Executive Summary
Ethnic studies as an academic discipline grew out of the civil rights movement on the West Coast in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, California is the center of ethnic studies discussions as the state legislature recently made it mandatory to complete an ethnic studies course to graduate high school beginning in the 2025 academic year.
University of California (UC) Ethnic Studies departments, which receive state and federal taxpayer dollars, are antagonistic to Jewish/Zionist perspectives and push an anti-American, pro-terror agenda.
In doing so, they create a hostile environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students, or any student who does not agree with their extremist worldview. This discriminatory atmosphere in the ethnic studies departments is in violation of Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act.
University administrators in the UC system know that ethnic studies departments are centers of anti-Israel propaganda. Yet, while some have put out harsh condemnations of these departments due to their radical antisemitic positions on the Hamas-Israel war, they have taken little or no action against the professors pushing this agenda.
Moreover, these professors have spent the past few years trying to insert ethnic studies into as many California high school and college classrooms as possible.
The anti-Israel/antisemitic encampments on UC’s college campuses and across the United States did not appear out of thin air. The virulent hatred manifested at the encampments has permeated higher education for decades and has a solid foothold in mainstream American university education.
This hatred has been taught by university professors for decades. Simply put, the dogmatic manner in which it has been pushed at universities is akin to “educational imperialism.”
This report will provide many examples of the intrinsic anti-Israel agenda of ethnic studies departments and explore how the aftermath of October 7 amplified their voices and influence on campus.
The Dangers of Ethnic Studies
- Teaches antisemitic beliefs to young, impressionable students
- Portrays false information as academic fact, namely, that Israel is a white settler colonial, imperialist, apartheid state that is committing genocide
- Normalizes antisemitism and anti-Zionism
- Aspires to use ethnic studies as a means for social and political change
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Mandating Ethnic Studies in California: A Model for American Schools
A proposed amendment to the bill requiring teaching ethnic studies in California’s public schools passed the first hearing on October 8, 2021. The amendment contained “guardrails” to prevent teachers from incorporating antisemitic and anti-Israel content. Many UC ethnic studies professors bemoaned the guardrails proposed in the bill.
Specifically, ethnic studies professors objected to the provision in the bill which said that ethnic studies must “[n]ot reflect or promote, directly or indirectly, any bias, bigotry, or discrimination against any person or groups of persons on the basis of any category protected by Section 220” of the California Educational Code. Section 220 prohibits discrimination on the basis of nationality, race or ethnicity and religion (among other biases).
Shockingly, the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council branded this provision as “censoring teachers,” since they view it as hampering their ability to teach an anti-Israel, pro-“Palestine” curriculum. These professors view anti-Zionism as central to the discipline, while, at the same time, deny there is any trace of antisemitism in this worldview.
The amendment died in the Senate Appropriations Committee in mid-August 2024 with the explanation that further work on the bill was needed.
In addition to the existing high school requirement, the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council (UCESFC), whose leadership overlaps with the antisemitic Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, petitioned to make one semester of ethnic studies a prerequisite for acceptance into the UC system.
The proposal was met with pushback from groups outside of the UC community, especially Jewish groups.
A petition organized by the AMCHA Initiative stated:
“We firmly believe this proposal: 1) is the direct result of a small group of activist-educators determined to circumvent state law and manipulate the UC governance process to push a widely rejected and antisemitic curriculum for their own political and financial gain; 2) has absolutely no educational merit or justification and may even harm students academically; and 3) will unleash hatred and bigotry, especially antisemitism, into California’s public, charter and private schools.”
The ethnic studies professors were enraged by the opposition, responding:
“We also understand that the UC caved to spurious charges, in some cases advanced by people and organizations with a known history of racism, that our proposed criteria are “anti-Semetic” and disparaging to Jewish Americans. This is a LIE. Nowhere in our course criteria do we mention Israel, Jewish people or Judaism, much less any specific religion.”
A vote finally took place in May 2024. Ultimately, the motion did not pass, and “further discussion was tabled.” Some perceived the intense anti-Zionist rhetoric around the Hamas-Israel War as the reason the motion failed.
UC’s Ethnic Studies Faculty Council
- Refused to accept the Hamas attack as terrorism and accused Israel of “genocide”
- Promoted the pro-Hamas encampments, exclaiming, “The University is Ours!”
- Advocated for the firing of all UC chancellors for involving the police in removing the illegal encampments
- Expressed “unequivocal solidarity with the students who have courageously seized the reins of moral leadership by launching Palestine solidarity encampments”
Anti-Israel Agenda in Ethnic Studies Departments
The UC Berkeley department website defines ethnic studies as “the critical and interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with a focus on the experiences and perspectives of people of color within and beyond the United States.”
Ethnic studies departments usually focus on four groups: African Americans, Chicano/Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Americans. Arab American studies fall under the umbrella of Asian American studies.
