Professors urge NYU to divest from Israeli occupation
April 15, 2015
NYU Out of Occupied Palestine released a petition signed by 130 NYU professors, calling for the university’s divestment from Israeli business partners that benefit from occupation in Palestine.
The petition takes its cue from the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that is gaining momentum among student governments, especially in the University of California system. However, the aims of the NYU Out of Occupied Palestine petition are more limited, seeking only divestment from companies that are linked to Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank, targeting corporations like Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard.
The petition alleges that NYU is likely to have investments in companies that play a supporting role in the continued Israeli presence in Palestinian areas.
“There is good reason to believe that NYU is invested in companies which contribute to or profit from — and thus help perpetuate — Israel’s ongoing occupation and illegal settlement of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, its military and economic siege of Gaza and its denial of the most basic human and civil rights to the 4.5 million Palestinians who live in these occupied Palestinian territories,” the petition reads. “We therefore believe that NYU must divest itself of any holdings it may have in such companies.”
NYU Out of Occupied Palestine describes itself on the petition’s webpage as a coalition of NYU faculty and students that believe NYU should not invest in companies that give money to and profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Professor Jeff Goodwin, one of the petition’s signatories, said he sees no reason why universities should devote funds to companies that allegedly support illegal occupation in Palestine.
“I don’t think anyone should have money invested in corporations that are doing bad things,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin also said he was not aware of any organized faculty effort behind the petition.
“A lot of faculty have signed it, and that’s all I know,” Goodwin said.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an outspoken pro-Israeli activist, leveled charges of prejudice and hypocrisy at the professors who signed the petition. In February, he criticized NYU Hillel for refusing to support a speech by Israel’s U.N. ambassador Ron Prosor. He also rejected the comparison between Israel and apartheid-era South Africa.
“Any professor who calls Israel an apartheid state is guilty of ignorance, moral blindness and an assault on the sacred memory of Nelson Mandela, who they are of necessity comparing to Yasser Arafat,” Boteach said. “Mandela was a man of peace who brought together people of different races in harmony and equality. Hamas, however, is dedicated in their charter to the genocide of Jewish people wherever they may be found.”
Professor Harvey Molotch, however, largely concurred with the comparison. He cited the disparity in living conditions between Israel and Palestine as a major factor in his decision to sign the petition.
“The two societies are dramatically stratified and unequal in terms of material resources, political rights and access to the outside world,” Molotch said. “So in that sense, the analogy holds water.”
NYU Out of Occupied Palestine plans to continue its already existing allyship with NYU Divest and the Coalition for Fair Labor at NYU to ask for more transparency when it comes to the university administration.
A version of this article appeared in the Wednesday, April 15 print edition. Email Ned Harrell at [email protected].
Kim Hsun • Nov 9, 2015 at 6:08 pm
Why only Palestine though? Why not Kurdistan or Eritrea or Tibet or even Kashmir? Most of the students screaming Free Palestine over and over again seem to know or care very little about these other stateless nations. Why ever so?
Also, I’ve noticed that many Arabs and Muslims at NYU seem strongly united against Israel…while the Jews here seem so silent on it and on so many other issues. Very interesting.
Arafat • Apr 17, 2015 at 10:08 am
Hey A**hole Professors,
This one is for you…
++
There are two UN refugee agencies in the world: First is the United Nations Relief and Works Administrations (UNRWA) for 5 million Palestinian refugees (which includes the descendants of the original 500,000 Palestinian refugees from the Israeli War of Independence) which employs 30,000 workers. The UNRWA has resettled no Palestinians.
The second refugee agency is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which assists every other refugee in the world–including 100 million displaced people during the last 50 years–and employs 7,000 people. The UNHCR has resettled tens of millions of refugees.
Looking at these numbers, one would think that the cause of the Palestinians is somehow morally superior to that of all other war refugees. After all, why have so many more workers been assisting a dramatically smaller group of people? But if the Palestinians are unique it is only because of their moral inferiority, as they are the only group of refugees that regularly commit acts of terrorism against innocent civilians.
