UC Berkeley admitted to discriminating against an Israeli researcher, agreed to reverse course and invite her to teach on campus and will pay $60,000, in a settlement of her lawsuit alleging she was ousted over nationality, announced Wednesday.
Yael Nativ, a dance researcher and sociologist, sued the university for violating state anti-discrimination laws when UC Berkeley allegedly denied her a teaching opportunity after the department chair sent Nativ a WhatsApp message saying the situation on campus was too “hot” following student-led pro-Palestinian protests.
“I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here,” the chair of the theater, dance, and performance studies department, SanSan Kwan, messaged Nativ according to the suit. The Louis D. Brandeis Center, a non-profit legal organization that advocates for Jewish civil and human rights, filed the case on Nativ’s behalf in August.
In the settlement, UC Berkeley said an internal investigation found that discrimination had occurred, and the administration failed to address the issue before Nativ’s lawsuit was filed.
As part of the agreement, the university says it will enforce its anti-discrimination policy and “respond promptly and equitably to reports” of misconduct. Also, UC Berkeley’s Chancellor Rich Lyons will apologize to Nativ, who has said she will donate a portion of the settlement to charity. The university will invite Nativ to teach the course she was blocked from teaching — a dance course she had previously taught in 2022 as a visiting professor.
“She is owed the apology I will provide on behalf of our campus,” Lyons said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming Dr. Nativ back to Berkeley to teach again.”
Nativ welcomed the resolution in a statement Wednesday.
“Institutions of higher education bear a fundamental responsibility to uphold the values of equity, inquiry and open dialogue,” she said. “Incidents of discrimination of any kind must have no place within environments dedicated to learning and the free exchange of ideas. It is my hope that this outcome contributes to strengthening these commitments for all scholars and students.”
The settlement comes as UC Berkeley faces several investigations into alleged antisemitism.
In the spring, the Trump administration opened an Office of Civil Rights investigation into alleged antisemitism at UC Berkeley and other UC campuses. UC Berkeley and the University of California also face several other federal investigations over allegations that they failed to protect Jewish students and faculty from harassment and discrimination. The Department of Education is also investigating violence that erupted last month at protests outside an event organized by conservative group Turning Point USA.
The Brandeis Center filed a separate lawsuit against UC Berkeley in November 2023, alleging the university violated federal civil rights laws by allowing the “longstanding, unchecked spread of antisemitism” on campus. In April, a district court judge ruled that the lawsuit could move forward.
Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education who ran the Office for Civil Rights but stepped down amid complaints he used the office to further his personal and political agenda, said the settlement announced Wednesday is an important development but UC Berkeley has much more work to be done “to confront growing anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment” on its campus.
“Every individual has the right to learn, to teach, and to thrive in an educational environment without fear of discrimination, harassment, or persecution,” Marcus said in a statement Wednesday.
