Matt Fernandes
Overview
Matt Fernandes [Matthew C. Fernandes] was a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) activist and promoted an anti-Semitic bylaw supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in 2022.In August 2022, the bylaw was initiated and adopted [p. 3] by the SJP chapter at University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law), known as Berkeley LSJP, where Fernandes was an organizer [00:04:09].
As of October 2022, Fernandes also co-chaired and was the primary contact for the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) at Berkeley Law.
In August 2022, APALSA was one of eight Berkeley Law student groups that adopted [slides 2 and 3] a version of Berkeley LSJP’s bylaw banning any individuals from speaking to APALSA who have “expressed and continue to hold views” in support of Zionism or the State of Israel.
As of December 2022, Fernandes’s APALSA profile said: “I am also…a member of the Abolitionist Collective (AC@B) [All Cops Are Bastards] and Law Students for Justice in Palestine. Hit me up, let's organize!”
As of December 2022, Fernandes’s LinkedIn page said he was pursuing a JD at Berkeley Law, “working toward a career as a union side labor lawyer.” He was slated to graduate in May 2024.
Fernandes graduated from University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government in May 2019.
Also as of December 2022, Fernandes’s LinkedIn said he had been a legal extern at the Contra Costa Public Defender’s (CCPD) office in Martinez, CA, since August 2022. He had previously interned [p. 7] with SEIU Local 1021 labor union and worked as a volunteer with the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA).
As of December 2022, Fernandes went by the name “Matthew F.” on LinkedIn and used the handle “@abhayamvdra” on Instagram.
As of the same date, Fernandes’s signalhire.com profile said he was located in Berkeley, CA.
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 [slide 2] that eight other Berkeley Law student groups had adopted 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 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 August 29, 2022, Berkeley LSJP wrote a statement on Instagram to the Berkeley Law community criticizing Cherminsky’s email. Berkeley SJP accused Israel of “genocide and apartheid” and of “murdering, disabling, and displacing Palestinian families day and night.” They also said: “Apartheid is a crime against humantiy [sic]...”
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 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), an anti-Israel group. Also among the signatories was Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (Samidoun), an NGO that spreads awareness about terrorists in Israeli jails 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.”
Promoting the Anti-Semitic Bylaw
On November 20, 2022, Fernandes promoted [00:03:50] the Berkeley LSJP bylaw with fellow Berkeley LSJP member Maryam Alhakim on the “Middle East in Focus” segment on KPFK Public Radio.The interview was conducted by Estee Chandler, founder and “key organizer” of the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization’s Los Angeles chapter (JVP LA).
In the interview, Fernandes claimed [00:15:30] that Zionism was “a simple matter of colonialism going on in the world today.”
Fernandes also said [00:16:13]: “There is a very, very, very good reason for us adopting these bylaws…for us to oppose Zionist policies.”
Fernandes then alleged [00:16:31]: “They are the ones with these positions of power…with these…connections to media…it reinforces the power dynamics that have been existing and…continue to exist now, but hopefully will not continue to exist for much longer.”
Fernandes later said [00:21:25]: “This whole conversation is about colonialism going on in the Middle East, right now.” He concluded [00:23:19]: “Any conversation that is meant to…create sympathy for the colonizers is…tactics used by colonizers to divert the conversation and try to justify the violence of their community.”
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.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abhayamvdra [Private]LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-c-fernandes
SignalHire: https://www.signalhire.com/profiles/matthew-fernandes%27s-email/134683865#
Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/matthew-fernandes
Extra Video and Audio
KPFK Public Radio Interview Nov 20 2022
Photos & Screenshots
