The University of California, Berkeley, has reinstated a course on Palestinian history following its suspension last week.
The school’s dean announced the decision after the course description was revised by the lecturer.
“Palestine: A Colonial Settler Analysis” course was suspended by social science dean Carla Hesse after receiving a complaint from Jewish and civil rights groups that the course syllabus appeared to describe a politically motivated, anti-Semitic class.
Student facilitator Paul Hadweh “feeling great” that Berkeley course on settler-colonialism in Palestine reinstated https://t.co/rWfaT7gVHe
— Electronic Intifada (@intifada) September 20, 2016
Activists responded by protesting against the decision saying it threatened academic freedom.
Paul Hadweh, a student who teaches the one-unit course, said he was not told that the course had been suspended.
“The university threw me under the bus, and publicly blamed me, without ever even contacting me,” Hadweh said.
Israel linked to suspension of Palestine course at UC Berkeley https://t.co/3kWSPGWQdr
— Dr. Hatem Bazian (@HatemBazian) September 17, 2016
He added, “To defend the course, we had to mobilize an international outcry of scholars and students to stand up for academic freedom. This never should have happened.”
The dean responded by saying that she suspended the class for review after discovering that neither she nor the chair of the ethnic department had seen or approved the course syllabus.
(MEMO, PC)
