New York University (NYU) issued a statement on March 24 condemning the former leader of the campus’ Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter for tweeting “should I paint my nails” in response to Israel’s first coronavirus death.
Leen Dweik, who ran NYU’s SJP chapter from 2018-19, wrote in a since-deleted tweet on March 20 regarding Israel’s first coronavirus death: “Anyway should I paint my nails red or green today?” Israel’s first coronavirus death was 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Arie Even. The colors mentioned are perhaps a reference to two colors of the Palestinian flag.
What does antisemitism in 2020 look like? Leen Dweik is a (now graduated) NYU leader of Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-BDS group#UnmaskBDS
More: https://t.co/QIlHXdwIzW pic.twitter.com/mAEK4GvrO5
— 4IL (@4ILorg) March 23, 2020
NYU spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement, “With almost 500,000 alumni, NYU does not routinely respond to its graduates’ social media posts, but the reported Twitter post by a former NYU student about the first Israeli death from COVID-19 was shameful and callous. The death and disruption caused by this pandemic should be reason to draw us together in sympathy, not be fodder for divisiveness and indifference.”
He added: “NYU denounces such insensitivity; it is at odds with our campus’ values.”
Anti-Defamation League New York/New Jersey praised Beckman’s statement in a tweet.
“Thank you @nyuniversity for speaking out against a former student & head of #SJP at #NYU,” they wrote. “Mocking the #Covid19-related death of an 88-year old Holocaust survivor in #Israel is beyond shameful. We need unity, not divisiveness, to fight this #pandemic.”
Thank you @nyuniversity for speaking out against a former student & head of #SJP at #NYU. Mocking the #Covid19-related death of an 88-year old Holocaust survivor in #Israel is beyond shameful. We need unity, not divisiveness, to fight this #pandemic. https://t.co/X4UlkhGqsV
— ADL New York / New Jersey (@ADL_NYNJ) March 25, 2020
NYU pro-Israel student group Realize Israel wrote in a Facebook post, “Thank you to NYU administration for this thoughtful and appropriate response to an extremely disturbing tweet by the former president of NYU Students for Justice in Palestine.”
Former NYU student and current Maccabee Task Force Northeast Coordinator Adela Cojab, who filed a complaint against NYU in April stating that the administration improperly handled anti-Semitic incidents on campus, said in a text message to the Journal, “This is the very rhetoric of my Title VI complaint. It is not surprising that those who use their hatred for Zionism to justify harassment of Jewish students will justify Israeli deaths during this pandemic. People are people, and it is disgusting to see someone celebrate loss of life due to personal politics.”
She added: “NYU is taking a public stand against blatant anti-Semitism, and for that I am grateful.”
In March 2019, Dweik confronted Chelsea Clinton during a vigil at NYU for the victims of the shootings at mosques in New Zealand.
“Forty-nine people died because of the rhetoric you put out there,” Dweik said, referencing Clinton’s criticism of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) “it’s all about the Benjamins” tweet in February 2019.