Ethnic studies builds upon concepts of intersectionality and Critical Race Theory. “Palestine” comes up frequently in ethnic studies teaching, but exclusively from an anti-Israel point of view.
See our blog:
As one teacher put it, “If someone is going to teach that conflict from a true ethnic studies perspective, it’s going to be critiquing settler colonialism in Palestine.”
The undisputed consensus within ethnic studies scholarship is that Israel is a colonial, imperialist state that is guilty of committing genocide and the ethnic cleansing of “Palestinian” people.
In a webinar, “Why Teaching Palestine Belongs in Ethnic Studies,” several ethnic studies professors explain that all liberation struggles are connected and that “Palestinian liberation,” i.e., terrorism, is inspiring as a struggle because it could lead to other colonized peoples’ “liberation.”
One Native American scholar, Melaine Yazzie, who sits on the advisory board of National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), said:
“Answering the question why Palestine in Native American and Indigenous studies… it’s simply that…the national liberation of Palestine…offers an alternative path for native nations…and this is at the center of my understanding of why Palestine is important in Native American and Indigenous studies…what we’re seeing in Gaza right now…to see the settler colonial project of Israel struggling… to see the settler project of the United States also struggling…shows us that there is an alternative to what happened to us in the United States, that there is a moment historically where liberation is possible…it frees us all, and it allows to see…a different possible outcome of what we have experienced as indigenous people.”
Yazzie’s explanation provides us with an understanding, albeit troubling, of the extremist professors and activists who unabashedly supported the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023.
Published in the Journal of Asian American Studies and John Hopkins University Press, the authors of the article, “Palestine is Ethnic Studies: The Struggle for Arab American Studies in K–12 Ethnic Studies Curriculum,” summarize the ahistorical agenda of ethnic studies in its abstract:
"Ethnic Studies pedagogy is anchored in critically analyzing global white supremacy, US imperialism, and colonialism, which includes what happened to and continues in the Arab world. Given that most Arab countries are in Asia and the similarities and connections across "Arab" and "Asian" experiences, the field of Arab American studies found an early home within Asian American studies programs and academic journals. This article explores the emergence of Arab American studies from decades of research and teaching about the global scope of anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism and transnational Arab and Arab American resistance to US empire."
The Board of Regents Takes Notice
This provision was viewed by ethnic studies professors as limiting anti-Israel speech and was met with harsh criticism from faculty. According to a Los Angeles Times article:
“Sean Malloy, a UC Merced associate professor of history and critical race and ethnic studies, asserted that regents were trying to 'gag faculty speech' and that the proposed policy reflected efforts to repress the growing movement for Palestinian solidarity across UC campuses… 'It is only when faculty speech threatened to upset support for Israel and Zionism that the Regents saw fit to enact such a policy,' Malloy said in a statement to The Times.”
Terror Apologists - UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council
The UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council (UCESFC) represents ethnic studies departments and affiliated departments in the 10 UC schools (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Santa Cruz, UCLA, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Riverside and Merced).
The UCESFC leadership overlaps with that of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ), a radical anti-Israel institution that aims to “delink” Zionism from Judaism and “reclaim academia and public discourse for the study of Zionism as a political, ideological, and racial and gendered knowledge project.”
Among many inflammatory positions, the ICSZ website states, “Zionism is a settler colonial racial project. Like the US, Israel is a settler colonial state. The Institute opposes Zionism and colonialism, and abides by the international, Palestinian-led call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.”
Since October 7, 2023, the UCESFC has put out several anti-Israel statements that provide a window into their beliefs:
1. October 16, 2023
Responding to a letter put out by the UC Regents condemning the attacks of October 7, the UCESFC explained:
2. October 30, 2023
In response to what the faculty perceived as attacks on Muslim professors and students, including “terrorist-tagging” members of the anti-Israel organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), UCESFC released a letter that stated:_z3y71r.jpg)
The letter reiterates the common tropes found in ethnic studies material which accuse Israel of “colonialism” and “apartheid.” It also emphasizes the professors’ support for BDS and their objection to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
3. November 15, 2023
On October 31, 2023, UC Regent Jay Sures released a scathing letter addressed to the UCESFC that expressed his shock at the level of extremist views held by the faculty. Sures wrote:
“There are absolutely no words to describe how appalling and repugnant I found your October 16, 2023 letter…Your letter is rife with falsehoods about Israel and seeks to legitimize and defend the horrific savagery of the Hamas massacre of October 7.”
He continued, “Equally distressing, the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council includes over 300 faculty members across the UC system who could very well be the individuals who are teaching and training - equally shaping - the generation of students and the next generation of professoriate ethnic studies teachers in our state. The thought that young and impressionable students might be taught the falsehoods of your letter absolutely sickens me.”
