Jung Kim
Overview
Jung Kim co-chaired a student group that adopted an anti-Semitic bylaw to its constitution in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in 2022.In August 2022, Kim co-chaired the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law).
That month, the APALSA adopted [p. 6] a bylaw banning any speakers who have “expressed and continue to hold views” in support of Zionism or the State of Israel. A similar bylaw was first adopted [p. 3] that month by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Berkeley Law (Berkeley LSJP).
As of December 2022, Kim’s LinkedIn said she was pursuing a JD at Berkeley Law, slated to graduate in 2024. Jung graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Philosophy in 2020.
As of the same date, Kim’s LinkedIn said she had been an associate editor for the California Law Review since August 2022.
Also as of December 2022, Kim’s LinkedIn said she had been a summer associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in San Francisco from May to July 2022.
Berkeley LSJP Anti-Semitic Bylaw
On August 6, 2022, Berkeley LSJP amended its group constitution to include a bylaw banning pro-Israel speakers from participating in club events. The bylaw explicitly excluded [p. 3] any speaker who had “expressed and continued to hold views…in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.
Berkeley LSJP claimed it created the bylaw “in the interest of protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus.”
The United States State Department defines as one example of contemporary anti-Semitism: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” As of November 2022, the U.S. was one of 35 countries to have adopted the same definition.
Berkeley Law student Malak Afaneh was the president of Berkeley LSJP when the group adopted its bylaw. She has spread hatred of Zionists and has expressed support for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group, which has a history of suicide bombings, stabbing attacks on civilians and airplane hijackings.
After Berkeley LSJP adopted the bylaw, it attempted to get other Berkeley Law student groups to also adopt it. The bylaw committed a group to not “host, sponsor, or promote” pro-Israel events and to mandate its leaders to participate in Berkeley LSJP’s “Palestine 101” training course “to learn ways to create a safe and inclusive space for Palestinian students and students that are in the support of the liberation of Palestine.”
On August 21, 2022, Berkeley LSJP celebrated a “BDS VICTORY!!” on Instagram, announcing [slides 2 and 3] that eight Berkeley Law student groups had adopted a version of the anti-Semitic bylaw. The post said: “LSJP is calling ALL student organizations at Berkeley Law to take an anti-racist and anti-settler colonial stand and adopt the bylaw into their constitutions ASAP!”
The eight groups included Berkeley Law’s Muslim Student’s Association (BLMSA), Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association (MENALSA) and the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA).
Around the same time, 30 members of the Berkeley Law faculty issued a statement “in Support of Jewish Law Students.” The statement said that groups adopting the bylaw “impermissibly exclude a large majority of the UC Berkeley School of Law faculty from participating in the work of these organizations.” Berkeley Law alumni, Jewish student groups and faculty at other law schools also condemned the bylaw as anti-Semitic.
On August 25, 2022, Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky sent an email to student leaders criticizing the bylaw as “troubling.”
On August 26, 2022, Chemerinsky was quoted in an article as saying that the bylaw “would exclude about…90 percent or more of our Jewish students.” He also said: “Indeed, taken literally, this would mean that I could not be invited to speak because I support the existence of Israel…”
On August 27, 2022, the Jewish Students Association at Berkeley Law (JSABL) wrote an open letter on Medium, where they said: “[O]ur organization was one of the few affinity groups not contacted” during the process of the bylaw’s adoption and passage.
On October 6, 2022, Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ criticized the Berkeley LSJP bylaw as “regrettable,” and in “direct opposition to our essential Principles of Community…”
On October 21, 2022, Berkeley LSJP published a “Statement of Solidarity” with the other eight student groups that adopted the bylaw, claiming that they were subject to “baseless allegations of antisemitism.” The first group to sign the statement was the Student Association at Berkeley Law (SABL), the Berkeley Law student government.
The 169 individuals and groups that signed the statement included various SJP chapters, BDS groups and branches of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), another anti-Israel group. Also among the signatories was Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (Samidoun), an NGO that spreads awareness about terrorists in Israeli jail and whose leadership includes three PFLP members [pp. 22–28].
APALSA Adopting an Anti-Semitic Bylaw
The bylaw as adopted [p. 6] by APALSA in its constitution (Article IX) was titled: “Commitment to Bylaw from Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.”The section stated: “APALSA will not invite speakers that have expressed and continue to hold views or host, sponsor, or promote events in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.” APALSA said it adopted the bylaw “in the interest of protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus.”
The bylaw said: “In the rejection of colonialism, imperialism, and other types of oppression, APALSA is dedicated to wholly boycotting, sanctioning, and divesting funds from institutions, organizations, companies, and any entity that participates in or is directly/indirectly complicit in the occupation of the Palestinian territories and/or supports the actions of the apartheid state of Israel.”
As adopted by APALSA, the bylaw also said: “APALSA Board Members agree to participate in a ‘Palestine 101’ training held by the Law Students for Justice in Palestine to learn ways to create a safe and inclusive space for Palestinian students and students that are in support of the liberation of Palestine.”
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jung.kim.54LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jung-kim-5069b8148/ [Deleted]
