Berkeley dean sees hijab as threat: Palestinian students amid campus chaos

Palestinian students try to interrupt Dinner at the home of the dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law Professor Catherine Fisk, the dean’s wife, accused her of assaulting her and said she viewed her headscarf as a threat. Speaking about the chaos, Malak Afaneh, whose video went viral, said she had never felt so “traumatized” and “humiliated.”

“Professor Fisk did not attack me because I was talking about Palestine. I didn’t even get a chance to talk about Palestine. She attacked me because, to her, a Palestinian Muslim student wearing a hijab was enough of a threat to justify my attack ’ ”, Afaneh said in the TikTok video.

Afane is one of 60 students invited by Jewish Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky to attend a pre-graduation dinner next month. last week, pro-palestine students Posters were posted around campus urging colleagues to boycott the dinner.

“The original plan was that I would go up and talk about UC’s complicity and the students would leave in silence. I was talking about Ramadan and Professor Fisk came over and put his arms around me and inappropriately grabbed my hijab and chest, Groping my shirt and dragging me up the steps,” she further said.

On Friday, a longer version of the confrontation that took place at the home of Dean Chemerinsky and Professor Fisk emerged.

In the video, the law student stands up and delivers a traditional Islamic greeting in Arabic. She was wearing a white shirt, a black and white headscarf around her neck, and a red headscarf.

However, Chemerinsky and Fisk later approached her and asked her to leave. Fisk is then seen trying to snatch Afane’s phone and putting his arm around her. “This is not your house. This is my house and I want you to leave,” the professor said.

In a statement released by Berkeley, Chemerinsky said he would not be intimidated. “I am deeply saddened that our students were so rudely intruding into my home, my backyard, and exploiting this social occasion to further their political ends,” the statement said.