According to a report from The New York Post, 100 Columbia University professors have signed a letter supporting pro-Palestinian students who protested against Israel.
The educators also ask that Columbia “cease issuing statements that favor the suffering and death of Israelis or Jews over the suffering and deaths of Palestinians.”
“As scholars who are committed to robust inquiry about the most challenging matters of our time, we feel compelled to respond to those who label our students antisemitic if they express empathy for the lives and dignity of Palestinians and/or if they signed a student-written statement that situated the military action begun on Oct. 7 within the larger context of the occupation of Palestine by Israel,” the letter reads.
“In our view, the student statement aims to recontextualize the events of Oct. 7, 2023, pointing out that military operations and state violence did not begin that day, but rather it represented a military response by a people who had endured crushing and unrelenting state violence from an occupying power over many years,” they wrote of the attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.
From The New York Post:
Professors also backed the university’s Palestine Solidarity Groups label of conditions in Gaza as “apartheid,” noting that groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have agreed.
Faculty members conclude their letter by saying, “One of the core responsibilities of a world-class university is to interrogate the underlying facts of both settled propositions and those that are ardently disputed.
“As faculty, we are committed to the project of holding discomfort and working across difference[s] with our students,” it reads.
“These core academic values and purposes are profoundly undermined when our students are vilified for voicing perspectives that, while legitimately debated in other institutional settings, expose them to severe forms of harassment and intimidation at Columbia.”
Meanwhile, Columbia’s Jewish students held a press conference on Monday speaking on the spike in antisemitism and expressing fear and concerns over safety.
Watch the press conference below:
LIVE: Students speak out on antisemitism at Columbia University https://t.co/uW3qCE1L0G
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 30, 2023
