Campus Watch December 4, 2024

Bipartisan Bill Would Bar Aid to Universities That Support BDS

House Committee on Education and Workforce Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) introduced a bill on Nov. 26 that would bar federal aid from going to universities that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

According to The Washington Free Beacon, the bill, titled the “Protect Economic Freedom Act,” would require universities to “submit annual certifications to the Department of Education, showing they are not engaged in a commercial boycott of Israel.” Foxx said in a statement. “Appeasing the antisemitic mobs on college campuses threatens the safety of Jewish students and faculty, and it undermines the relationship between the U.S. and one of our strongest allies. If an institution is going to capitulate to the BDS movement, there will be consequences.”

German University Cancels Benny Morris Lecture Over Security Concerns, Student Objections

The University of Leipzig announced on Nov. 29 that they have canceled a lecture by renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris due to security concerns and objections from students over past comments from Morris.

Haaretz reported on Dec. 1 that the students who called for the lecture to be canceled accused Morris of justifying “the expulsion, killing and rape of hundreds of thousands of people,” pointing to comments he made to Haaretz in 2004 that “in certain conditions, expulsion is not a war crime… When the choice is between destroying or being destroyed, it’s better to destroy… when the choice is between ethnic cleansing and genocide – the annihilation of your people – I prefer ethnic cleansing.” He also said in 2004 that “something like a cage has to be built for” for the Palestinians. “I know that sounds terrible. It is really cruel. But there’s no choice. There is a wild animal there that has to be locked up in one way or another.” Morris told Haaretz in their Dec. 1 report that the university engaged in “sheer cowardice and appeasement” in canceling the lecture and that his past comments “were made in an interview published two decades ago, during the Second Intifada, when terrorists were bombing buses and restaurants in Israel almost daily.” He acknowledged that using the word “cage” was “inappropriate,” though he maintained that his “intention was correct – the need to place the Arab population in the West Bank and Gaza behind fences so they could not enter and explode in Israeli cities. Israel eventually did so, and it ended the phenomenon of mass killings by suicide bombers.” Morris also called the allegation that he supports “the expulsion, killing, and rape of hundreds of thousands of people” a “nonsense and a vile fabrication.”

Anti-Israel Protesters Disrupt SFSU Jewish Studies Prof’s Lecture at UMich

Anti-Israel protesters disrupted a lecture delivered by San Francisco State University (SFSU) Jewish Studies Professor Marc Dollinger in November.

Dollinger was speaking about his 2018 book “Black Power, Jewish Politics.” The protesters shouted, “Dollinger, you can’t hide! Zionism is a crime!”, “We don’t do dialogue with Zionists. Get off our campus,” and “Anti-Black and settler too, Zionist violence we see you!” The protesters left before police arrived and Dollinger continued with his lecture. “It’s kind of strange for them to yell about Zionism when my talk is about civil rights,” Dollinger told The Jewish News of Northern California (The J). “It’s one thing if they were coming to debate the thesis of my book. But they weren’t. They were saying because you consider Zionism part of your Jewish identity, you should not be on the University of Michigan campus. That’s antisemitism.” 

The university said in a statement, “Shouting down speakers for any reason is unacceptable at the University of Michigan. It violates our academic mission and our commitment to free speech and diversity of thought. Doing so in a way that, in this case, targeted a person because of their Jewish identity is particularly abhorrent and will not be tolerated. The university condemns all forms of discrimination, racism and bias in the strongest possible terms. The actions of the individuals who interrupted this event are a clear instance of antisemitism. The university is working to identify the perpetrators so they can be held accountable.”

UMich Student to Study “Commodification of Land” in Palestine Through Anti-Racism Grant

A Palestinian graduate student at the University of Michigan will be researching the “commodification of land” in Palestine and Detroit through an anti-racism grant.

The grant is one of 19 handed out by the U-M National Center for Diversity that will cost the university more than $94,000, according to The College Fix. The student, Abraham Alzoubi, said in a press release announcing the grant that “my family was dispossessed of their land and displaced,” which is what prompted his “interest in architectural studies.” He will be touring the West Bank “where people are fighting to reclaim land and hold onto their property.” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of Coalition for Jewish Values, told the Fix that “this grant could only be described as pro-racism,” accusing Alzoubi of promulgating “false narratives about Israel-Palestine, claiming that Israel oppresses and dispossesses the Palestinians.”