Dinner Party at Berkeley Law School Dean's House Goes Berserk As Student Starts Speaking About Gaza War | Video

A dinner party hosted by Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, and his wife, to honour graduating law students went haywire when a Palestinian American student attempted to give a speech on the civilian casualties in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“Leave, this is not your house,” the dean’s wife, and law professor Catherine Fisk could be heard saying while trying to grab the microphone from the student.

A video of the incident that took place at a party held in Chemerinsky’s backyard garden of his house went viral on the internet, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The video showed Malak Afaneh, a Palestinian American student, wearing a jean skirt, a white shirt with a black-and-white keffiyeh (headdress) around her neck and a red hijab getting up from her table and standing in front of the seated students.

Afaneh greeted the gathering in Arabic and said, “Tonight we are gathered here in the name of commemorating our final few weeks as law students. Tonight is also the last night of the holy month of Ramzan where millions of Muslims around the world fast.”

She, however, was interrupted by Chemerinsky, a Jewish, and his wife mid-speech. Fisk, tried to grab the student’s microphone and told her “It is not your house and I want you to leave”.

In the video, Fisk could be seen approaching Afaneh from behind and holding her right shoulder while trying to grab the microphone from her hand.

The video also showed Chemerinsky telling the Palestinian American student to leave his house. “This is my house. You are my guest. You’re my guest. Please leave my house,” he said.

Following the altercation, an argument broke out between Afaneh, Chemerinsky, Fisk and the unnamed law student who is not visible in the video.

“You are not welcome,” Fisk told Afaneh, to which, Afaneh said, “You can call the police.” “I don’t prefer to,” the professor replied.

“Forty thousand people are dying,” Afaneh said at one point, to which, Fisk responded, “I can’t stop that.”

American-Palestinian Student Reacts on Viral Video

In an interview, Afaneh alleged that Fisk assaulted her and denied her free speech rights. “The aggression with which she ran at me when I said ‘assalam alaykum’. She saw my hijab and keffiyeh, and that was a risk for her,” she said.

Afaneh was among the 60 graduating law students who were invited to the dinner party, Chemerinsky said in a statement.