‘Heckuva job, CUNY!”
Unsurprisingly, that’s the finding of a report CUNY commissioned to investigate itself on its response to numerous anti-Semitic incidents on its various City University campuses. These incidents, reported on in detail by The Post, include Jewish students and faculty being harassed, intimidated, threatened and subjected to all types of ethnic slurs.
The report, released late on a Friday afternoon just hours before the Jewish Sabbath, said that CUNY acted appropriately and that the First Amendment prohibits CUNY from taking additional action against the perpetrators.
That’s ludicrous.
The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, no matter how objectionable others may find the message. But it does not guarantee the right to receive taxpayer dollars to support or further that message. And that is where CUNY can, and must, be more aggressive in addressing this problem.
At the center of the issue is the organization Students for Justice in Palestine. SJP strongly advocates for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, as well as an “intifada” against Israel, which as CUNY’s own report notes, “has become a call for violence in a region that has already experienced far too much violence.” SJP has threatened and pressured other student groups against working with Jewish student organizations.
SJP is not simply a local university club; it’s a national organization. Testimony from a joint hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee last April by the nonpartisan, nonprofit policy group Foundation for Defense of Democracies noted that one of SJP’s most important sponsors is AMP, a Chicago-based organization that is a leading driver of the boycott campaign.
That same testimony noted the “significant overlap between AMP and people who worked for or on behalf of organizations that were designated, dissolved or held civilly liable by federal authorities for supporting Hamas,” which is designated by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Despite all of this, CUNY continues subsidizing them with our tax dollars. And that’s where it can make a difference.
CUNY can’t tell people what they’re allowed to say, but it can absolutely tell an organization how to conduct itself if it wants to receive government funding.
It can continue allowing students to express their views on Israel or any other matter without blessing SJP’s annual “Israel-Apartheid Week” on its campuses, where members portray Israel Defense Forces soldiers as goose-stepping Nazis. Nor does CUNY need to allow “die-ins,” where SJP supporters lay on fake bloody sheets and ask Jews if they can “wipe their butt” with the Israeli flag.
CUNY must immediately set a policy that student groups who promote or incite violence, intimidation or harassment against Jews or anyone else will lose their funding, period. Students must know that hate will not be tolerated on campus in any form against anyone.
Actions speak louder than words. Simply saying you condemn something is no substitute for taking action to stop it. CUNY has resisted real action for far too long. It must take this step. Now.
State Sen. Jack Martins, a Republican, represents New York’s 7th District.