Why This Israeli Dance Professor Is Suing Berkeley

In the spring of 2022, Yael Nativ taught an Israeli contemporary dance class as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. It went so well, she said, that she was encouraged to come back in the future. In August 2023, she submitted an application to teach the same class in the 2024–25 academic year.

Her application was rejected.

“My dept cannot host you for a class next fall,” Nativ was told in a November 2023 WhatsApp message from SanSan Kwan, a Berkeley faculty member in the theater, dance, and performance studies department. “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.”