Officials and police at UC Berkeley have launched an investigation after approximately 200 protesters disrupted an on-campus talk by an Israeli attorney and policy advocate that was organized by pro-Israel student groups, leading to the cancellation of the event Monday.
“Doors were broken open and the protesters gained unauthorized entry to the building,” according to a prepared statement from UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin E. Hermalin sent Tuesday. “The event was canceled, and the building was evacuated to protect the speaker and members of the audience.”
A door at the Zellerbach Playhouse was broken into, and at least one window was smashed, according to Dan Mogulof, a spokesperson for the university.
Asked if anyone had been injured, he said that while the university was aware of reports of assault on social media, “we have not received or seen any complaint or report of assault to police,” but that the university is “urging students to come forward” if they have something to report.
The scheduled speaker, Ran Bar-Yoshafat, is the deputy director of the Kohelet Policy Forum, a conservative Jerusalem-based think tank heavily influential in Israeli national politics. One of his earliest jobs was as a legal advisor to the Knesset, Israel’s national legislature, according to his LinkedIn page.
The talk was jointly organized by several student groups, including Berkeley Tikvah and Bears for Israel, according to a web page for Tikvah.
Before the event, the student group Bears for Palestine posted on social media asking for protesters to join them in helping to “Shut it Down,” denouncing Bar-Yoshafat as a propagandist.
University officials said the talk’s initial location was meant to be Wheeler Hall Auditorium.
“Due to safety concerns,” the university and student organizations moved the talk to Zellerbach, according to Christ and Hermalin’s statement.
“The attack on the building, and on the event, was an attack on the fundamental values of the university, which are also essential to maintain and nurture open inquiry and an inclusive civil society, the bedrock of a genuinely democratic nation,” they wrote.
Roughly 100 people were expected to attend as audience members, Mogulof said. Protesters began arriving between 6:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., he said. Bar-Yoshafat was slated to start his talk at 6:30 p.m.
Mogulof said the audience was taken out an exit away from the crowd of protesters, which dispersed roughly an hour later.
Neither Tikvah nor Bears for Israel immediately responded to emailed requests for comment. Nor did Bears for Palestine.
Christ and Hermalin wrote that the university was “committed to responding” to anyone who may have violated university rules.
There had been no arrests as of Tuesday.
“Given the number of officers who were there and the number of protesters, we had to prioritize the safety and wellbeing of the people in the building,” Mogulof said.
Anyone seeking to report an injury should contact UCPD, and anyone who wants to report violations should contact UCPD or the university’s Office for Prevention of Harassment & Discrimination, Mogulof said.
Monday’s talk was billed to take place at a “private location,” with online RSVP required for entry, according to a description of the event on a web page for Tikvah, a student group “whose mission is to promote Zionism on campus and to educate the UC Berkeley community about Israel,” according to their page.
Israel’s military action in Gaza has left nearly 30,000 Palestinians dead, many of them civilians, after a Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel killed 1,200 people there and took 250 hostages, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
“There have been a number of events related to the war since Oct. 7; nothing like this ever happened at any of them. What happened last night, the size of the crowd and the evident potential for violence has no recent precedent on campus,” Mogulof said.