Another obvious question: why hasn’t the UNRWA resettled any of the Palestinian refugees? The answer, of course, is that the surrounding Arab states would rather have these refugees remain a thorn in Israel’s side, than help them start a new life. The UNRWA is happy to oblige.
Ayana Milford • Apr 16, 2015 at 10:08 pm
This is outrageous. 130 faculty members out of how many thousands? If Jewish-Professors-For-Israel were a group, everyone except tenured faculty would be fired. What is going on here? NYU was founded by two Jews, is supported by Jewish money and professors, many of whom don’t have a “pony in the show” feel so comfortable signing a document that will hurt the lives and livelihoods of so many. Moral equivalency between what Israel has “purportedly” done and the horrors that have been heaped upon Israel? If Israeli “terrorists” killed innocent Muslims celebrating a religious holiday, (see terror at Passover Seder), if Israeli “terrorists” rushed into a Muslim wedding, (see terror at Israeli Bar Mitzvah), if Israeli “terrorists” stormed a Halal market in Paris, (see Paris Kosher Mart, January 2015), the world would bomb Israel off the face of the earth. There’s only one opinion allowed at NYU – hate the Israelis, hate the Jews. How “freeing” is must feel for people, neither Muslim nor Israeli, to sit in their ivory towers and sign petitions that have nothing to do with their lives or the lives of their people. This is so abhorrent. Am still waiting for NYU to “deal” with the palestinian student group that terrorized two largely Jewish dorms last spring. That story seems to have gotten buried. Am going to order SodaStreams for everyone in my family.
Gallatin was a Gentile • Apr 18, 2015 at 3:10 pm
NYU was founded by Albert Gallatin, a European of Swiss Protestant stock, certainly not a Jew. Although the modern Board of Trustees certainly has a lot of Jews on it. The Gallatin School of Individualized Study and Albert (Student ID system) is named after the founder.
No Evidence of Apartheid in Israel • Apr 16, 2015 at 5:35 pm
If the Palestinians had any interest in bettering themselves, they’d have done so. Their situation west of the Jordan is solely a creation of their very own. They own it. They are proud about it, so why do these professors deny them the dignity of sacrificing themselves for the sake of destroying Israel, as is their proudly stated goal?
Is Israel An Apartheid State?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=Eupkfyd1ulc&NR=1
N.A. • Apr 19, 2015 at 2:27 am
The crisis between Israel and Palestine comes from a history of war between both parties involved. But, the media would have you believe that there are no atrocities being committed on the part of the Israelis. In fact, if you look at number of deaths, the numbers are disproportionately weighed against the Palestinians. Less than 100 Israelis died last year compared to thousands of Palestinians. Don’t be so quick to judge when you know nothing of the opposite side.
http://www.peterloud.co.uk/palestine/
Islamofascism • Apr 16, 2015 at 5:30 pm
Context for this evil effort is most likely found at
The Black Book of the American Left: Volume IV: Islamo-Fascism and the War Against the Jews
http://www.blackbookoftheamericanleft.com/volume-iv
The following is from the Introduction:
The most interesting revelations of the Islamo-Fascism campaign were the tacit alliances revealed between the campus Islamists and a broad spectrum of the progressive left. Those on the left who did not actively protest against our events were still not ready to welcome a debate over the appropriateness of the term, or to stand up for our right to express such a view without being subject to vilification; nor were “liberal” faculty members willing to invite us to university platforms to discuss our case. We were universally treated as unwanted intruders in the academic environment. Unlike the Israel-hating “apartheid” weeks organized by the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine, our events received no support from campus administrators or faculty. Instead, the academic community tolerated vicious personal attacks, reckless slanders and even physical threats—all of which violated the “principles of community” and “diversity” it claimed to honor—against the students who organized our events. In any other case, such behavior would have called forth stern admonitions and disciplinary actions from university authorities; but in this case they elicited none. No university or faculty spokesman or organization came to the defense of the students who held the events, or spoke up for their right to express opinions without being subjected to malicious slanders and threats. The campus press also showed itself to be a one-party affair, printing one-sided misrepresentations of what transpired, providing a platform for smears of speakers and student organizers alike, and denying a platform to the targets of this malice when they sought to defend themselves and set the record straight. These attacks were common to every event our students organized, despite the fact that our Islamo-Fascism Awareness Weeks focused on the oppression of women and other minority groups in Islam as their official themes.
