Since then, the groups have faced a tremendous amount of backlash. Berkeley Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky published a letter to the student body to condemn the pledge, saying that under the ban, he and “90 percent or more” of Jewish students would be excluded from addressing these groups.
“Taken literally, this would mean that I could not be invited to speak because I support the existence of Israel, though I condemn many of its policies,” Chemerinsky said.
The response goes far beyond Berkeley, however. More than 150 student groups from universities across the country
have signed an open letter condemning the ban. A letter from 26 prominent signatories including AIPAC, the World Jewish Congress, and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law was
published in the Jewish Journal. Even Barbra Streisand responded to the ban
in a tweet saying, “When does anti-Zionism bleed into broad anti-Semitism?”
But the pressure both locally and nationally has been easy for the students responsible to avoid. The groups — which include the Berkeley Law Muslim Student Association, Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, Womxn of Color Collective, Asian Pacific Law Students Association, Queer Caucus, Women of Berkeley Law, Law Students of African Descent, and Community Defense Project, in addition to the aforementioned Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine — have not made the names of their officers public. The UC Berkeley website backs them up by requiring a student login to be able to view their names.