Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Eliana Johnson appeared Saturday on CNN, where she previewed Israeli lawyer Ran Bar-Yoshafat's return to the University of California, Berkeley. Bar-Yoshafat's first appearance on campus was shut down last month by an anti-Semitic mob, and protesters are again planning to target his Monday speech.
"Mr. Yoshafat had to be evacuated, they broke windows, they physically harassed students," Johnson said of the ordeal. "Mr. Yoshafat is returning to the Berkeley campus on Monday in an attempt to redo this event."
"Protests are planned, and last month, after this happened, the chancellor of Berkeley said this was an attack on the fundamental principles of the university," she continued. "So I'm watching to see who runs this school, is it the protesters, or are the adults in charge there?"
Bar-Yoshafat's first Berkeley event, which was organized by two pro-Israel student groups and scheduled to take place in late February, was abruptly canceled after an anti-Semitic mob rushed the venue. Violent protesters choked a female student attendee, spit in another's face, and shouted "Jew, Jew, Jew."
Berkeley launched a hate crime probe in connection with the event. The school cited "two alleged incidents" of "overtly antisemitic expression," as well as "allegations of physical battery."
Berkeley administrators offered no apology to Bar-Yoshafat in the wake of the violent protest, he told the Free Beacon.