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To:
Subject:
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Zatz, Noah
"regentsoffice@ucop.edu"
Report on Principles Against Intolerance
Friday, March 18, 2016 9:03:00 PM

Dear UC Board of Regents:

As a Jew and a member of the faculty of the University of California, I write with grave concern about
the potential adoption of the report of UC Regents Working Group on Principles Against Intolerance
at the upcoming UC Regents meeting on Wednesday, March 23rd.

The "Regents Policy" proposed at the end of the report is relatively innocuous. The serious problem
is the analysis of anti-Zionism smuggled into the reports "contextual statement" and which, if
adopted by the Regents, would then inform interpretation of the policy and commit the Regents to
this analysis. That analysis, which conflates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism as a form of
discrimination, is dead wrong and antithetical to the values our institution represents.

Zionism is a very important political ideology in Jewish history and in the Jewish community, but it
has always been one among multiple viewpoints, including among Jews, on the appropriate
relationships among Judaism, Jewish people, the land of Israel/Palestine, and the nation-state. It is
utterly offensive to academic values to attempt to shut down that debate by insulating one side
from criticism by branding disagreement as intrinsically mired in bias, bigotry, or discrimination. It is
hardly beyond the pale to believe that democracies should not reserve a privileged place for one
dominant ethnic or religious group within its borders, as Israel does by defining itself as a Jewish
state with various practical consequences.

Of course, many who would recoil at the idea of a Christian nation might nonetheless embrace the
anomaly of a Jewish state because of the long history of persecution and genocide directed at
Jews, as well as the particular circumstances of Israel today. As someone whose grandparents
survived the Holocaust while other family members perished and who has cherished relatives in
Israel, I cannot help but take those arguments seriously. Nonetheless, fair-minded people can reject
them for a range of reasons. And this is without even getting into the murky territory of which
criticisms of current Israeli policy concerning Palestinians and the West Bank or Gaza Strip might be
deemed anti-Zionist because the Israeli state deems those policies essential to preserving the
Zionist project.

Of course, it is important to state unequivocally that anti-Semitism, like all forms of bias and
oppression, will not be tolerated on UC campuses. Anti-Semitism can take many forms, and many
political positions can and have been articulated in anti-Semitic terms. For instance, there was a
time when Jews were stereotyped as Communists and anti-communism was sometimes articulated
in anti-Semitic terms. On such grounds Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Europe were refused entry to
the United States and left to die. But it does not follow than anti-Communism is necessarily antiSemitic or a form of discrimination. Vice versa, Jews have been stereotyped as wealthy capitalists,
and anti-capitalism sometimes has been articulated in anti-Semitic terms. But again it does not
follow that anti-capitalism is necessarily anti-Semitic or a form of discrimination. The current
attempt to insulate Zionism, or its current instantiation in the State of Israel, from criticism by

labelling its rejection anti-Semitic is equally absurd. It is intellectually cynical and lazy in a manner
thoroughly unbefitting a great research university.

I urge you not to adopt this report in any form that continues, as the LA Times editorial board
asserted, to go dangerously astray in this manner. To do so would stain the reputation of the
University of California, alienate vast swaths of its faculty and students, and betray our values by
designating a particular political viewpoint, and a particular government grounded in that viewpoint,
as immune from legitimate criticism.

Sincerely,
Noah Zatz

Noah Zatz
Professor of Law
UCLA School of Law
385 Charles E. Young Drive East (courier)
Box 951476 (postal)
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1476
o) (310) 206-1674
f) (310) 206-7010
zatz@law.ucla.edu
http://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/noah-d-zatz/