At Berkeley, a Protest at a Dean’s Home Tests the Limits of Free Speech
The New York Times
Pro-Palestinian supporters disrupted a dinner for law students. There was a tussle over the microphone and conflicting claims of harm.
The dean of Berkeley’s law school is known as a staunch supporter of free speech, but things became personal for him when pro-Palestinian students disrupted a celebratory dinner party for some 60 students at his home.
Erwin Chemerinsky, the law school dean, hosted the dinner on Tuesday night in the backyard of his Oakland, Calif., home. The party was supposed to be a community building event, open to all third-year law students, with no speeches or formal activities.
But a third-year law student and a Palestinian activist, Malak Afaneh, stood up at the event, holding a microphone, and launched into a speech.
As she began to talk, Mr. Chemerinsky, a noted Constitutional scholar, can be seen shouting, “Please leave our house! You are guests in our house!”
Catherine Fisk, another Berkeley law professor and Mr. Chemerinsky’s wife, can be seen with her arm around Ms. Afaneh, trying to yank the microphone away and pulling the student up a couple steps.
Ms. Afaneh and other student protesters described Ms. Fisk’s struggle for the microphone as a disproportionate and violent response. Students, they said, had a right to speak at a university gathering.
