New Report Exposes UC Berkeley’s Repression of Pro-Palestinian Speech Likely Violate Civil Rights Laws

Thursday, October 30th, 2025 — Today, Palestine Legal is sharing a new report by UC Berkeley Law students exposing that Berkeley’s repression of pro-Palestinian speech likely violated federal civil rights laws.  

The report comes as Berkeley faces significant backlash for handing over the names of 160 students and faculty to the federal government, as the Trump administration wages a scorched-earth attack against speech that doesn’t adhere to its ideological agenda.  

The report details how UC Berkeley admin has engaged in egregious acts of anti-Palestinian racism that caused students significant harm, including chilled speech and association, and among non-citizens, heightened fear of deportation and detention. The report details repeated incidents where the university has failed to defend the rights of students as they were physically assaulted, harassed, and doxed by their peers and professors. It has also aggressively restricted protests with new anti-free speech policies and increased police presence, surveilled students who joined pro-Palestine demonstrations, punished faculty and students who spoke in support of Palestinians, and put out official statements that dismiss the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. 

Despite repeat notice and formal complaints, UC Berkeley has failed to act on these reports. In interviews with students who had experienced discrimination and harassment after expressing support for Palestinian equity and freedom, the report authors found a common trend: Nearly all the students who had reported incidents to UC Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD) said that the office had either inappropriately dismissed or ignored their reports.  

"Our hope for the report is simple: to clearly outline how Berkeley's actions likely constitute a pattern of unlawful repression, and confront the moral direction of this university,” said report author and UC Berkeley Law student Oton De Souza. We hope the Berkeley administration takes our report findings seriously, and takes corrective action, including listening to popular student demands for divestment from Israel's war crimes."

Read the full report here.

Contact us at media@palestinelegal.org to speak with the report authors, Palestine Legal attorneys and experts.