Auburn head basketball coach Bruce Pearl, a practicing Jew and unabashed supporter of Israel, offered a bold reaction to a university’s actions regarding Zionist campus speakers.
Student groups with the University of California’s School of Law have moved to prevent Zionists, or individuals who believe in Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, from being invited to speak on campus.
Nine law groups from the school supported the passage of a bylaw amendment ensuring that pro-Israel speakers were not welcome as speakers, according to a report published by the Jewish Journal.
UC Berkeley’s Law Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that reportedly spearheaded the bylaw change, said the move was necessary for “the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus.”
Pearl took to Twitter Thursday and called the school’s actions “pure discrimination.” The Tigers’ basketball coach said outrage would have ensued if the school disallowed speakers that support other religious or ethnic groups.
This is pure discrimination! Replace the words Anti..Zionist,Jew or Israel with Anti White,Black, Christian or Muslim and watch the reaction. Today it’s Berkley California, tomorrow it’s your hometown! America, we are better than that! Grateful for those who agree! https://t.co/P6bWZYY2dM
— Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) September 29, 2022
Pearl routinely partakes in public discourse surrounding Jewish causes and Israel.
In 2019, Pearl took exception with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) comparing the Trump administration’s border security efforts to Nazi concentration camps, saying the congresswoman was attempting “to rewrite the Holocaust.”
Pearl, in 2016, slammed the United Nations Security Council’s vote that condemned Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
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Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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