UC Berkeley President Prof. Carol Christ addressed the violent riots that erupted on Tuesday on campus after attorney Ran Bar-Yoshafat, deputy director of the Kohelet Policy Forum, arrived on campus after being invited by Jewish organizations on campus to speak to students about Israeli advocacy during the war.
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"The attack on the building, and on the event, was an attack on the fundamental values of the university," Christ wrote in a letter, adding, " We will in the days ahead decide on the best possible path to fully understand what happened and why; to determining how we will address what occurred; and to do everything possible to preclude a repeat of what happened."
Following Bar-Yoshafat's arrival at the university on Tuesday, dozens of pro-Palestinian activists who heard about the event, titled "Israel at War: Combat the Lies," gathered outside the Zellerbach Playhouse event hall and tried to prevent students from entering. They shouted "global intifada," spit on the students, banged on the doors and broke windows, which then led to physical confrontations.
In the letter addressed to the university's students and faculty, Christ added, "We write to you today with great sadness, concern, and dismay in the wake of an incident on our campus last night, an incident that violated not only our rules, but also some of our most fundamental values."
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Pro-Palestinian protesters run to disrupt an Israeli speaker on the UC Berkeley campus
She recounted the incident: "An event was scheduled featuring a speaker from Israel, who had been invited to campus by some of our student organizations. Minutes before the event was to start a crowd of some 200 protesters began to surround the building. Doors were broken open and the protesters gained unauthorized entry to the building. The event was canceled, and the building was evacuated to protect the speaker and members of the audience."
"Despite our efforts and the ample number of police officers, it was not possible to do both given the size of the crowd and the threat of violence. We want to express our deep remorse and sympathy to those students and members of the public who were in the building, fearing for their safety," she added.