A congratulatory dinner held at the home of UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky was upended this week after a pro-Palestinian student started a heated speech about the Israel-Hamas war and refused to leave.
The incident, which took place Tuesday evening, came after several soon-to-be law school graduates were invited to attend one of three backyard dinners at the Oakland residence of Chemerinsky, a left-wing scholar, and his wife, law school professor Catherine Fisk.
Held in the couple’s garden, the first dinner was quickly disrupted when Malak Afaneh, a Palestinian American law student at the school who serves as co-president of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, approached a set of steps and attempted to give a speech about the people who have been killed in Gaza as a result of the war in the Middle East.
Video footage of the confrontation between Afaneh and the couple was shared online, showing the student calling for the university to divest from corporations involved in Israel’s war. The footage also showed Chemerinsky and his wife repeatedly pleading with the student to exit the dinner and leave their property.
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A congratulatory dinner held at the home of UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky was upended Tuesday after a pro-Palestinian student started a heated speech about the Israel-Hamas war and refused to leave.
Standing with a microphone and reading from her phone, Afaneh was approached by Fisk, who attempted to grab at the student’s phone and microphone.
“Today, we are gathered here to commemorate our final few weeks as law students,” the student said. “Tonight is also the last night of the holy month of Ramadan, where millions of Muslims from around the world fast.”
Afaneh was then approached by Fisk, who put her arm around the student in what appeared to be an attempt to move her to the side.
“Leave,” Fisk told the student. “This is not your house. This is my house.”
“Stop touching her,” another student can be heard saying in the clip. “You don’t have to get aggressive.”
“We have attorneys,” Afaneh told Fisk.
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“Please leave our house,” Chemerinsky said to the students. “You are guests at our house.”
Afaneh then claimed it was her First Amendment right to speak at the backyard dinner before Chemerinsky said, “This is my house. The First Amendment doesn’t apply.”
Malak Afaneh is a Palestinian American law student at UC Berkeley who serves as co-president of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.
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“Any student who disrupts will be reported to student conduct and a violation of the student conduct code is reported to the Bar,” he added. “I am deeply saddened by these events and take solace that it is just a small number of our students who would behave in such a clearly inappropriate manner.”
Prior to the dinner, Chemerinsky said there was an “awful poster” that circulated around social media and school bulletin boards in the law school building that depicted him holding “a bloody knife and fork, with the words in large letters, ‘No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves.’”