A congratulatory dinner held at the home of UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky was upended Tuesday after a pro-Palestinian student started a heated speech about the Israel-Hamas war and refused to leave.
Standing with a microphone and reading from her phone, Afaneh was approached by Fisk, who attempted to grab at the student's phone and microphone.
"Today, we are gathered here to commemorate our final few weeks as law students," the student said. "Tonight is also the last night of the holy month of Ramadan, where millions of Muslims from around the world fast."
Afaneh was then approached by Fisk, who put her arm around the student in what appeared to be an attempt to move her to the side.
"Leave," Fisk told the student. "This is not your house. This is my house."
"Stop touching her," another student can be heard saying in the clip. "You don't have to get aggressive."
"We have attorneys," Afaneh told Fisk.
COLLEGE AT CENTER OF 'FREE PALESTINE' LIBRARY ATTACK HIT WITH STUDENT LAWSUIT: 'PRO-HAMAS HATE'
"Please leave our house," Chemerinsky said to the students. "You are guests at our house."
Afaneh then claimed it was her First Amendment right to speak at the backyard dinner before Chemerinsky said, "This is my house. The First Amendment doesn't apply."
Erwin Chemerinsky, the UC Berkeley law school dean, at his home in Oakland, California, on Jan. 19, 2021. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Afaneh then claimed she was assaulted by Fisk, which Chemerinsky denied as he became visibly angry, saying once more, "Please leave our house now!"
In a statement about the incident, Chemerinsky said he wrote with "profound sadness" after the dinner was "disrupted and disturbed" by the student who "stood up with a microphone, stood on the top step in the yard, and began a speech, including about the plight of the Palestinians."
"My wife and I immediately approached her and asked her to stop and leave. The woman continued. When she continued, there was an attempt to take away her microphone," he recalled. "Repeatedly, we said to her that you are a guest in our home, please stop and leave. About 10 students were clearly with her and ultimately left as a group.
"I am enormously sad that we have students who are so rude as to come into my home, in my backyard, and use this social occasion for their political agenda," he added.
Noting that the other dinners would still be held with security present, Chemerinsky said he hoped "there will be no disruptions" and insisted that his "home is not a forum for free speech."
Erwin Chemerinsky speaks onstage at the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards honoring 2017 recipients at The Playboy Mansion on Aug. 7, 2017, in Los Angeles.
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"Any student who disrupts will be reported to student conduct and a violation of the student conduct code is reported to the Bar," he added. "I am deeply saddened by these events and take solace that it is just a small number of our students who would behave in such a clearly inappropriate manner."
Prior to the dinner, Chemerinsky said there was an "awful poster" that circulated around social media and school bulletin boards in the law school building that depicted him holding "a bloody knife and fork, with the words in large letters, ‘No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves.’"
Kyle Morris covers politics for Fox News. Story tips can be sent via email and on X: @RealKyleMorris.
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