In the end, Regent Sures urged the council to retract their statement. Instead, they doubled down, putting out a statement on November 15, which included:
The fact that those in charge of the University of California system, like Sures, did not comprehend the intensity of antisemitism and anti-Israel rhetoric ingrained in many of its departments is shocking. Now that they do, action beyond letter writing must be taken.
4. January 28, 2024
In this letter, the UCESFC demanded that the UC Regents not pursue charges against 13 students and staff arrested at a Regents meeting on January 25, 2024. The arrests took place during an anti-Israel protest.
Among those arrested were students from SJP, who, as they wrote on social media, “were collectively expressing demands for UC leadership to support undocumented students and to cease UC complicity in a globally acknowledged genocide in Palestine.”
The UCESFC supported the illegal student encampments and encouraged students to take part. They posted on their social media:
Anti-Israel Faculty Leadership
Jennifer Mogannam
Assistant Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz
Part of the “Founding Collective” of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
Was active in the pro-terror groups Students for Justice in Palestine and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)
Posted (now-deleted), “Fffffffff that - get the f*** outta here PA [Palestinian Authority]. Long live the #intifada & popular, armed #resistance!”
Posted (now-deleted), “It’s time to rise up #intifada3 Palestinians, Arabs, Indigenous Peoples, Comrades - fight the power!”
Sean Malloy
Associate professor of History and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Merced
Part of the “Founding Collective” of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
Expressed support for funding Hamas
Reposted known antisemite Jeremy Corbyn, “...End the occupation. Free Palestine,” and commented, “I (heart image) you”
Dylan Rodriguez
Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside
Part of the “Founding Collective” of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
Filming from a pro-Hamas protest on December 23, 2023, he posted: “Best thing that's ever happened in Irvine”
Posted on October 18, 2023, “I am honored to be part of @ucethnicstudiescouncil, which issues this public response to the spineless, deceptive, genocide denying ‘official’ statements of administrative leadership from @uofcalifornia @ucriversideofficial and other UC and university campuses around North Amerika and the planet.”
Anti-Israel UC Ethnic Studies Departments
UC Santa Cruz
As of August 20, 2024, the website of the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department Santa Cruz has anti-Israel content on its homepage:
- In a scrolling banner, the department advertised, “We the CRES faculty, call on everyone–including scholars, researchers, organizers, and administrators worldwide–to act now to end Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza.” Links lead to various anti-Israel statements, including one from the ICSZ.
- The abovementioned ICSZ statement is signed by terror supporters and anti-Israel activists, including Rabab Abdulhadi, Mark Ayyash and Elyse Crystall. The statement says, “We call for a complete and total end to Israel’s apartheid regime, the end of the brutal occupation, freedom and liberation for all Palestinians living under Israel’s rule, and the right of return for those in exile. These are the only conditions that will produce justice.” (The “right of return” is understood as a call for the complete destruction of Israel.)
- The department established a Faculty for Justice in Palestine in order to urgently support the student SJP chapter. After October 7, the SJP chapter at Santa Cruz put out a statement calling Hamas terrorists “resistance fighters” and said, “We reject the demonization and framing of Palestinian resistance as ‘terrorism’ and defend the Palestinian right to exist and resist their colonizers by any means necessary.”
- Information on anti-Israel faculty member Sophia Azeb can be found on the Canary Mission website
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley’s ethnic studies department is extremely anti-Israel and pro-terror. Faculty members include SJP and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) founder Hatem Bazian.
See Bazain's Canary Mission profile for a long list of antisemitic offenses.
- The department’s website featured an event: “Let’s Talk about Palestine,” a series of teach-ins with Bazian in which he spoke about “Islamaphobia, Race, and the Racialization of Palestine.” Another speaker in the series addressed “On Apartheid, Occupation, and the Law.”
- The department employs Juana Maria Rodriguez. Her copious anti-Israel and antisemitic statements on social media include:
- “Israel intentionally demolishes Gaza University, IDF reserve soldiers use chemical weapons on protestors at Columbia University but Northwestern U biggest concern is combating antisemitism?? Really? During a genocide? The scholarly community has gone mad.” (January 21, 2024)
- “3 University Presidents have been assassinated in Gaza. Where is the outrage? Instead, we are supposed to protect the “feelings” of Israeli students who don’t want to be called Settlers or associated with Apartheid. This will not age well.” (April 16, 2024)
- Other anti-Israel ethnic studies professors and students from UC Berkeley include Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez and Victoria Huynh
UC San Diego
UC San Diego's ethnic studies department does not hide their anti-Israel and pro-terror bias. The department’s website includes three anti-Israel letters in a section labeled “statements and commentaries:”
- A letter expressing support for the encampments and the demands as outlined by SJP. The letter also called out the chancellor for involving the police in the encampment.
- A letter including lies about Israel (such as claims of genocide, apartheid and famine) and promoting BDS.
- A letter quoting the pro-terror congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and promoting a general strike of classes to “stand with Palestine.”