Friday’s UC Berkeley law school commencement ceremony began with an offstage speaker offering a cautionary note: “Disruptions of any kind are not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”

The law school has for the entire school year been a crucible of controversy involving attitudes and action over the Israel-Hamas war and the boundaries of free speech.

That tumult continued Friday as 692 students gathered to receive their diplomas at an often cacophonous ceremony at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley.

The warning was ignored as soon as the law school’s dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, opened the ceremony. Several students silently stood and turned their backs on Chemerinsky, taking off their black gowns to reveal white shirts that spelled out “UC Divest.” 

One of the students was Malak Afaneh, who drew national headlines in April when she stood in the backyard of Chemerinsky and law professor Catherine Fisk during a dinner celebrating soon-to-be graduates and started reading a speech protesting the war in Gaza. Fisk tried to take the mic from her, and Chemerinsky asked her to leave. Video of the incident went viral, leading to conversations about the boundaries of free speech.  

The New Yorker and others probed the incident, and Chemerinsky wrote an Atlantic piece titled “No One Has a Right to Protest in My Home.” 

Before the dinner, caricatures of Chemerinsky, depicting his hands holding a bloody knife and fork, captioned “No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves” were posted around the law school and on social media.

That was only the latest time that the law school had been in the public spotlight for something other than educating future lawyers. 

In October, law professor Steven Davidoff Solomon accused student groups of antisemitism for refusing to invite speakers who support Zionism. He made a bold suggestion to law firms in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece: “Don’t Hire My Anti-Semitic Law Students.”

Some of that fallout began before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

UC Berkeley organizations, led by Law Students for Justice in Palestine, adopted bylaws in August 2022 saying they would not host pro-Zionist speakers, who describe Israel as a Jewish state, and would support a boycott of goods made in Israel. The policy was endorsed by nine of about 100 groups in the 1,100-student law school, and Solomon said 11 more groups now support it. 

In November, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Zionist organization, filed suit, accusing the law school of promoting antisemitism by allowing the policy. In March, the Republican-controlled House Labor and Workforce Committee announced an investigation into allegations of antisemitism at UC Berkeley. 

All of those open wounds bled into Friday’s ceremony.

In an acknowledgement in the commencement program, the class of 2024’s co-presidents wrote that they were initially going to write “a series of platitudes about perseverance and overcoming generalized notions of adversity … then we promptly realized that would be boring. To be quite honest, for many in the class of 2024, that was rough.” 

The commencement was equally rough at times.

Twenty minutes into the ceremony, several audience members stood up as Chemerinsky introduced professor Talha Syed, the faculty member chosen by the graduating students to speak. Audience members chanted, “Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!” for several minutes. The vast majority of audience members booed them. Many yelled, “Sit down!” and “Let them graduate.”

About 10 minutes later, as Chemerinsky tried to introduce the commencement speaker, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, a different group of audience members stood up and chanted, “Free Palestine” and other calls for divestment. Again, audience members booed. The demonstrators continued chanting through Prelogar’s 25-minute speech. 

Private security guards approached the demonstrators, but one told another that he had received an order to “stand down,” and they backed off. The demonstrators remained throughout the ceremony. Afterward, Chemerinsky thanked Prelogar for her “perseverance” in delivering her speech.

Reaction to the demonstrations among those who came to support graduating friends and family was a mix of frustration, resignation and curiosity. One woman sitting in front of a group of demonstrators, who asked not to be identified, said, “I was trying to meditate and sit with my thoughts as they kept chanting.”

Another woman, Arlene, an 80-year-old who traveled from Oregon to see her grandson graduate, said the demonstrations were disruptive, “but I ignored them. I always think that half of these protesters don’t know what they’re actually protesting about.” She declined to give her last name.

Noah Armstrong, an MBA student from Texas Tech University who traveled to Berkeley to watch his friend graduate, was happy the demonstrators didn’t chant while the graduates’ names were called. Afterward, he said he spoke with some of the demonstrators to try to learn more about their point of view.

But Armstrong was sure of one thing. If a protest like this had happened in Texas? “Oh, it would get shut down right away.” 

Chemerinsky handed out diplomas to students as they crossed the stage, shaking their hands and embracing a few, as the line proceeded without incident. Afaneh unfurled a Palestinian flag as she crossed the stage to cheers. 

The two did not shake hands.

Reach Joe Garofoli: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @joegarofoli