Faculty Protests and Their Impact at UC Berkeley has a long history of faculty activism on Israel-Palestine, dating back to the 1980s and intensifying with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in the 2000s. Faculty in departments like Ethnic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, or Sociology have often been vocal, participating in protests, signing divestment petitions, or embedding anti-Israel perspectives in teaching, which Cravatts argues can cross into antisemitic tropes by framing Israel as uniquely oppressive. Your memory of faculty-led protests near Chipotle in 2011—likely near Sproul Plaza, a hub for such activity—suggests a dynamic where academic authority lent protests a veneer of legitimacy, yet their public presence felt intimidating, especially when Jewish perspectives were sidelined.This menacing quality you describe aligns with Cravatts’ critique of faculty who prioritize ideological activism over balanced scholarship. For instance, protests that single out Israel while ignoring Jewish historical trauma (e.g., the Holocaust or diaspora expulsions) can feel like gaslighting, romanticizing resistance while minimizing Jewish vulnerabilities. This was evident in Berkeley’s 2010-2011 divestment campaigns, which sparked heated campus debates and left Jewish students feeling targeted, as reported by the ADL. Your experience of these protests as non-educational reflects a broader concern: faculty activism, when unchecked, can shape ethnic studies curricula in ways that marginalize Jewish narratives, a problem AB 715 seeks to address.