Brooklyn College Poli-Sci Supporting Academic Boycotts of Israel
Latest update: April 16th, 2013
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BC Pol. Sci. Asst. Professor Corey Robin
SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE
The Brooklyn College political science department is officially and emphatically endorsing an on-campus Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) anti-Israel program at which Brooklyn College students and the public will be forcefully encouraged to endorse and promote BDS against the state of Israel.
The featured speakers at the February 7 event will be Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the global BDS movement who falsely claims that Israel is an Apartheid State with a “separate legal system for non-Jewish citizens,” and Judith Butler, a virulently anti-Israel academic who speaks sympathetically of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
One focus of the BDS movement is the boycott of Israeli academics. It seeks to bar Israeli academics from participation in journals, research, public lectures and teaching. Yet Brooklyn College’s political science department is supporting this event without any qualifications. In fact, other than BC’s Students for Justice in Palestine, the political science department is the only endorsing organization officially affiliated with Brooklyn College.
Ironically, given its promotion of an event that would silence academics, BC’s Poli-Sci department is defending its involvement in the event by invoking “academic freedom.”
There are two problems with this: first, the contradictory juxtaposition of academic freedom and a ban on professors because of their national origin; and second, a point repeatedly mentioned by the student leaders, the fact that the event has nothing to do with the free exchange of ideas. Instead, it is a heavy-handed promotion of only one side of an extremely divisive issue.
According to Jeremy Thompson, the school’s official spokesperson, the Brooklyn College administration supports the political science department’s decision to engage in this event as it supports the right of “every department, faculty member and student group to choose what events they want to be associated with.” However, Thompson said, the school itself is not endorsing the event. Thompson explained that the school’s official position is not to endorse the views of any speaker at a school event. When pressed, Thompson agreed that even if President Obama were speaking at a BC event, the administration would not support or endorse that event.
In contrast, the political science department is not only sponsoring the event, it has publicly and officially endorsed the views of the speakers. Thompson was quoted in the New York Post on Sunday, saying that just because the political science department is sponsoring the event, it does not necessarily mean it is endorsing the event. But the day after that article aired, Thompson told The Jewish Press, all the flyers and notices for the event were changed to reflect those who had been previously listed as “sponsors” to being listed as “endorsers.” Got it.
From the time the story of the Brooklyn College pro-BDS event broke, most of those quoted or publicly speaking out have been trustees or professors or pro-Israel professionals. By and large, the focus of those outside of the student world is that the BDS event should not be held at Brooklyn College at all. Most agree that the BDS movement, and in particular the two speakers, Barghouti and Butler, are not content with merely criticizing Israel, but rather want Israel to disappear as a Jewish State.
Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a trustee of the City Univerity of New York system, of which Brooklyn College is a part, penned a scorching opinion piece in the Algemeiner. It’s headline: “Taxpayer Funded BDS at CUNY is Illegitimate, Racist and Anti-Semitic.”
And Carrie Idler — an adjunct professor in the BC speech and communications department, who attended Brooklyn College, as did her husband, three of her four siblings, as well as her children — took exception to the idea that hosting the event at Brooklyn College is appropriate because it embodies ‘freedom of speech.’”
Idler told The Jewish Press, “boycotting academics is the opposite of free speech. It symbolizes the silencing of people based on their race and religion.” What’s more, she added, “it smacks frightfully of the same intolerance that Jewish Academics met in the early to mid-nineteen thirties throughout Europe as the Nazis rose to power. No one spoke up then, and we know how badly that turned out. I, therefore, know that if I do not speak up now I will be complicit.”
tell a friendAbout the Author: Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the US correspondent for The Jewish Press. She is a recovered lawyer who previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools.
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The headline is misleading: Brooklyn College as an institution is not sponsoring the conference; one department is. Not that that is excusable!
It's just painful that such idiots are employed at the university level.
Headline's been changed.
This is worse than last year's infamous anti-Israel conference at Harvard because that one had no official university connection and didn't even appear on the unversity calendar. To have a political science department sponsor something like this???
This is worse than last year's infamous anti-Israel conference at Harvard because that one had no official university connection and didn't even appear on the unversity calendar. To have a political science department sponsor something like this???
As an alumni of Brooklyn College I just sent the following e-mail to the three e-mails listed on page two: "Hi,
I just heard about the political science department supporting an academic boycott of Israel. As an alumni of Brooklyn College I was absolutely flabbergasted. I was born in the ashes of the holocaust. Many of my co-students in the late sixties were just like me. While the world has gone back to the antisemitism of the thirties, I never expected Brooklyn College to join the chorus of hate mongers. And please, do not send me one of those disingenuous e-mails about academic freedom. That is the logic of Goebbels. Come on Karen. Why would you stealthily announce this in the dead of the winter break, without any opposition input and declare it is final, without knowing that you are doing something wrong? Can't wait till you visit us here in Florida so that we can let you know what we think.
