(Los Angeles, CA – September 2, 2025) – StandWithUs calls on UC Berkeley to investigate the lengthy record of antisemitic statements by tenured Professor Hatem Bazian to determine whether they have created a hostile and unsafe campus environment for Jewish students and, if so, to take immediate action to remedy such hostility and prevent its recurrence. Bazian co-founded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which since October 7 has led campus protests that glorify Hamas’s attack and foster a hostile climate for Jewish students. UC Berkeley has tolerated his behavior for too many years and must act now: investigate, remedy any hostile campus climate he has created, and affirm that bigotry against any group will never be permitted at Berkeley, including by professors with tenure.
Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO StandWithUs states, “Professor Bazian’s long record of antisemitic statements is not an isolated lapse; it is a pattern. From spreading dangerous antisemitic memes online, to trivializing the Holocaust, to questioning Jewish peoplehood, to his latest libel that Jews ‘monetize antisemitism,’ Bazian has repeatedly crossed the line. Jewish students should never have to endure a campus climate in which antisemitism is normalized by faculty. UC Berkeley must take action now.”
Oleg Ivanov, Northern California Community Director states, “When a faculty member with institutional authority normalizes antisemitism, and the university has no response, the result, far too often, is an environment in which Jewish students feel unsafe, marginalized, and isolated. Bazian contributes to a university climate poisoned by conspiracies and libels that historically has fueled antisemitic violence. This is unacceptable.”
Background
Bazian chairs American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). His most recent comments at the Muslim Community of Folsom claim Jews “monetize and weaponize” antisemitism and promotes the conspiracy theory that Israel is seeking to annex Lebanon, Syria, Mecca, Medina, and even the Pyramids. These are only the latest examples in what is, for him, a decades-long pattern of targeting Jews and the Jewish State with bigotry.
Bazian’s antisemitism is not new: he urged audiences to scrutinize Jewish donor names on Berkeley buildings to “decide who controls this university,” shared grotesque antisemitic caricatures in 2017 depicting Jews celebrating murder, organ trafficking, and abusing welfare, and distorted Holocaust memory by claiming Zionists “partner(ed) with the anti-Semitic European powers” during World War II.
Hatem Bazian’s remarks during his latest appearance underscore the danger of normalizing such rhetoric. He also spoke at the August 2025 People’s Conference for Palestine, a national gathering of thousands of activists and organizations held in Detroit, that promoted extreme anti-Israel agendas. His platforming at such a high-profile event demonstrates how his long record of antisemitic remarks is not only tolerated but amplified, further reinforcing concerns about a climate of hostility toward Jewish students and the broader community and the urgent need for the Berkeley administration to investigate and take appropriate action.