JewHatredonCampus • Apr 16, 2015 at 5:13 pm
This evil is another example of why there is now finally an organization called jewhatredoncampus.org and has been for quite a number of years campus-watch.org
FactsRule • Apr 16, 2015 at 5:08 pm
These professors obviously could care less about the so-called Palestinians who suffer only because of themselves, as has been documented for decades at palwatch.org.
They’d rather bash Israel, which, besides being a distraction, silly, & anti-Semitic, ignores the entire history of the past 48 years. During that time, Israel has done nothing but foolishly attempt to accommodate, appease, enrich, &, as of at least the 1991 Madrid Conference, give statehood to the overwhelmingly genocidal Arab Muslims. The results have been the murder, serious injury, injury, displacement, & dispossession of millions of innocent people, almost exclusively non-Muslims. And, the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars of desperately needed national treasure.
There is no evidence that the overwhelmingly genocidal Arab Muslims illegally living west of the Jordan River will ever be satisfied with less than all of that land, as their official maps absent the state of Israel show.
Israel is the only entity with any and all rights to the land west of the Jordan River, as is detailed at Legal Rights and Title of Sovereignty of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel and Palestine under International Law
Howard Grief
http://www.acpr.org.il/ENGLISH-NATIV/02-issue/grief-2.htm
When Israel was building homes & much of the infrastructure in so-called Palestinian communities, Arabfat went running with his rifle to the UN to protest Israel bettering the lives of the so-called Palestinians. The world community, instead of not listening to the Egyptian, Arabfat, allows the UN to give endless generations of so-called Palestinians a permanent status as refugees. It’s why the leadership of the so-called Palestinian has skimmed billions for many decades.
See, From Time Immemorial, by Joan Peters
Daniel Pipes disputes those who question some of her material, but no one has written anything like From Time Immemorial. It is the best book written on the history & false assumptions of history of the so-called Palestinians.
The focus and highest aspiration of the overwhelming vast majority of so-called Palestinians is not an education, good job, nice family life, but to murder as many Israelis as possible in fulfillment of Chapter 9 of the Koran, The Verses of the Sword. They call for there to be one Islamic nation worldwide at the expense of the lives of all non-Muslims. Chapter 9, the 2nd to last chronologically, supersedes, abrogates all earlier temperate verses, according to all universally recognized Muslim authorities since the beginning of Islam.
More at http://www.inquiryintoislam.com/2010/06/do-islamic-texts-encourage-violence.html
Check-out Women in Palestinian Society, http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=587
This attack on Israel instead of the overwhelmingly genocidal so-called Palestinians is so very, very evil, evil, evil!
thereligionofpeace.com has documented almost 26,000 Muslim attacks in the name of Islam since 9/11/01. That is not nearly all of the attacks, just most. Many attacks include the death & injury of many people. So, millions have been harmed by Muslims worldwide since Sept. 11, 2001.
The so-called Palestinians, whose organizations are all spin-offs of the Muslim Brotherhood, have been murdering & injuring Jews on the tiny strip of land west of the Jordan River since the 1930’s. They invented skyjacking terrorism.
The current leader of the so-called Palestinians is Mahmoud Abbas, who was a terrorist involved in the Munich Olympics Massacre.
Here he is a few years ago taking credit for sending the terrorists into Israel to mass murder, which they did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sehBvmjePC8
Jody Coletta • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:28 pm
I am from New York and am familiar with NYU and it’s reputation. I look on this pseudo “I am an intellectual professor from NYU ..so listen to me” garbage as completely an sbuse of their positions as Employees of the University..yes simply employees who should not be using their affiliation (ie: jobs) (with hopefully approved curriculums ) as an opportunity to spout their personal opinions. They are unconscionable ..out of order and innaorooriare un their actions. In addition they are just playing off of the “crap” we see “performed” at other universities by “baitors” of the most reprehensible kind..loud and rude and disrespectful . I submit that if you “professor – types ” are so concerned about how your ” place of employment” ..not your personal “platform” take a paycut or resign from salaried staff if you are not happy that funding for your salaries FOR YOUR JOB…that is all.. your job ..is not attained in a fair nsnner. If you think this is “dirty” money..then stand your griund..do not take the money they pay you and stop being such a oseudo-intelle tial and ignorant group of hypocrites. Truly..let us see you NOT TAKE the monry…hey ??
