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Repost: A Corey Robin post:
In 2011, my department at Brooklyn College hired Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton to teach a course in Middle Eastern politics. A now forgotten right-wing politician in Brooklyn got wind of this, and because of Petersen-Overton's writing on Palestine, pulled out all the stops to get CUNY and Brooklyn College to fire Petersen-Overton. Which the college and CUNY did.
Within five days of Petersen-Overton's being fired, we—Petersen-Overton, the political science faculty, our union, New York area organizers, and the international academic community—were able to put enough public pressure on the administration that they had to reverse their decision. (You can read all about it in the NYT links I post below.) Petersen-Overton taught his course. And very well, I might add. (He's an excellent college teacher, and continues to be so, up in Boston, where pro-Israel forces still routinely try to get him pushed out of academia.)
Fourteen years later, and the situation at CUNY has gotten, against everything I thought possible, worse. This past week, our union announced that four adjuncts have been fired because of their pro-Palestine activism. One of those instructors is Corinna Mullin, who has taught for many years in my department, and who, like Petersen-Overton, is an excellent teacher. She's someone who, but for her activism about Palestine, any campus at CUNY—any campus anywhere—would be happy to have teach undergraduates.
This is beyond shameful. We know that our chancellor was scheduled to testify in Washington about alleged antisemitism at CUNY (though this scheduled appearance was abruptly canceled or rescheduled). We know that faculty across the CUNY campuses have been targeted by Canary Mission and other right-wing and pro-Israel forces. (I myself have long been on the Canary Mission hit list.)
What is especially upsetting about this news is that I'd say that, compared to where CUNY administrators were in their understanding of academic freedom and freedom of speech, back in 2011, which was not particularly good, our administrators today know full well what academic freedom and freedom of speech entail. Back in 2011, CUNY, especially Brooklyn College, was a bit of backwater when it came to understanding these issues. It was simply assumed, as a matter of course, that you didn't upset the local political establishment, particularly on questions involving Israel. It wasn't even a question. Across CUNY today, administrators know better. Yet they do worse.
I don't underestimate the kind of pressure CUNY leaders are under; I've seen how that pressure, on this particular issue, works, up close and personal, for nearly 20 years now, and the pressure and the stakes have only gotten bigger in that time. But it doesn't change the final judgment: CUNY was wrong then; it's wrong now. The only question is how long it will take to fix the mistake.
In a way, we as the faculty back then were also like the administration back then: We knew less, yet it strangely empowered us. We didn't know the full force of what it was that we were fighting. We didn't care. We just fought it. And we won. Today, we know better. I'm not sure that's a good thing.
Our union and union members are fighting like hell to reverse this. If there is anything I find out that you can do to support our adjuncts, I'll post it here. If you have media contacts, please feel free to share any of the links from the union and other outlets that I post in the comment thread below and get them to cover this issue.
I firmly believe that, should Zohran Mamdani get elected in November, a new wind will blow through CUNY on this paritcular dimension of academic freedom and freedom of speech. And I hope that CUNY's leaders realize, sooner rather than later, that when that new wind of freedom does start blowing, CUNY will want to be moving with it, not against it.—
While hosting an indicted war criminal in Washington, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the outstanding scholar of international humanitarian law who serves as UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza. I am unaware of any objections from leading Congressional Democrats, who have also criticized Albanese and supported Netanyahu.
Democrats also joined Republicans in attacking the previous special rapporteur, a prominent American Jewish law professor. Both parties are committed to defending war criminals and attacking human rights investigators.
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Why so many young people feel like there is little difference between the two parties:
Post from July 12, 2022, three years ago:
Peter Beinart on Biden's continuation of Trump's policies on Israel/Palestine:
"Biden could bar Israel from using American aid to enforce its control over territories where Palestinians lack elemental rights, or at least bar that aid from being used for the most egregious purposes, like child detention and home demolition. But Biden has called any conditioning of aid 'outrageous.' Even more modestly, Biden could reaffirm America’s longstanding position—which it held for decades until Trump—that the US considers it a violation of international law for Israel to build settlements in the West Bank, many of which are constructed on land confiscated from stateless Palestinians. He won’t even do that. Biden could open the US consulate in East Jerusalem and the PLO mission in Washington so his administration at least reestablishes traditional lines of communication with Palestinians and their representatives. Not happening. He could visit Masafer Yatta, where roughly 2500 West Bank Palestinians face expulsion in what the United Nations warns may constitute a 'war crime.' Nope. Finally, at absolute rock bottom, Biden could at least defend the rights of Palestinians who are US citizens by demanding independent investigations when Israeli soldiers kill them, as has happened twice so far this year. Even that is evidently too much to ask from a president who vowed last fall that 'human rights will be the center of our foreign policy.'"
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Came across another videorecording from C-SPAN, when I was part of a debate at Georgetown University in 2002. I argued that an invasion of Iraq would be illegal, that Saddam was not a threat, and that we would likely be bogged down in a long, bloody counter-insurgency war amid sectarian violence, rising Salafist terrorism, and increased Iranian influence. Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans and nearly one-third of Congressional Democrats voted to authorize the invasion anyway, insisting we academics were wrong and the Bush administration was right.
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Just came across a recording of a talk I gave back in 1996 at the Commonwealth Club of California, which was later broadcast on C-SPAN, about the conflict in Western Sahara. Unfortunately, it is still quite relevant.
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Here we have prominent Democratic senators--Adam Schiff (CA), Cory Booker (NJ), Maria Cantwell (WA), Chris Coons (DE), Amy Klobuchar (MN), and Jacky Rosen (NV)--joining rightwing Republican colleagues for a photo op with an indicted war criminal.
As long as the leaders of both parties continue to support war criminals, I cannot support either of them
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Saif Al-Din Muslat was a 23-year old U.S. citizen born and raised in Florida who was visiting his extended family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Yesterday, he was beaten to death by rightwing Israelis from a U.S.-backed illegal settlement. Another young man was killed and scores were injured, as the Israeli mob blocked medical teams from reaching the wounded. Thus far, there has been no reaction from the U.S. government
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This is the anniversary of the Srebenica massacre (July 11, 1995). What a difference 30 years makes.
In 1995, the United States went to war to try to stop a genocidal war in Bosnia. Today, they are supporting a genocidal war in Palestine.
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Yet another U.S. citizen murdered by U.S.-backed Israeli occupation forces. And, once again, no complaints from the U.S. government.
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If the Democrats want to regain the support of progressives, Arab-Americans, Muslims, and other minorities who stayed home last November, maybe they shouldn’t have their Senate leader photographed with an indicted war criminal and his far rightwing supporters
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