New York students slam CUNY collaboration with Israeli academia

On Tuesday, the New York State Assembly withdrew a bill intending to suppress the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel “after a chorus of educators and legal groups denounced it as a bold assault on academic freedom,” reported The New York Times.

A similar bill, passed on 28 January, targeted the American Studies Association due to its landslide vote in December to boycott Israeli academic institions. These bills, introduced by state legislators, “prohibit colleges and universities from using state aid to fund academic groups or associations that have passed resolutions or taken official actions to promote boycotts against higher education institutions in countries where the New York Board of Regents charters institutions, which includes Israel, Lebanon, the Czech Republic, and Hungary,” says the American Studies Association, in a press release emailed to The Electronic Intifada.

ASA adds:

The bill also prohibits a college or university from using state funds to pay membership dues to those associations or to reimburse travel or lodging for an employee attending any meeting of such an association.

… This legislation would impose restrictions on academic freedom, represent an assault on free speech and professional activity, and set a dangerous precedent. We join the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild—New York City Chapter, and Jewish Voice for Peace in believing that, regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the ASA’s specific boycott or with the use of academic boycotts in general, this legislation must be opposed.

We are especially alarmed that faculty and students at public universities and colleges across the state would bear the financial burden of this test, a de facto assault on their right to participate in their professional association. In addition, these bills, unlike the ASA boycott itself, penalize individual faculty and students who do not support the academic boycott or do not wish to take a public stand one way or another.

In December, the interim chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY) system joined the chorus of university officials in condemning the American Studies Association’s vote to boycott Israeli institutions.

Interim CUNY Chancellor William P. Kelly announced, in part:

The free exchange of ideas is at the heart of the academic enterprise. Any effort to impede that flow is antithetical to the values that universities hold most dear.

… We take this opportunity to reaffirm our long association with Israeli scholars and universities, and we note with particular pleasure a new joint MBA program between the Zicklin School at Baruch College and the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon LeZion. The need for global cooperation has never been more urgent, and we repudiate any effort to foreclose productive dialogue.

New York City area chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and other student organizations wrote the following letter in response, published on the Brooklyn College SJP website on 4 February:

Open Letter to CUNY’s Interim Chancellor William P. Kelly regarding statement on the ASA’s boycott resolution

Dear Interim Chancellor William P. Kelly,

We are writing to express our concern regarding your statement, released on 27 December 2013, regarding the American Studies Association’s decision to honor the call of Palestinian civil society to boycott Israeli academic institutions. We would like to set the record straight and say that you do not speak for many of the students, faculty and staff members of the City University of New York. We would like to take this opportunity to correct the misrepresentations that appeared in your statement:

The free exchange of ideas is at the heart of the academic enterprise. Any effort to impede that flow is antithetical to the values that universities hold most dear.

In fact, the ASA’s boycott resolution upholds and encourages academic freedom, by acknowledging that Israel’s occupation and system of apartheid denies Palestinians their right to an education. Many scholars, including the British-Israeli scholar Oren Ben-Dor have argued that the academic boycott of Israel encourages academic freedom by recognizing that academic freedom should not only apply to privileged groups, but rather be extended to all, including to Palestinian students and professors who have their mobility and academics severely restricted by the Israeli occupation.

ASA’s endorsement is an expression of academic freedom, whose commitments to social equality, anti-racism and anti-colonialism have been at the forefront of critical transformations in the humanities and the social sciences. Similar resolutions were passed by the Association of Asian American Studies in April, 2013 and another was recently passed by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association in December 2013.

We note with particular pleasure a new joint MBA program between the Zicklin School at Baruch College and the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon LeZion.

This new joint partnership violates CUNY’s own statement on academic freedom. It reads:

At CUNY, as at other reputable institutions of higher education, academic freedom informs the entire academic community: the free exchange of ideas applies to students choosing a course of study, to faculty pursuing scholarly research and teaching, and to institutions admitting students, appointing faculty, and setting standards. A condition of mutual respect enables the existence of this many-faceted scholarly discourse.

By collaborating with the College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS), an Israeli institution directly complicit in the occupation and dispossession of Palestinians, Baruch College violates the university’s statement on academic freedom while also denying and normalizing the reality of oppression Palestinians face on a daily basis. According to the college’s website, COMAS offers a program of “security studies” to students who have the distinct option of involvement in the Israeli security agencies.

Furthermore, it has a “Research and Development Institute for Intelligent Robotic Systems” which, according to its own testimony “has set itself the goal of creating robot-powered applications particularly for the military and security forces.” COMAS, like many Israeli academic institutions and programs, enables the continuation of military and security infrastructure of a state that is practicing forms of colonialism, occupation and apartheid.

We repudiate any effort to foreclose productive dialogue.

We encourage you to read ASA’s own words on what the academic boycott of Israel entails as it may help correct some of the misinformation presented in your statement. Judith Butler perfectly answers this question in her article in The Nation.

Some people argue that the boycott cuts ties, but that what is needed is to build ties. But this formulation fails to realize that the ties the boycott movement builds are ones of solidarity in a struggle against damaged rights, occupation and dispossession, and it is these sorts of ties, not the ones that maintain the status quo, that are most important at this time.

We would like to conclude by expressing our full support to the American Studies Association, the Association of Asian American Studies and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association for honoring and endorsing the Palestinian call to boycott Israeli institutions. We are proud of those who refuse to stay silent any longer about the human rights violations in Palestine. It is truly a sign that times are changing and we are honored to be part of this movement for justice and equality for all.

Sincerely,

Students for Justice in Palestine at Brooklyn College
Students for Justice in Palestine at City College
Students for Justice in Palestine at College of Staten Island
Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia University
Students for Justice in Palestine at CUNY School of Law
Students for Justice in Palestine at Drew University
Students for Justice in Palestine at John Jay College
Students for Justice in Palestine at Hunter College
Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers University-Newark
Arab Student Union at John Jay College
John Jay College Democrats Club
Muslim Student Association at College of Staten Island
The Intramural and Recreation Program at College of Staten Island
The Middle Eastern Club at Drew University