""We're in Kafka-land," observes Judith Butler, the internationally renowned philosopher who for decades has been one of the most prominent members of the University of California, Berkeley, academic community. This month, Butler learned that they were one of 160 faculty members, students, and staffers at the university whose names had been shared with the Trump administration as part of a federal investigation targeting "alleged antisemitic incidents.""
"On September 4, 160 members of the University of California, Berkeley, community received a letter from the university's chief counsel, David Robinson, informing us that files containing our names were forwarded to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights in response to its investigation of antisemitism on college and university campuses. When I received the notification, I had not been aware of how many of us were included in these files"
One hundred sixty faculty, students, and staff at the University of California, Berkeley had their names forwarded to the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights as part of a federal probe into alleged antisemitic incidents. Those notified were not given details of any specific allegations. The university's chief counsel, David Robinson, sent the notifications. Judith Butler, one of those named and a Jewish scholar critical of the Israeli government's assault on Gaza, described the situation as 'Kafka-land' and wrote to university legal offices. Butler shared a written response and an account of an exchange with the chief counsel.
Read at The Nation
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