Governor Gavin Newsom Signs Bills Targeting Campus Gaza Protests
Al Enteshar Al arabi Newspaper- Christopher Alam
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation requiring public universities to adjust their codes of conduct and curriculums in response to wide spread pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations last spring. Pro-palestinian activists and civil rights groups, such as the ACLU, are criticizing bills they say silence students’ right to protest, particularly in opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and occupation of Palestine.
Member groups of the California Palestine Solidarity Coalition, which includes the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Arab Resource and Outreach Center (AROC), and others, issued a statement Thursday against Newsom’s signing.
“SB 1287, SB 1277, and AB 2925… effectively censor and suppress speech in support of Palestine and fail to address the rise in Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate. These bills also perpetuate the harmful false narrative that equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.”
Following AB 2925, public universities will have an obligation to combat and remedy various forms of discrimination, explicitly listing “hate-based discrimination, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.” The bill later requests the University of California to include training on specifically anti-semitism as a part of any anti discrimination training. The California Palestine Solidarity Coalition says this will make discussion of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian hate in these trainings optional.
SB 1277 establishes the California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education, to be responsible for establishing a statewide development program on genocide for teachers. The collaborative’s mission is stated as ensuring that genocide and Holocaust education is taught consistent with the content standards, curriculum frameworks, and instructional materials adopted by the State Board of Education.
The language of the bill lists some specifics; “In addition to focusing on education regarding the Holocaust and other genocides, including, but not limited to, those of the Armenian, Bosnian, Cambodian, Guatemalan, Indigenous American, Rwandan, and Uyghur peoples, the collaborative shall focus on education to identify and confront antisemitism and hate in modern society.”
Criticism of this bill is concerned with not describing Israel’s actions in Palestine as a genocide. The California Palestine Solidarity Coalition’s letter says that while it is crucial to teach on the history of genocides and the Holocaust, they take issue with the California Teacher’s Collaborative including organizations that “deny the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” pointing to the International Criminal Court’s ruling that Israel has plausibly committed genocide.
The California State University system and the University of California will be required to adopt and enforce rules against harassment, discrimination, or any “conduct that creates a hostile environment on campus” under SB1287. Further, schools must develop mandatory training programs “to educate students on what constitutes violent, harassing, intimidating, or discriminatory conduct.” According to the language of the bill, the trainings are also required to detail to students “when and where protests may be held” as constitutionally protected speech, and how to exchange views with civility.
The bill, introduced in February by Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer, does not specify what qualifies as such conduct or how rules will be enforced. Glazer has defended his bill saying that it will safeguard all students. However, the bill’s continued discussion centered around pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments. Opponents, among them the ACLU, say that the vagueness in the bill’s language opens the door for stifling free speech on campuses.
“Inside the classroom, speech can be and always has been subject to more restrictive rules to ensure civil dialogue and a robust learning environment,” the ACLU wrote in a statement. “But such rules have no place in a public forum like a campus green. Preserving physical safety on campuses is paramount; but “safety” from ideas or views that one finds offensive is anathema to the very enterprise of the university.”
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