Overview
- Israa Jaabis, who addressed a Berkeley Law classroom by video during an SJP teach-in on Monday, received applause in footage posted by the student group.
- Jaabis was convicted for a 2015 attempt to detonate a gas canister near Jerusalem that burned Israeli officer Moshe Chen, with police citing her shout of “Allahu Akbar” and notes praising “martyrs.”
- She served eight years of an 11-year sentence before her November 2023 release in a hostage-prisoner exchange linked to the October 7 attacks.
- A Berkeley Law spokesperson said the public university cannot sanction constitutionally protected expression and urged anyone who felt threatened to contact the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.
- Advocacy groups and some faculty condemned the platforming as normalizing terrorism, and the episode arrives as Berkeley faces ongoing scrutiny over SJP activities and recent legal actions, including a March settlement with the Brandeis Center on discriminatory speaker bans.