Jody Coletta • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:27 pm
I am from New York and am familiar with NYU and it’s reputation. I look on this pseudo “I am an intellectual professor from NYU ..so listen to me” garbage as completely an sbuse of their positions as Employees of the University..yes simply employees who should not be using their affiliation (ie: jobs) (with hopefully approved curriculums ) as an opportunity to spout their personal opinions. They are unconscionable ..out of order and innaorooriare un their actions. In addition they are just playing off of the “crap” we see “performed” at other universities by “baitors” of the most reprehensible kind..loud and rude and disrespectful . I submit that if you “professor – types ” are so concerned about how your ” place of employment” ..not your personal “platform” take a paycut or resign from salaried staff if you are not happy that funding for your salaries FOR YOUR JOB…that is all.. your job ..is not attained in a fair nsnner. If you think this is “dirty” money..then stand your griund..do not take the money they pay you and stop being such a oseudo-intelle tial and ignorant group of hypocrites. Truly..let us see you NOT TAKE the monry…hey ??
Jody Coletta • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:25 pm
I am from New York and am familiar with NYU and it’s reputation. I look on this pseudo “I am an intellectual professor from NYU ..so listen to me” garbage as completely an sbuse of their positions as Employees of the University..yes simply employees who should not be using their affiliation (ie: jobs) (with hopefully approved curriculums ) as an opportunity to spout their personal opinions. They are unconscionable ..out of order and innaorooriare un their actions. In addition they are just playing off of the “crap” we see “performed” at other universities by “baitors” of the most reprehensible kind..loud and rude and disrespectful . I submit that if you “professor – types ” are so concerned about how your ” place of employment” ..not your personal “platform” take a paycut or resign from salaried staff if you are not happy that funding for your salaries FOR YOUR JOB…that is all.. your job ..is not attained in a fair nsnner. If you think this is “dirty” money..then stand your griund..do not take the money they pay you and stop being such a oseudo-intelle tial and ignorant group of hypocrites. Truly..let us see you NOT TAKE the monry…hey ??
serena • Apr 18, 2015 at 12:20 pm
I strongly suggest to learn to read and write at a 1st grade level before attempting to criticize academics who are far more educated than you. You are also apparently too stupid to realize NYU Professors are not being paid by Israel in any way, this is a private university. Maybe you should enroll in a class at your local Community College so you can learn the basics before struggling to form an opinion. Cheers!
Ayana Milford • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:04 pm
Why did you erase my comments? I don’t have a website. I am extremely pro-Israel and as an alumnus will never give another dime to your school. By the way, Israel is on the brink of discovering cures for colon and uterine cancer. Hope none of your community expects to partake. And yes – when you are anti-Israel, you are anti-Semitic. This is not for the non-Jews to determine, by the way
Ayana Milford • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:00 pm
Am outraged at this. Will never give a penny to alumni association again. My dad’s a faculty member and he’s signing a petition to support Israel. This university would fall apart if not for the Jews. And yes – if you are anti-Israel, you are anti-Semitic.
Andrew • Apr 16, 2015 at 1:28 pm
Shows that the students can’t get an education if the educators are illiterate!
Amused Gentile • Apr 16, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Lol of course the Rabbi is upset, he is a Zionist. Notice how every time someone speaks out against Israeli apartheid, the Jews start rapidly foaming at the mouth. Time to face reality….
tom • Apr 16, 2015 at 1:59 pm
israeli apartheid?! israel has an arab minority of over 10%, whose civil rights are guaranteed by law. and the 3rd largest party in the israeli knesset is the united arab list. (in addition to arab members of other parties, and government ministers, etc.)
there are about as many blacks in america (roughly 12%). and yet there isn’t a single party for black people in apartheid america. and in the meantime, the “palestinians”, who don’t even have a country yet, have already started ethnically cleansing christians, and have declared that they will not tolerate even a single jew in their land. (they’ve already made it a capital offence to sell property to a jew.)
makes me kind of wonder who’s the one foaming at the mouth, doesn’t it?
