Taylor Fox

Overview

Taylor Fox is an activist who has spread hatred of Israel and supported an anti-Semitic bylaw passed by her anti-Israel student group in 2022.

In 2022 and 2023, Fox was a member of a chapter of the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) School of Law (Berkeley Law), known as Berkeley LSJP.

Fox is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of May 2024, Fox’s LinkedIn profile said she was studying for a JD at Berkeley Law, slated to graduate in 2024.

Also as of May 2024, Fox’s LinkedIn said she graduated from Oxford University (Oxford) with a master’s degree in criminology in 2021. She graduated from the University of Chicago (UChicago) with a bachelor’s degree in political science and human rights in 2020.

As of the same date, Fox’s LinkedIn said she was located in the “San Francisco Bay Area.”

Hatred of Israel

On May 1, 2023, Fox was featured as a speaker on a podcast titled: “Weaponization of Antisemitism to Silence Student Activism.” The panel was moderated by anti-Israel professor Noura Erakat.

During the podcast, Fox said [00:13:34]: “Israel is a settler-colonial state and that actually has nothing to do with the Jewish people.”

One way anti-Israel activists spread anti-Semitism is by denying [00:17:45] Jewish history, with the aim of delegitimizing restored Jewish sovereignty, attacking Israel’s legitimacy and portraying Jews as foreign to the Land of Israel.

Fox further said [00:42:17] that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism was “entirely ridiculous and is grounded in tying the Jewish people to one nation-state, to one settler-colonial state.”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights multiple forms of contemporary anti-Semitism related to Israel, including “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” and “Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 other countries have adopted the definition as well.

The IHRA lists as another definition of contemporary anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

On February 16, 2023, Fox co-authored an article where she alleged that Israel was involved in “historical and ongoing practices of settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and land dispossession.”

Fox’s article also said of anti-Israel activism: “In order to dismantle antisemitism, we need to build safety through solidarity with movements on and off campus that are resisting white supremacy, capitalism, policing, settler colonialism and militarism.”

Berkeley LSJP Anti-Semitic Bylaw

In the same February 16, 2023 article above, Fox also expressed support for Berkeley LSJP amending its constitution in August 2022 to ban pro-Israel speakers and then getting other clubs to do the same thing. The incident is detailed below.

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 the bylaw. 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 [slide 2] 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 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 humanity [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 that they were subject to “baseless allegations of antisemitism.”

The Berkeley Law student government, the Student Association at Berkeley Law (SABL), was the first signatory listed [slide 3] among the 169 individuals and groups that signed the statement. The full list 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 jail and whose leadership includes three PFLP members [pp. 22–28].

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.