Columbia’s new policies intended to stop and punish any on-campus criticism of the Gaza genocide by characterizing it as “antisemitism” have made it impossible for Rashid Khalidi to teach his planned fall course. See his explanation here, which ends with:
Columbia’s capitulation has turned a university that was once a site of free inquiry and learning into a shadow of its former self, an-anti university, a gated security zone with electronic entry controls, a place of fear and loathing, where faculty and students are told from on high what they can teach and say, under penalty of severe sanctions. Disgracefully, all of this is being done to cover up one of the greatest crimes of this century, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a crime in which Columbia’s leadership is now fully complicit.
Thanks for keeping me informed Peter, of the descent of my alma mater (General Studies ’82, School of Journalism ’83). The bitter irony of course is that while Columbia has suppressed all criticism of Israel, even Trump and Marjorie Greene are acknowledging that Israel has gone too far.
Peter, you may want to look into this new FAQ that Columbia released on the resolution: https://president.columbia.edu/content/resolution-agreement-frequently-asked-questions
More people have been and are being killed in Ukraine, Sudan and Syria. No Arab state or any other state will take the Palestinians as refugees. Your singular focus on crimes against the Palestinians created by Hamas’s previous and planned attacks belies your rationality.
Rashid Khalidi is the current holder of the Edward Said chair at Columbia.
I suspect Professor Edward Said (1935-2003) is the reason Columbia was specifically targeted for “antisemitism” . He basically founded the field of post-colonial studies which called into question the Euro-centric lens used to study “the Orient”. The idea spread, but Columbia remains quite important.
Amit,
The campaign to target critics of Israel at Columbia as “antisemites” goes way, way back, To a large extent what has happened at Columbia this year is that this campaign has had a huge success by allying itself with a Fascist dictator adopting illegal tactics. They’ve done this just as the Israeli government’s genocidal slaughter of civilians is in reach of its goal of ethnically cleansing Gaza.
Besides Said’s legacy, Columbia has a very distinguished Middle Eastern studies department, which includes faculty critical of Israel. One of the initial demands made (clearly with input from local pro-genocide people at Columbia) was to put this department in receivership. The trustees quickly agreed to a version of this, going even farther by announcing the hiring of several new pro-Israel faculty. The reason they so quickly agreed was not just the threats they were under, but that they were heavily influenced by those (faculty, students, alums, donors) in the community that had always hated seeing any criticism of Israel’s genocide here and were ecstatic at the opening that Trump provided them with.
Charles Weis,
When those killing innocent civilians in Ukraine, Syria and Sudan ally with Fascists to shutdown scientific research at Columbia, get control of its board of trustees and implement a security lockdown here to be able to keep the killing going, I’ll start blogging about those situations.