Patrons attending two sold-out performances of the Batsheva Dance Company at UC Berkeley over the weekend had to run a gauntlet of anti-Israel protesters outside the venue.
Some 40 or 50 protesters flanked police barricades set up outside Zellerbach Hall on Saturday evening, flying Palestinian flags and shouting anti-Israel slogans, decrying Cal’s hosting of an Israeli modern dance company they consider “ambassadors of Israeli genocide,” according to one protester’s sign.
“Intifada, intifada, long live intifada,” one organizer shouted continuously through a microphone as others chanted “shame, shame, shame” at ticket-holders lined up to enter the venue.
The protests, held before and after Batsheva’s performances Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, were part of a boycott of the company’s U.S. tour organized by a group called the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
“Stop Israel’s Dance of Death” was the headline on the social media call to “boycott all cultural and academic institutions funded by the ‘state’ of Israel,” adding that “as one such institution, Batsheva Dance Company is structurally complicit… in Israeli genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”
The Berkeley performances were the Tel Aviv-based company’s second stop on its four-city tour of California and New York with its work “MOMO.”
Barricades were set up on the plaza in front of Zellerbach Hall, with a large police contingent. Before Saturday night’s performance, however, there was no barrier between protesters and those entering the very narrow opening between the steel barricades leading to the hall’s entrance, meaning that protesters could shout their messages literally into patrons’ faces.
‘Zionist criminals is what you are!’ one young protester shouted inches away from people lined up to enter, as he held up his middle finger.
“Zionist criminals is what you are!” one young protester shouted inches away from people lined up to enter, as he held up his middle finger. “How could you waste your money on such shit? What the f— is wrong with you? You sick Jew f—.” Most of the protesters stood back with signs and flags, repeating whatever taunts organizers called out through bullhorns.
“Everyone has the right to their point of view, but I think they are sadly misguided,” Oakland resident Steven Sterman told J. as he stood in the long security line. Patrons were wanded and their bags searched before they entered the hall.
“We’re not here because they’re an Israeli dance company, but because they’re dancers,” added his wife, Pajes Sterman. Waving her hand at the protesters, she said, “This has nothing to do with artists, who are generally very empathetic human beings.”
On the other side of the barricade, protester Lew Williams, 81, held up one side of a large banner reading “Showing Up for Racial Justice,” which he described as a “group of white people supporting people of color.”
“I don’t think it’s right what Israel is doing in Gaza, the genocide,” the Berkeley resident said. “Then they use art to whitewash it, to wash the blood off.”
Another protester, Juliana Monin, 44, of Oakland, said that as a modern dancer herself, she thinks Batsheva is “excellent,” and she “loved” the film “Mr. Gaga,” which celebrates the work of company choreographer Ohad Naharin.
But, she continued, “I object to the use of dance as cultural diplomacy to obfuscate our awareness of what’s going on.”
Still, “I want everyone to be safe. I don’t think kids in hospitals should be bombed. But that’s not incompatible with wanting Israelis to be safe, too.”
Monin was later spotted draped with a sign reading “Dancers Against Apartheid.”
One young man riding by on his bicycle stopped to ask what was going on. Identifying himself as Jack, a freshman at UC Berkeley, he said, “I can get why [the protesters] are doing it, but I don’t agree with it because this is just a dance show. There’s nothing Zionist about it.”
When people exited the hall after Saturday’s performance, police had moved the barricade so protesters were kept about 10 feet away. They still banged on pot lids and shouted insults, but could not approach attendees.
That same system was in effect at Sunday’s matinee. “Every plan is good until it’s not, and then you have to be ready to adapt,” Cal spokesperson Dan Mogulof told J., commenting on the change from Saturday evening’s show.
Confirming that the police were from UC Berkeley and other UC campuses, and were supplemented by private security, Mogulof said that Cal’s “security objective is to ensure safe entry and exit for the audience, do everything to ensure performances are not disrupted, and ensure First Amendment rights for all are respected.”
The Cal campus has been the site of many anti-Israel protests since Oct. 7, 2023, notably when a violent mob outside the Zellerbach Playhouse disrupted the planned speech of an Israeli attorney and former reservist in February 2024, forcing the speaker and attendees to escape through underground passages.
Batsheva canceled its spring 2024 U.S. tour, including a scheduled appearance at Cal, because of the war in Gaza.
In response to this year’s boycott call, the American Friends of Batsheva sent a statement to J. saying, “Batsheva Dance Company has been the target of calls for boycott in its international tours, yet we believe that cultural boycotts are not an effective means of fostering dialogue which is essential to promote a shared future of peace and dignity for all in our region.”