Brooklyn community college offers extra credit for students who participate in one-sided, biased anti-Israel events; Advocacy group says Jewish students no longer feel safe on campus.
By World Israel News Staff
Students at a community college in New York city are offered extra credit for participating in anti-Israel, antisemitic events on campus that present a one-sided version of the Israeli-Arab conflict, says a watchdog group.
S.A.F.E. CUNY, an NGO that “advocates for Zionist Jews systematically discriminated against and excluded” at CUNY, expressed concern last week about an exhibit approved by senior administrators at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC-CUNY).
The exhibit, which was displayed in a “highly-trafficked, public area,” expressed sympathy with “Intifada (a call to murder Israeli Jews),” S.A.F.E. CUNY wrote on its Twitter account.
“Among the falsehoods and tropes leveled at Jews and Israel: 1) That Israel “targeted” journalist Shireen Abu Akleh for murder; 2) that Israel is guilty of ‘ethnic cleansing’; 3) that Israel is a settler-colonial state; and more,” the group continued.
Dr. Jenna Hirsch, Associate Professor of Mathematics at CUNY- BMCC, told United with Israel that she was stunned the clearly biased exhibit had been approved by administrators.
“I went inside and a girl behind the desk told me that they indeed sanctioned the exhibit under the auspices of the director of the program. I didn’t believe her, so I asked her again – ‘Are you sure the director knows about this exhibit and allowed the students to put it up?’ She assured me they did.”
Notably, the exhibit is part of an ongoing series of events disseminating anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda, which was organized by CUNY-BMCC’s Social Justice and Equity Center director, Nadia Saleh.
“The students are actually offered official credit, which will appear on their BMCC transcript for participating in these anti-Israel events!” Dr. Avraham Goldstein, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at CUNY- BMCC, told United With Israel.
“S.A.F.E. CUNY should bring to the public attention that as a result of these systematic anti-Israel activities, visibly Jewish students and faculty, and especially Orthodox Jews and Israelis and Zionist Jews, no longer feel safe on campus,” Goldstein continued.
“We believe that the rise of the antisemitic assaults and attacks on the CUNY campuses in the recent year or two (as admitted even by the top CUNY officials themselves) is caused by this anti-Israel hysteria promoted by BMCC Social Justice & Equity Centers and their systemic campaigns of hate and libeling.”
Goldstein encouraged donors to reconsider giving funds to the school until “the situation is straightened out,” and encouraged S.A.F.E. CUNY to examine any legal actions at their disposal.