{"id":448275,"date":"2025-12-15T08:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/448275\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T08:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:40:12","slug":"pomona-college-uc-settle-antisemitism-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/448275\/","title":{"rendered":"Pomona College, UC Settle Antisemitism Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students from Pomona College and other Claremont Colleges took part in pro-Palestinian protests.<\/p>\n

Genaro Molina | Contributor | Los Angeles Times<\/p>\n

Both Pomona College and the University of California settled antisemitism allegations last week. <\/p>\n

Pomona\u2019s agreement resolves an antisemitism complaint filed with the Education Department\u2019s Office for Civil Rights in April 2024, amid intense pro-Palestinian protests<\/a> on the California campus. In the 27-page deal<\/a>, the private college \u201cacknowledges that many Jewish students experience anti-Zionism as an attack on their Jewish identity, ethnicity, religion, and\/or ancestry, which means these students experience anti-Zionism as antisemitism, and the College commits to protect them from such conduct that rises to the level of harassment and discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among many other things, Pomona promised to add to its trainings and frequently asked questions a warning that \u201c\u2018Zionist\u2019 is often used as a codeword for \u2018Jew,\u2019 and depending on the factual circumstances, may be evidence of antisemitic intent.\u201d It will also warn against \u201cinvoking Holocaust imagery or symbols to harass or discriminate\u201d or saying things such as \u201cZionists control the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the college promised programming, including on \u201cthe Zionist component of Jewish identity.\u201d In its own investigations of antisemitism complaints it also promises to consider the controversial<\/a> International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which says antisemitism \u201cmight include the targeting of the state of Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n

Further, according to the settlement, Pomona is banning masked protests and will appoint a \u201cCivil Rights and\/or Title VI Coordinator.\u201d Title VI is a federal law banning discrimination based on shared ancestry. <\/p>\n

G. Gabrielle Starr, Pomona\u2019s president, told Inside Higher Ed Friday that \u201cwe really wanted to prioritize coming to a meaningful solution that worked for our students and our campus.\u201d Asked how the settlement might restrict anti-Zionist language, Starr said there are moments when that language is \u201cpurely political,\u201d and moments when it involves hate against Jews. <\/p>\n

\u201cSpeech in any free society is always going to be contested,\u201d Starr said. She said, \u201cwe always have to have conversations about where the limits of speech actually are.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Laura Beltz, policy reform director for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), expressed concern that the settlement requires Pomona to push for changes to demonstration policies that would affect all the Claremont Colleges and \u201cmay infringe on free speech, depending on how they are adopted.\u201d She particularly noted proposed requirements for advance approvals even for protests that include just a few people, and a proposed mandate that \u201cprotests meeting some unspecified threshold of attendees\u201d take place in certain campus locations.<\/p>\n

Regarding using the IHRA definition, Beltz said, \u201cFIRE has long warned of the potential of this broad definition and its list of examples to chill speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also last week, the University of California settled a lawsuit that Yael Nativ, a former visiting faculty member at UC Berkeley, filed in August. Nativ had alleged national origin discrimination, saying a department chair declined her application to continue teaching because she\u2019s Israeli.<\/p>\n

Berkeley\u2019s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination had already concluded Nativ was discriminated against. To settle the suit, UC agreed to pay her $60,000, and her attorneys $56,000, and to allow her to teach her course, with pay, in 2026 or 2027. Berkeley chancellor Rich Lyons also promised to apologize to her personally. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe is owed the apology I will provide on behalf of our campus,\u201d Lyons said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cWe look forward to welcoming Dr. Nativ back to Berkeley to teach again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both complaints were filed by organizations including the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which filed a swath of Title VI complaints after Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students from Pomona College and other Claremont Colleges took part in pro-Palestinian protests. Genaro Molina | Contributor |…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":448276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2563,407,2879,2878,99,420,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-448275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-career","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-events","11":"tag-higher","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-jobs","14":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115722690469158087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}