Arafat • Apr 17, 2015 at 10:05 am
Muslims make up 17% of Israel’s demographics.
It’s interesting to note there is not one single Muslim Middle Eastern country with a non-Muslim population totaling 17% other than Lebanon. And Lebanon’s Christian minority is under constant pressure from Hezbollah…it is a fast shrinking population.
serena • Apr 18, 2015 at 12:15 pm
LOL you are too stupid to even know what “apartheid” means actually. Black people don’t need a separate party in America; we have a Black president in case you haven’t noticed for 7 years now. Will Israel ever have a Muslim President?
Francine Lashinsky • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:12 pm
When the N.Y.U. professors refer to the Judea and Sumeria as “occupied territories” I want to know when the Arabs had a government there, a monetary system or anything resembling a functioning country. The so-called Palestinians were also Jews who lived there since biblical times and through the British Mandate. The Muslims want the Jews and Christians out of the Middle East and are rewriting history to suit their needs. They have done such a good PR job that the entire anti-Jewish world has bought it. The Nazi Minister of propaganda said that if you repeat a lie often enough. people will believe it.
Ramzay • Apr 16, 2015 at 10:35 am
What a “man of character” that prof. Harvey Molotch! The guy regularly and proudly contributes to the Goebbelsian Russia Today.
Eric Birnbaum • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:35 am
So NYU’s faculty is infested with 130 bigoted, ignorant fools. Why would any sane person want to send their children to such a vile place?
tom • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:04 pm
with the emphasis on ignorant. israel withdrew from gaza in 2005, in the hopes of trading “land for peace’, and got 20,000 qassam rockets instead.
but never let facts stand in the way of bashing the jooz, especially in the name of “progressive” causes, like genocidal islamist terrorists.
Ayana Milford • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:06 pm
Amen.
Arafat • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:13 am
Harvey & Jeff,
I feel sorry for you when I read your so
called moderation. With due respect, you have the typical historical Jewish
minority, “PLEASE LIKE ME” complex and it is so pitiful to read.
Throughout Jewish History especially in Nazi
Germany there were those Jews who begged to be accepted and liked by the host
country’s people. “Like me and I will eat ham for you on Yom Kippur. Like
me and I will put up a Christmas tree and call it a Hanukah Bush, like me and I
will only pray one day a week, Sunday if you wish (the early German Reformed
Jews), etc.” The first Jews to be gassed by Hitler were those Reformers
(“please like me…”) who were viewed as a major threat by Hitler and
his Jew hating Nazis.
Fast forward to today: Here you are
apologizing for Israel who is expected to live a double standard. Never mind
the rockets and atrocities implemented by the Palestine people. If you read
your history parts of Jordan are supposed to include part of Palestine–the
world has convenient amnesia with this one. In the meantime here you are with
your “please like me” attitude and no matter what you do they are NOT
going to like you. You can stand on your head, eat ham and cheese sandwiches and
they are still going to hate you because you are a Jew, period!
Look in the mirror and accept that you are a
Jew. Say it to yourself over and over and perhaps YOU can accept YOURSELF.
Remember, if Israel disappears (the Jewish Host country) there IS NO place for
American Jews or the World Jewish community to go in the event of another
pogrom, anti-Semitic uprising or Holocaust. If there is another anti-Semitic
uprising you are a Jew to these people no matter how much you apologize or try
to appease them.
Ayana Milford • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:06 pm
Thank you. You speak the truth
? • Apr 18, 2015 at 12:50 pm
So Arafat I am not Jewish or any kind of religion so I must ask: why do Jews abstain from ham/pork but don’t follow any of the other laws prescribed in Deuteronomy and Leviticus? I don’t understand the point of keeping kosher if you are also not going to abstain from mixed-blend fabrics and avoid seats where menstruating women might have once sat. Why do Jews cherry-pick which laws they follow from the Hebrew Bible?