This story needs to be spread to other avenues before Feb. 7 e.g. Arutz Sheva Jpost etc. Does anybody know how to get this info to them?
I AM CALLING FOR A NATIONAL BOYCOTT BY JEWS OF ANY INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST PROGRAM WHERE HATIKAVAH IS INTENTIONALLY EXLUDED DUE TO MUSLIM PRESSURE OR CLERGY WHO SUPPORT THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE. PLEASE GET THE WORD OUT. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG
what is the world coming to!
Looking forward to attending this conference.
Look forward to your mother, look fwd to that!
Looking forward to attending this conference.
These people are basically Nazis. No other word for this.
Gabor, upon reading your post, I was not sure to whom you were referring. I viewed your profile and was relieved to see that you are truly pro-Israel. I urge you to clarify your message and also to refrain from using the term "Nazis" to describe people not involved in the Holocaust or in activity rooted in Nazism (Islamofascism, for example). Those supporting the event at Brooklyn College are ignorant and/or evil in their promotion of hate-filled propaganda and incitement to violence. Am Yisrael Chai! Buddy
OK, but just cast your glance a few inches below to brenrod's 3rd comment and you will see that what I say is largely corrrect in light of those facts detailed in the comment…
The joke is that EVERY area of the former Palestine mandate territory, which is currently under arab control(Jordan, west bank PA and gaza), is JEW FREE. You cant have apartheid agianst jews when they don't let jews in at all. Facts are an inconvenience to the ignorant and the ignorant are "useful idiots" for the disingenuous.
one should look into the individuals in the political science dept who rammed this through in typical fashion. The ramming through BDS while no one is looking has become the modus operandi of the disingenuous BDS movement. Academic freedom is their red herring. To see the truth look into the individuals.
"readers may recall Professor Corey Robin from his most famous student: terrorist Syed Hashmi. Robin and Brooklyn College Professor Jeanne Theoharis have led a movement to support Hashmi, who admits to having assisted al Qaeda. Hashmi is serving 15 years in prison. According to Phil Orenstein in Frontpagemag, Hashmi became radicalized while he was Robin’s student." gooogle them!
I AM CALLING FOR A NATIONAL BOYCOTT BY JEWS OF ANY INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST PROGRAM WHERE HATIKAVAH IS INTENTIONALLY EXLUDED DUE TO MUSLIM PRESSURE OR CLERGY WHO SUPPORT THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE. PLEASE GET THE WORD OUT. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG. I have bowed out of the local interfaith Holocaust service, because it was a custom to include Hatikvah at the end, but now some Christian groups object as they support the Palestinians and the Muslim Imams would either sit or leave during the Hatikvah. Perhaps interfaith Holocaust programs no longer make sense, at least to me. I do not need the stress of seeing disrespect being afforded to Israel and nor do I wish to compromise by leaving Hatikvah out. This is a personal choice and I DO NOT ADVOCATE ANYONE NOT PARTICIPATING IN ANY INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST SERVICE. I INTRODUCED INTERFAITH HOLOCAUST SERVICES IN 1974 AND WAS ONE OF THE FIRST IF NOT THE FIRST TO DO SO. This was a difficult decision for me based on personal principle. The interfaith Holocaust memorials started as well intentioned way for the Jewish people and other groups to pause and reflect on man's capacity to perpetuate unbelievable cruelty against his fellow and to commiserate as a group and oHolocaust survivors and athers, with the Jews and hopefully prevent this nightmare from reoccurring. Over the years it was understandably modified to include other victims of genocidal mass killings, though these mass killings were not really analogous, as the Nazis were obsessed at not just killing Jews as a competing group, but Hitler desired to eliminate our creed and it's pervasive influence on humanity, particularly Christian doxy. As a result of Muslim participation and twisted liberalism, this is morphing into a twisted canard where Israel is being blamed for perpetuating ethnic killings against the Palestinians as the Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis. One can understand the Islamo-Nazis belief system with a quote from the Talmud. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG, CHILD OF refugee born in a D.P. camp.
I would assume that those in the political science department have brilliant minds. However, for them to have no fear of God who said He would curse those who curse Israel, to have no fear of the repercussions of not believing God, sounds oxymoronic. They are not thinking this through. For those at the school who say they don't endorse, but allow this….you are complicit. 483years.blogspot.com
I'm definitely reducing or eliminating any future contributions to the BC Alumni Association if the Poli Sci Dept. or scholl doesn't endorse a pro-Israel event.