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
In her email, Gould wrote, “it is incumbent upon us to uphold the tenets of academic freedom and allow our students and faculty to engage in dialogue and debate on topics they may choose, even those with which members of our campus and broader community may vehemently disagree.” Her email made clear she was not open to further discussion.
The school provost and the vice president for academic affairs met on Monday with a small group of students, but only after the decision had already been made that the case was closed, and the college president’s memo to that effect had already been delivered.
Rosenberg asserted that the banner of “academic freedom” was being waved by the school administration to condone the political science department’s “efforts to escalate tension on the campus” on this divisive issue and it was a “cover to push a political agenda.” He said, “the students of Brooklyn College will not stand for it.”
So what is it that the Brooklyn College political science department – emphatically and repeatedly- has endorsed? Omar Barghouti will be encouraging all who come to listen that Israel is an Apartheid State, and that there should be no support for it or interaction with it academically, economically or culturally. In a 2010 interview posted on Youtube, we are afforded a good picture.
Barghouti’s YouTube interview is chock-full of falsehoods. For one thing, he says that in its 2004 advisory opinion about the Separation Barrier that Israel erected to prevent terrorism, the International Court of Justice called on “all states to do whatever is possible to take down that wall”; that “there are two sets of laws in Israel, one governing Jewish citizens and one governing the non-Jews”; and that in Israel non-Jews are “discriminated against in every single domain of life,” including being barred from working in the high tech (wrong) or telecommunications fields (wrong), as well as many others.
It is expected that those are the kinds of misrepresentations and untruths that Barghouti will share with his Brooklyn audience. It is, however, unlikely that he will tell them that he attended and has a graduate degree from Tel Aviv university. Some Apartheid State!
When challenged about his decision to do exactly the opposite of what he tells everyone else to do, Barghouti told an Israeli reporter, “My studies at Tel-Aviv University are a personal matter and I have no interest in commenting.” And for the ultimate irony: Tel Aviv University, citing academic freedom, refused the petitions signed by many calling on it to expel Barghouti for his hateful and hurtful calls to boycott Israel.
Having received a flat-footed refusal from Brooklyn College officials to weigh their views before making its decision, a student group has posted an online petition calling on the political science department to rescind its decision to sponsor the event.
UPDATE: The author of this article received an email from Paisley Currah, Chairperson of the Brooklyn College Political Science Department, the content of which is:
The Brooklyn College political science department has released a statement:
Statement, January 30, 2013
A student group at Brooklyn College has organized a panel discussion regarding the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a non-violent response to the State of Israel’s handling of the Palestinian conflict. On college campuses around the country and across the world, this issue is being discussed. Brooklyn College should be no different. The department of political science has thus decided to co-sponsor this event. We encourage students and members of the community to attend, pose their questions, and air their views.
It’ s also online at
http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/schools/socialsciences/undergraduate/polisci.php.
The Jewish Press notes that the “panel” for the “discussion” consists of two members, both of whom seek to convince everyone to engage in the Boycott of, Divestment from, and Sanctioning of Israel. No other viewpoint is being presented or has been endorsed by the Brooklyn College Political Science Department.
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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No Responses to “Brooklyn College Poli-Sci Supporting Academic Boycotts of Israel”
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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.