Princeton University Course Features Book Accused of Promoting Blood Libels
A course at Princeton University reportedly features a book that critics say promotes blood libels against Israel.
The book in question is the 2017 book “The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability” by Jasbir Puar, who heads Rutgers University’s Gender Studies program. It is listed under the sample reading list for the course “The Healing Humanities: Decolonizing Trauma Studies from the Global South,” which will taught by Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies Satyel Larson. A summary of the book on the website for Duke University Press, which published the book, states in part: “Supplementing its right to kill with what Puar calls the right to maim, the Israeli state relies on liberal frameworks of disability to obscure and enable the mass debilitation of Palestinian bodies.” StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein told The College Fix that the book “spreads hate and disinformation by implying that IDF soldiers have a thirst for harming innocent Palestinians. This not only ignores Israel’s widely recognized efforts to avoid harming civilians, but also echoes age-old antisemitic blood libels.”
A spokesperson from the university said that the university has “nothing to add” on the matter, but pointed the Journal to the university’s website page expressing their commitment to academic freedom and freedom of expression.
NYU Calls American Anthropological Association’s Endorsement of Academic Israel Boycott “Regrettable”
New York University (NYU) President Linda G. Mills and Interim Provost Georgina Dopico called the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) endorsement of an academic boycott of Israel “regrettable” in an August 4 statement.
The AAA announced on July 24 that membership voted in favor of the boycott by a margin of 71% in favor and 29% against. “We are opposed to and deeply disappointed by the AAA’s recent resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel,” Mills and Dopico said. “By their very nature, academic boycotts contravene the concept of the free exchange of ideas, a key tenet of academic freedom. NYU has long and consistently objected to academic boycotts (here and here, for example) for just these reasons.” They added: “It is regrettable that the AAA, a scholarly organization meant to promote the advancement of knowledge throughout the discipline, an organization that has reaffirmed its commitment to academic freedom, has taken a step seemingly so at odds with those objectives. We urge them to reconsider.”
Judea Pearl, chancellor professor of computer science at UCLA, National Academy of Sciences member, Daniel Pearl Foundation president and NYU alumnus, told the Journal that he is “welcoming the new administration of NYU and their bold and principled attitude vis a vis anti-Israel hostilities on campus.”
AAA President Ramona Pérez said in a statement to the Journal, “We respect NYU’s position, and we stand by the vote of our members. This was indeed a contentious issue, and our differences may have sparked fierce debate, but we have made a collective decision and it is now our duty to forge ahead, united in our commitment to advancing scholarly knowledge, finding solutions to human and social problems, and serving as a guardian of human rights.”
Wayne State Student Senate Passes Statement Condemning “the Genocide of the Palestinian People by the Israeli Apartheid Government”
The Wayne State University Student Senate passed a statement on August 3 that condemned “the genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli apartheid government.”
The South End, Wayne State’s student newspaper, reported on August 6 that a motion was passed 19-1 approving the statement. The statement was posted to the student senate’s Instagram page on August 8, saying that the student senate is “committed to bridging the gap between the students, faculty, staff and administration” before citing a report describing a recent Israeli raid on a refugee camp in Jenin. “We encourage our Warrior community to connect with many of our fantastic on-campus resources as they hear about these reoccurring tragic events,” the statement later said.
Swastika Graffiti Found on NY School Playground
Graffiti of a couple swastikas were found in a New York school’s playground on July 30.
The Long Island Herald reported on August 6 that the swastikas were spray painted in black on Chatterton School’s playground in the Nassau County neighborhood of Merrick. A police investigation is ongoing and the South Merrick Community Civic Association will hold an emergency meeting on the matter on August 9.
Iowa School District Reinstates Holocaust Novel “Maus”
The Urbandale Community School District in Iowa has reinstated the Holocaust novel “Maus” after determining that a new state law regulating the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity was vague.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported that Maus, written by Art Spiegelman, was initially among the “hundreds” of books removed from the district after the new law went into effect; however, in response to backlash the district released a “trimmed-down list of 65 books for removal that contained neither ‘Maus,’ nor several other Jewish-themed books on the first list.” The district concluded that “that there is ambiguity regarding the extent to which books that contain topics related to gender identity and sexual orientation need to be removed from libraries,” per JTA.
Maus is a graphic novel that depicts the experiences of Spiegelman’s Holocaust survivor parents; one scene in the book shows a naked mouse “representing Spiegelman’s mother after she dies by suicide,” according to JTA.
This article has been updated.