I never understood why Jews and Muslims are at odds because their religions seem to be so similar in their bizarre rules.
Arafat • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:12 am
Some Jews fought with the Greeks and Romans against their fellow Jews. Some sympathized with the crusades and the pogroms. Some Jews even supported the Nazis leading up to World War II.
The story is no different today. There is still a very small – but vocal – minority of Jews who sympathize with those who want to kill us. There is still a fringe sect of Jewish society that finds it necessary to love those who seek to kill us and blame us for our enemies’ baseless hatred.
These views include comparing the Jewish state to the Nazis, calling for the isolation of the only Jewish state and holding it to an impossible standard, and calling for the annihilation of Jewish self-determination.
Arafat • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:11 am
Google “gays” and “Palestinians” to see how gay people are treated by the people who are calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. The first search result is titled, “Palestinian gays flee to Israel”
Google “Palestinian” and “honor killings” to see how women are treated by the people who are calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel.
If you are a femalel student (or alumna) who is thinking about going to “Palestine” to help protest against the Evil Zionists, I suggest that you first read “Female Palestinian Peace Activists Suffer Sexual Harassment, Rape From Palestinians” (just Google on the title). You might want to reconsider.
As a final note, look up Israel’s and the Palestinians’ relative political and civil rights ratings at Freedomhouse.org. Israel’s are close to the best possible while those under both Hamas and Fatah are almost the worst possible.
Now, please explain to me again who is guilty of crimes, apartheid policies (e.g. dhimmis or second-class citizens in countries under militant Islamic rule), and so on. I have not even touched on the Palestinians’ long litany of mindless terroristic violence including the Munich Massacre, the massacre of the Fogel family including young children in their beds, and so on.
Arafat • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:10 am
• In the world of the BDS (Bigoted, Discriminatory Scumbags) movement, Palestinian nationalism is OK, Muslim nationalism is OK, Arab nationalism is OK, but Jewish nationalism is evil and must be erased/destroyed.
And in the world of BDS, democracies are OK, except if they result in a Jewish state. So, if people vote, and choose to define their state as Muslim, or Arab, that’s OK. But if people vote, and choose to define their state as Jewish, that’s NOT OK, and the solution is to add 5 million Jew-hating Palestinians into that state, AND THEN VOTE AGAIN, and when Jews are now voted out of existence, and Israeli Jews become a hated minority under an Islamic majority that hates their guts, THAT is “justice” in the eyes of the BDS psychopaths.
Arafat • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:10 am
In order to clarify my concerns, let’s take a look back in history to 1933 when Hitler rose to power and became Chancellor of Germany and the Nazis won a large number of seats in the German parliament. What followed was the notorious nationwide Nazi boycott targeting Jewish businesses and professionals directed by Nazi storm-troopers posting signs everywhere saying “Do not buy from Jews!” Widespread anti-Semitism mounted with the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 depriving Jews of their basic rights as citizens and banning them from all professional jobs in education, politics, academia and industry which escalated in severity ultimately concluding in the “Final Solution.”
tom • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:13 pm
you overlook a very simple fact: being “anti-israel” is a convenient, socially acceptable outlet for joo-hatred, that avoids all the nastiness of being a “racist”. just believe anything and everything the arabs and “pro-palestnian progressives” dream up, and you can get back to hating the jooz all you want. not because it’s all true, but because it’s convenient to believe it.
arab propaganda today is no different at all from nazi propaganda.
Arafat • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:06 am
While I find it highly questionable that “not a single Israeli academic institution has petitioned their government to protect the Palestinian right to education,” perhaps that is because they are too busy giving those students an education (including building the very Palestinian universities that didn’t exist until the start of the dreaded “Occupation”).
And the accusation that Palestinians students are “forced to remain silent or face persecution” would be news indeed to that Tel Aviv University graduate student Omar Barhouti who has not only benefited from being enrolled in a world class Israeli university (a subject he would rather not discuss or have discussed) but is also free to travel the globe as leader of the BDS “movement” calling for the very school he attends to be shunned.
