permission to those university administrations who wish to suppress Palestine solidarity activity rather than make a strong defense of academic freedom.

California Scholars for Academic Freedom, a group of over 200 academics working in higher education in California, condemn in the strongest terms the brutal invasion by Israeli forces of the home of Professor Widad Barghouti and her subsequent detention without cause on September 1, 2019. 

California Scholars for Academic Freedom call on the University of California Regents to distance themselves publicly from the Canary Mission, and also from UC donors who have contributed to supporting the Canary Mission, such as the Diller Foundation.

Dear Professor Watchlist: you list on your site several of our California colleagues, such as Professors Bettina Aptheker, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Melina Abdullah, Hatem Bazian and some 20 others, whose work is distinguished by its commitment to reasoned, fact-based civil discourse. This is company we wish to keep, write 60 scholars.

UC Berkeley’s cancellation of a course entitled “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis” (since reinstated) is the latest in a series of 43 attacks on academic freedom pertaining to discussion of one foreign state, namely Israel, state a group of over 200 California scholars at 20 institutions.