The pro-Palestinian student protesters who swarmed U.S. campuses, erected pro-Gaza encampments and terrorized Jewish students for two years had plenty of support — from university professors.
Faculty activism played a key role in driving the anti-Israel protests that roiled University of California campuses following the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, according to a report released Wednesday by the Amcha Initiative.
“Drawing on hundreds of documented incidents, the report shows how faculty and academic departments have used their positions of authority and University platforms to advance a coordinated anti-Israel agenda that has fueled harassment, exclusion and intimidation of Jewish and pro-Israel students,” said the organization, which fights antisemitism in U.S. higher education.
The 153-page report, “When Faculty Takes Sides: How Academic Infrastructure Drives Antisemitism at the University of California,” provided case studies from three UC campuses: those at Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz.
Faculty advocacy was largely funneled through two networks: the anti-Israel Boycott, Sanctions and Divestments campaigns already in place before the Oct. 7 massacre, and the Faculty for Justice in Palestine or Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine chapters that surfaced on all three campuses after Oct. 7.
“Together, these drivers provide both the ideological framework and the organizing capacity through which departments, programs, and faculty networks repeatedly route activist agendas through UC-branded platforms and academic authority,” said the report.
DOCUMENT: When Faculty Takes Sides
The anti-Israel faculty groups pushed an “anti-normalization” campaign that called not only for cutting institutional ties with Israel, but rejecting speakers, programming and partnerships tied to the Jewish state.
Large numbers of faculty at each campus signed academic boycott statements — 115 at UCLA, 171 at Berkeley, and 55 at Santa Cruz — during the 2023-25 academic years, including department chairs and others responsible for hiring, curriculum and messaging.
As a result, department-sponsored Israel-related events were “systematically anti-Israel and overwhelmingly featured BDS-supporting speakers without balancing perspectives,” the report said.
Not surprisingly, all three campuses saw sharp increases in antisemitic activity during that period.
For example, UCLA saw the number of incidents in which Jewish and Zionist students were targeted rise from 4 to 130, an increase of 3,150%, while incidents glorifying violence or calling for Israel’s elimination soared from 4 to 51, or by 1,175%.
“A significant portion of these incidents (40% - 60%) involved faculty, academic departments, or FJP/FSJP – through organizing, participation, sponsorship, or public legitimation,” the report said.
One dramatic example occurred in June at UC Santa Cruz’s Critical Race and Ethnic Studies graduation ceremony, where graduates were presented with custom stoles adorned with the Palestinian flag on one side and a kaffiyeh pattern on the other.
The ceremony also featured a backdrop of the 2024 pro-Gaza student encampment, blurring the lines between “academic operations and political demonstration.”
At UC Berkeley, a faculty group issued “toolkits” showing instructors how to “embed anti-Israel narratives directly into course syllabi,” as well as circumvent campus rules on classroom advocacy and stage walkouts.
Universities have reacted to the student protests by tightening discipline and promoting awareness of antisemitism, but the report said the problem won’t be solved unless the UC Board of Regents takes action to rein in the faculty.
The report recommended that the board move to bar academic departments and units from using their UC association to promote boycotts and political agendas; prohibit political activism in the classroom; increase oversight, and require the faculty senates to address misuse of departmental authority.
“This is far bigger than a student discipline issue – it’s a faculty governance failure,” said Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, AMCHA Initiative co-director, who wrote the report with UCLA professor emeritus Leila Beckwith. “Until UC enforces clear boundaries on faculty and academic-unit conduct, Jewish students will continue to face intimidation, exclusion and harassment sanctioned by the institution itself.”
The University of California entered into a systemwide agreement with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on Title VI, which bars discrimination based on race, color and national origin in federally funded programs, but that didn’t end the federal scrutiny.
Under the Trump administration, OCR opened a Title VI investigation into UC Berkeley in February 2025. A month later, the Department of Justice began a Title VII probe into accusations of discrimination against Jewish faculty and staff.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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