This is type of hypocrisy (one which applies to the author of this piece much more than those she criticizes) that is not just personal but institutional within a BDS “movement” which devotes limitless time and energy into demonizing Israelis (including Israeli academics) but cannot seem to find a moment to help those Palestinians they claim to care for so much.
Arafat • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:05 am
This one’s for Harvey & Jeff…
++
Despite its precedents in the Nazis’ kauf nicht bei Juden campaign begun in 1933 and the expulsion of Jews from German universities by “Hitler’s Professors,” and the Arab economic boycott of Israel now over 66 years old, the BDS movement may fairly be called, despite local variations, “Jews Against Themselves.” It was begun in England in April 2002 by the Jewish academic Steven Rose and his wife. Espousal of the boycott of Israel, especially its academic institutions, soon became the identifying mark of “progressive” English Jews, so much so that Howard Jacobson devoted a whole satirical novel (The Finkler Question, 2010) to “the Jews of shame,” people who were ashamed of Israel’s very existence, though not of their own illiteracy, cowardice, and treachery.
Arafat • Apr 16, 2015 at 8:03 am
“I don’t think anyone should have money invested in corporations that are doing bad things,” Goodwin said.
+++
Seeming to give credence to Orwell’s quip that “some ideas are so stupid they could only have been thought of by intellectuals.”
Eliezer • Apr 16, 2015 at 4:40 am
Get NYU out of occupied Indian lands now!
Jeremy Kareken • Apr 15, 2015 at 11:41 pm
Thrilled to not sign such a ridiculous petition, and on the day I was asked to sign one, I ordered a soda machine from Israel just because I was asked to sign. Every time a BDS person approaches me, boom, another Israeli product bought. BDS is anti academia, anti debate. It is the soul of fascism.
drdon • Apr 15, 2015 at 11:06 pm
As an alumnus of NYU WSC51, Dent54 I am dismayed by the apparent disconnect by these faculty members and students. Boycott the only democracy in a seething cauldron of Islamic terrorism and blithely ignore NYU opening a university abroad in an Arab land. Built with immigrant (slave) labor. Look the other way you great apostles of educational liberalism. I have previously removed NYU from being a recipient in my will when I pass on. I am thoroughly ashamed to call the university my alma mater.
Daniel K. • Apr 16, 2015 at 5:39 am
Well then give back your degree.
M. Edward Triefler • Apr 16, 2015 at 1:19 pm
His degree, as mine was earned when NYU was a prestigious Business School, class of ’61, not a hotbed of anti-Semites and anti-Israelis and before the influx of the Islamic Muslims who condone ISIS and the beheading of human rights workers along with Journalists and captured soldiers.
Nate Salant. • Apr 16, 2015 at 1:34 pm
First, let me say that Mandela originally did not espouse violence, but changed his mind and supported it in the early 1960s because he did not see any progress without it. The last straw for him was the Sharpville Massacre in 1960, during which the police killed 69 protesters. He subsequently set up the “Spear of the Nation” military wing of the ANC, which began its violence with five bombings on December 16, 1961 (shortly after the ANC’s leader, Luluthi, won a Nobel Peace Prize).
Mandela was tried and convicted for conspiracy to committ murder and treason, and sentenced to life in prison. There is no doubt that he was guilty of those crimes per se; whether they were legitimate means for achieving change is something that will be debated forever.
During his years in jail, he changed his mind, and returned to non-violent protest – in 1985, he wrote to the government, proposing the series of peaceful moves that eventually ended apartheid.
However, he was most definitely NOT a Yasser Arafat. He did not engage in terror outside South Africa, his targets were strictly government buildings, police and military, he never called for the murder of all Whites (or even White South Africans), never masterminded hijackings…and did not appear to have embezzled or illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for personal use the way that Arafat did.
He also kept his word once the South African Government reached the agreements with him – something Arafat did not do after 1993 vis-a-vis the Oslo and subsequent accords. Its also important to understand that Israel is not an apartheid country, per Mandela’s own statements and definitions, because Arabs have the right to vote, serve in all aspects of government, have access to all social services, etc.
