By Lily
It was a quiet, misty morning on October 3, 2025, when a group of UC Berkeley students and union members gathered around Hearst Mining Circle and Oppenheimer Way. California governor Gavin Newsom was to appear at Campbell Hall that morning, and those present planned to protest for him to veto Assembly Bill 715 (AB715).
A Mideast speech cop in Sacramento?
According to its supporters, the bill, titled “Educational equity: discrimination: antisemitism prevention,” was meant to combat the rising number of antisemetic incidents reported across California public schools. AB715 forbids any materials deemed antisemitic by a local superintendent from being used in classrooms, or in a professional development context. It would also establish a statewide Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator to provide direction to local school districts.
AB715 was passed by the California legislature on September 13, and Governor Newsom signed it into law on October 7. However, at the time of the protest, the bill was still waiting for his approval.
The protesters who gathered to meet the governor asserted that the bill’s supporters were not being transparent about its intentions. They feared that, given the history of pro-Palestinian speech being censored on UC campuses across the state, AB715 would be used to silence criticism of Israel or discussion of the genocide in Gaza in K-12 classrooms.
Their fears were sparked by the bill’s broad definition of antisemitism, which includes the “vilification of Jews and Israelis, and distortions of Jewish religion, ancestry, history, and identity.” Speakers at the rally stated that this definition opens the door for punishment of students who speak out against an exclusively Jewish state in Israel and oppression of Palestinians.
Critics of AB715 also expressed concern that this bill would prioritize combatting antisemitism over any other form of discrimination. Across California, hate crimes against many marginalized groups are increasing, with 83% of Californian youth twelve and over having witnessed a hate crime in 2024. Protesters argued that it draws attention away from all other forms of hatred by focusing solely on antisemitism.
Despite criticism from residents across the state, Governor Newsom signed AB715 into California law on October 7, the anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israelis and the subsequent Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Californians did not accept AB715’s passage quietly. Immediately after Governor Newsom signed the bill into law, the California Faculty Association (CFA) published the statement siding with the protesters, fearing that this law will “undermine genuine understandings of antisemitism” and “unnecessarily politicize the educational process.”
Later in October, Berkeley Speaks talked with Antonio, a UC Berkeley student organizer. In the interview, Antonio stated that AB715 opens up the door to an overly-broad definition of antisemitism, which conflates it with “opposition to Israeli apartheid or to genocide of Palestinians.” Antonio expressed a concern that through AB715, California is hoping to silence the majority of the academic critique of Israel, which “comes from an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist lens.” He adds, “What Trump is doing with the Department of Justice and with law enforcement, Gavin Newsom is doing through the legislative process.”
“Students will always make our voices heard”
Despite Assembly Bill 715 passing into law, Antonio and other organizers still saw the October 3 protest as a success, saying that “protesters have garnered attention from the UC system as a whole, and the administration of the UC Berkeley.…You had massive droves of police cars there, you had CHP and BPD. It definitely was a challenge to get the governor’s attention. But all in all, I think that the demonstration that was put on by the students and labor unions on campus was a success. It showed that you can try and hide special appearances from the student body, but no matter what, students will always show up, students will always hear about this, and we will always make our voices heard and organize.around your tyranny and your subversion of our free speech.
“To the powers at play who are consistently trying to silence the voices of the public, whether it be students, the immigrant community, the labor unions here on campus, or our general working class: we will not be silent to your complicity in this ongoing genocide, and your ongoing attempts to subvert us back into pre-established hierarchies. The movement is growing day by day, and it is only a matter of time.”
As AB715 moves into implementation, there will be much struggle across the state over how antisemitism is defined and how the new law balances academic freedom and freedom of speech. This battle is only beginning.
Lily is a UC Berkeley student and reporter for Berkeley Speaks. Her interests orbit labor, immigration, and free speech on campus.