Elon Rov

Citing a threat to academic freedom, UC President Janet Napolitano and UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks have joined a chorus of officials from universities across the nation in opposing an academic boycott of Israeli institutions by the American Studies Association.

The American Studies Association National Council announced Wednesday that, after years of consideration by the association, it endorsed a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel.

An Israel Defense Forces combat veteran delivered a controversial public address on campus Tuesday evening calling for the reform of Israeli-Palestinian relations and an end to the Israeli occupation of disputed territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Two San Francisco-based lawyers have filed an appeal asking the U.S. Department of Education to revisit a previously-dismissed complaint that alleged UC Berkeley administrators failed to respond to a hostile environment towards Jewish students on campus.

The campus Jewish Student Union voted Wednesday to deny membership to J Street U at Berkeley, a Jewish student political advocacy group on campus whose application to join the union was also denied two years ago after facing accusations of being anti-Israel.