City University of New York (CUNY) is closing its new Center for Justice and Social Equality, after criticism over the offer of credit to graduate students, for watching the film Farha, in which IDF troops are depicted executing a Palestinian family and an infant, as well as its pro-Palestinian exhibition that accused Israel of ethnic cleansing.
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In a protest letter signed by more than 30 members of faculty, addressed to BMCC President Anthony Munroe, Dean of Student Affairs Michael Hutmaker, and VP of Student Affairs Marva Craig and seen by Ynet, the senior staff at CUNY were accused of anti-Muslim bias that is influenced by pro-Zionist and pro-Israel faculty, organizations, and student groups.
In a letter titled "Stop the Censorship; Save the SJEC!" the signatories wrote that the University was closing down the center and firing its staff less than one year since it was opened, despite having funding left from its initial founding grant.
pro-Palestine"The official rationale for this action is financial, but it is clear that the closure is, in fact, in retaliation for a visual timeline and series of events last March focused on the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. That exhibition was taken down and subsequently censured by the BMCC administration in a clear act of capitulation to several baseless complaints by Pro-Israel and Pro-Zionist faculty, organizations, and student groups, such as S.A.F.E. CUNY, JNS, and CAMERA: all groups which have regularly used their influence and intimidation tactics to shut down discussions and criticism of Israel’s many crimes against the Palestinian people," the letter sent to the CUNY leadership said.
CUNY has earned the reputation of being anti-Israel and just last month, made headlines again after Fatima Mohammed, a Law School graduate chosen to represent her class, gave a commencement speech in which she accused Israel of “indiscriminate” murder of children, and applauded CUNY for endorsing BDS and bashing Zionism. After that members of Congress suggested legislation that would cut funding from the public university.
In their letter, the CUNY faculty member said the school and its board of trustees have long been trying to silence the voices of those opposing the occupation, " while allowing Israel’s supporters to freely speak against, to organize against, and to silence the state’s critics at the university. To add insult to the already tremendous injury, administrators are closing down a center committed to racial justice weeks after Juneteenth and are shuttering BMCC’s Pride Center during Pride Month, events that administrators love to publicly honor," the letter said.
"BMCC is home to hundreds of Arab and Muslim students and proclaims itself to be a sanctuary school, but these actions recall the kinds of anti-Muslim discrimination we witnessed after 9/11 and must not be tolerated in our community. Two Muslim workers involved in this center have received hate mail and death threats; rather than protect them, the college administration is firing them."
CUNY which is considered the largest public university in the United States, had last March invited its students in Manhattan to earn credits by attending a festive screening of the "outrageous" Jordanian film Farha. Participation in the Palestinian Solidarity series organized by the university's Center for Justice and Social Equality which also included an exhibition titled "visual timeline of the Occupied Palestinian Land," featuring posters and graphics depicting Palestinian history and the "longest military occupation in History.
The Exhibition presented the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a one-sided perspective and claimed that there was no conflict – "What is happening in Palestine is colonialism, military occupation, land theft, and ethnic cleansing. The word ‘conflict’ implies that there are two equal sides, which is not the case.”
After opposition was expressed on campus, and the reporting on Ynet, the University canceled the screening of the film and issued an apology to students. “We offer our deepest and sincerest apologies to anyone who was offended and felt unsafe,” CUNY said in a statement in May. “We are moving forward now with a renewed commitment to our mission, and we will raise the bar for ourselves, and be more deliberate in making our campus a safe and welcoming setting,” the statement said.
But the public university in New York was not the only academic institution to offer credit for attending a screening of Farha. NYU's law school held a similar screening in February that did not receive the same attention that the protest of students and faculty at CUNY brought when they claimed the Center for Justice and Social Equality has become a source of more anti-Israel and antisemitic activity rather than a safe space for minorities, a trend that has grown on American campuses.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said in a recent report that anti-semitic incidents on campuses were up 41%.