As part of a settlement reached on Wednesday, the University of California, Berkeley acknowledged it discriminated against an Israeli former professor, and offered suggestions to remedy the situation, two years after the school disinvited her from teaching a course on Israeli dance, Jewish Insider has learned. 

Dance professor Yael Nativ filed a lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents in August, claiming that she was the victim of discrimination under California law. Nativ, a visiting professor who taught a course on contemporary Israeli dance in 2022 and reapplied for the 2024-25 school year, alleged that her application to return was denied due to her Israeli nationality and the climate on campus following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel and ensuing war between Israel and Hamas. Nativ was represented in the suit by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. 

Under the agreement, UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons issued a personal apology to Nativ. She was also granted $60,000 in monetary damages and was invited by the university to teach the course she “successfully” taught during a previous semester at UC Berkeley — during a semester of her choosing. According to a joint statement from UC Berkeley and the Brandeis Center, “UC Berkeley publicly acknowledges the violation of [its] policy against discrimination with regard to Dr. Nativ and commits to rigorously enforce this policy to prevent recurrence.”

The UC Berkeley Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination opened an investigation into Nativ’s case last year following her complaint. After a probe that lasted several months, OPHD concluded that she had faced discrimination based on national origin. The recent settlement, however, is the first time the university offered steps to address the mistreatment. 

The lawsuit alleges that months after Nativ sent in her application, she received a WhatsApp message from the chair of the department of theater, dance and performance studies, SanSan Kwan, saying she was under pressure from faculty not to bring anybody from Israel or hold courses related to Israel. 

“[M]y dept cannot host you for a class next fall. … Things are very hot here right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here,” Kwan wrote, according to the lawsuit.  

“It’s a shame that this [incident] required us to file a lawsuit, because it was a pretty straightforward case of discrimination,” Paul Eckles, senior litigation counsel at the Brandeis Center, told JI. Even though OPHD already ruled in Nativ’s favor, Eckles said there was still a need to “get [the university] to take some action.”  

A separate lawsuit against UC Berkeley, also filed by the Brandeis Center on behalf of Jewish groups in November 2023, remains under litigation. That lawsuit alleges that the university violated its own policies and federal civil rights laws by allowing discrimination, harassment and physical violence against Jewish students and faculty. Incidents cited include an attack against a Jewish student draped in an Israeli flag by protesters who struck him with a metal water bottle and the distribution of e-mails to Jewish students calling for their gassing and murder. The complaint, filed in San Francisco federal court, was among the first against a major university after the Oct. 7 attacks and ensuing Israel-Hamas war, with similar discrimination lawsuits following at universities nationwide.