UC Berkeley reinstates controversial course on history of Palestine
UC Berkeley has reinstated a course on the history of Palestine, just days after suspending it amid criticism that it fostered anti-Semitism and indoctrinated students against Israel.
The university’s ethnic studies department has revised the original course description and syllabus, which aimed to examine Palestine through the “lens of settler colonialism,” according to a letter issued Monday by Carla Hesse, executive dean of the College of Letters and Sciences and dean of the social sciences division.
Hesse, in the letter to faculty members, said she met with the course’s student facilitator, faculty sponsor and ethnic studies chair to discuss three concerns. One was whether the course had a “particular political agenda structured into its framing and weekly assignments in such as way as to limit open inquiry of the issues,” thus violating UC rules against political indoctrination and partisanship.
She said she also asked them to assess whether the course’s stated objective to “explore the possibilities of a decolonized Palestine” potentially violated UC policy against “crossing over the line from teaching to political advocacy.”
Hesse also said she discussed whether the course, which exclusively focused on Palestine, was appropriate for an ethnic studies rather than a regional studies class.
The decision to suspend the offering drew widespread attention, with supporters calling it a justified response to anti-Semitism and critics calling it an affront to academic freedom.
Hesse, in her letter, said she fully supports and defends “the principles and policies of our campus that protect the academic freedom of all members of our community” but suspended the course because neither she nor the ethnic studies department chair had been formally notified of the class offering or seen the syllabus.
As dean, she added, she reviews courses but does not approve the academic content.
“I did not request or require any revisions of the content of the course,” she wrote in the letter to all department chairs of the social sciences division and the Academic Senate’s divisional council. “I asked the Department Chair to consult with her colleagues and the student facilitator to provide me with clarifications of the three issues above.”
She said her concerns have been addressed and that she was rescinding the suspension.