WATCH: Antisemitic Riot at Berkeley City Council Meeting on Holocaust; Mayor Condemns

Joel B. Pollak

An antisemitic riot broke out Tuesday evening at a meeting of the city council of Berkeley, California, that was to have discussed plans for observing Holocaust Remembrance Day in April.

The Jewish Community Relations Council posted video of the ruckus on X (formerly Twitter), noting the anti-Jewish language and actions of the mob.

Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguin condemned the riot on Thursday: “I am outraged over the hateful and deeply antisemitic behavior we saw at Tuesday’s Council meeting. Heckling people including Holocaust survivors, then co-opting its message for an anti-Jewish agenda, threats and hate speech will not be tolerated. We will not be intimidated.”
The University of California Berkeley, which is located in the city, has been a hotbed of radical activism for decades — and has also been one of the most antisemitic campuses in the country since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Jewish students report that they are barred by pro-Palestinian activists from entering the main gate of the campus at certain times of day, and that visibly Jewish students are subject to harassment and bullying.

Earlier this month, Congress announced that it is investigating antisemitism at Berkeley, among other campuses.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.