Having set the record straight…
Daniel: I was wondering if you have ever been in Israel, the West Bank or Gaza or visited any Arab or Muslim country?
I think its important to have first-hand knowledge before taking a stand on these issues. I’ve been all over Israel, parts of the West Bank and even the outskirts of Gaza. I’ve spoken privately with countless Muslim and Christian residents of all three areas, and I can assure you that what they will say in private is a lot different than what is said publicly.
I’ve also taken the time to visit Israeli settlements in the West Bank and wander Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, engaging locals in conversation. I speak fluent Spanish, so I frequently chose to conceal the fact that I am an American by birth and absolute commitment – I did this so that I might get a truer reading, especially from the Arabs I met.
It was quite an education. One thing I learned was that the boycott-divest-sanction movement actually seems to hurt the peace process, eveyday life for the Palestinians and builds barriers rather than breaks them down. Palestinians tell me behind closed doors that the BDS causes businesses – whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim-owned – to leave the West Bank and move inside areas that most believe will be part of Israel if and when there is ever a final agreement. It also creates more separation, rather than cross-cultural contact – I cannot begin to tell you the number of people on both sides who say they used to go to each others’ weddings, holiday outings, life events, etc., but no longer do so out of fear, anger, frustration or just loss of friendship and contact.
They also ponder why the BDS movement is so focused on Israel, when Syria has killed more than 200,000 of its own people, Turkey is fomenting all sorts of trouble and supporting terror groups, Hamas is taking all of the money and supplies that were designated for rebuilding Gaza and using them to rebuild tunnels and buy arms, etc. PALESTINIANS ask me why the world expects them to create a new country when their leaders are among the most corrupt on the planet? Israeli ARABS tell me they have no interest in living in “Palestine” because of the poor quality of life, corruption, low wages, no education, etc. They talk a lot about how much better the schools are under Israeli rule – there basically were no girls schools at all under Jordan from 1948-67.
its all pretty fascinating when you go over there and do the “one-on-one” conversation thing.
Steve B • Apr 16, 2015 at 2:40 pm
You were never going to put NYU in your will. That is a cheap threat
made by a hysterical Israeli supporter. Credit to these 130 professors.
It’s damn well about time for the endless support of an apartheid state
that willingly kills women and children, infrastructure, etc while claiming
it’s searching for Hamas secret operations centers deep within hospitals.
That is what was claimed during the Gaza ‘War’ from Israel in 2014.
Face the facts. Israel created a war against defenseless people
mainly for political opportunism. they’ve actively pushed all the Palestinians
into the prison camp known as ‘Gaza’. Obama has seen the reality of Israel,
it’s endless wars for land, and endless excuses about being the victim.
Others are waking up in droves as well regardless of BDS and their slow
progress.
Richard Jaffee • Apr 17, 2015 at 9:31 am
You’re an idiot. Shut up.
Dan • Apr 22, 2015 at 7:30 pm
I agree with Richard.
“Prison camp known as Gaza” ARE YOU KIDDING!?
Gaza leaders are multimillionaires.
Google photos of the luxury cars, hotels, markets in Gaza.
And the money they don’t keep goes to building rockets, not a country.
so, again, I agree with Richard.
Shut up.
Carrie Andrews • Apr 15, 2015 at 11:05 pm
the Rabbi is %100 correct
Daniel K. • Apr 16, 2015 at 5:38 am
Mandela & the African National Congress fought violently against the occupiers & apartheid government of South Africa. It was not until later years, when progress was made that Mandela turned to peace and reconciliation with his former oppressors. The Rabbi is 100% bullshitting and he knows it.
Sharon Pinsley • Apr 16, 2015 at 3:28 pm
Plus, both Mandela’ and Tutu coming out so completely pro “Palestinian”and anti-Israel disqualified them both from any kind of “peace brokerage” in the area. Their ugly use of the term apartheid against us when they had lived a real apartheid was beyond belief! There are many S. Africans who have come out in support of Israel voicing their strong disagreement of the apartheid application.