Why Trump’s anti-Semitism crackdown should worry UC union

A version of this commentary was published in The Orange County Register.

Following President Trump’s executive order to combat anti-Semitism came reports that his administration has opened investigations at five U.S. universities— including at UC Berkeley. There is, unfortunately, plenty to uncover from violent student groups to passive university administrators.

But investigators would be wise to also examine the role unions have played. My own lawsuit against the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents 48,000 employees across the UC system, should be enough to raise alarm bells.

At UC Berkeley, where I am a postdoc, campus administrators were poised to break up a post-October 7, anti-Israel encampment, when the union came to its rescue. The encampment prominently displayed the inverted red triangle—the Hamas symbol used in violent propaganda videos to target Israelis—and banners reading “Glory to the martyrs” and “Student Intifada.” That didn’t deter UAW officials, who legitimized the protest by establishing a “union village” within it.

To me and other members of UC Berkeley’s Jewish and Israeli community, it was nothing short of a knife in the back. And over the next year, that knife would be twisted again and again.

When an Israeli was set to appear at a campus talk, the union allowed a member to call on others in a union meeting to “come disrupt an evil Zionist.” It also provided information and resources to Bears for Palestine, an anti-Israel student group that targeted the event, which was cancelled after vandals surrounded the venue, smashed a window, and physically assaulted Jewish students.

The union’s officials drafted a report called “Who Rules the University of California?”—echoing conspiracy theories about Jewish control of world institutions. The report ominously identified for investigation Jewish members of UC Berkeley’s Board of Regents, including Jonathan Sures whose Brentwood home was vandalized with red handprints by a pro-Palestine graduate student group.

The union also backed the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement by passing a formal resolution to make it a bargaining priority. UAW officials intend to cut off university relationships and funding with the slightest ties to Israel or U.S. Jewish-affiliated philanthropic organizations. This would undermine the basic tenets of academic freedom and could cause Jewish and Israeli scholars, the very people the union is supposed to represent, to lose positions and research opportunities.

I believe the union’s underlying goal was to delegitimize any connection between Jews and our eternal homeland—and to inspire others to do the same. It plainly stated its intention to “set a crucial precedent for all unions in the higher education sector to wage effective BDS campaigns.” And they appear to be succeeding.

A University of Michigan graduate student union has also “promoted and endorsed anti-Semitic [BDS] campaigns on campus,” according to a Washington Free Beacon report. And in January, the union representing City University of New York faculty adopted its own BDS policy, seeking to divest the union from funds with Israeli connections.

I know what happened behind the scenes at the UAW because I joined the union after it made its anti-Israel views clear. Why?

Union officials said they would only engage in dialogue with dues-paying members, even though they represent all postdocs and graduate students. I wanted to show the union that I was a fellow researcher who simply did not want the organization that represents me to advocate in my name against my people and my homeland.

But instead of dialogue, I and other Israeli and Jewish union members found pervasive hostility and relentless abuse.

During a union meeting held on Zoom, a colleague whose family members were held hostage by Hamas terrorists argued against the union’s academic boycott of Israel. The attendees mocked her, and one wrote “LMFAO” (laughing my f***ing a** off) in the chat while she spoke. Union officials did nothing to stop this and other incidents of harassment targeting Jews.

Reforming the union from within proved impossible, and made me feel ostracized, targeted, and unsafe at work and on campus. My last resort was to file a federal lawsuit with the help of nonprofit law firm the Fairness Center, alleging that the UAW violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and California law by discriminating against me based on my race, religion, and nationality.

As a microbiologist, I have collaborated with scientists around the world, including in the West Bank. I know that academic partnerships can be a unifying force for peace, not an impediment to it, as union officials want us to believe. But the anti-Israel sentiment at U.S. colleges and universities makes me doubt that I can continue my academic career in America.

To preserve that possibility for myself and other Israeli Jews, I hope my lawsuit holds UAW officials accountable in court, and the new presidential administration recognizes the central role some unions have played in fostering a culture of anti-Semitism in the UC system and on other American campuses.

Karin Yaniv is an Israeli Jew and postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. The author’s viewpoints are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the Fairness Center.