Posted on 10/28/2004 4:44:46 PM PDT by lancer
The evidence that Columbia University classrooms are infected by a culture of anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bigotry grows ever stronger. On film and in person yesterday, students described an intimidating atmosphere in which professors treat Jews with scorn and insist on adherence to the view that Israel is evil.
The students' accounts at a screening of "Columbia Unbecoming" were shocking. An Israeli Army veteran said Prof. Joseph Massad demanded to know how many Palestinians he had killed. Another student quoted Massad telling a class, "The Palestinian is the new Jew and the Jew is the new Nazi," and "I will not have someone in this class who denies Israeli atrocities."
A third Jewish student, discussing Israel's right to exist, said Prof. George Saliba told her, "You have no claim to the land of Israel. You have no voice in this debate. You have green eyes. You're not a Semite. I have brown eyes. I'm a Semite." Imagine a professor saying a student could not discuss slavery because his skin was not dark enough. The professor would be fired, tenure or no.
A fourth student reported that when he asked his language professor how to use the verb "prevent" in Arabic, the professor wrote on the board, "Israelis prevent ambulances from entering refugee camps." Others described anti-Semitic caricatures being plastered on the walls of the language lab and posters advertising an Israeli film festival on campus being defaced with swastikas.
Leaders of The David Project, the activist group that produced the film, said they also had interviewed 10 faculty members, who declined to appear on film out of fear. Tenured professors said that to express pro-Israeli views is to commit professional suicide, while nontenured professors feared for their jobs, the filmmakers said.
Massad did not return calls, and Saliba declined to comment. Both are members of Columbia's Department of Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures, which has been the locus of sentiments of these kind for years. Complaints were widespread enough that University President Lee Bollinger asked a committee on free speech earlier this year to look into academic bullying on campus. Somehow, it was unable to turn up claims of bias or intimidation.
Well, now they're staring Bollinger right in the face. Yesterday, he responded as any upstanding, right-thinking academic would: He promised to investigate and to institute a process for students to air grievances. How enlightened of him! How little! How late!
Stand and deliver
It was good to hear Mayor Bloomberg pledge "we are not going to sacrifice reform for political expediency" in negotiating with the teachers union. Holding firm for a contract that abolishes work rules that tie chancellors in knots is critical to reforming the schools.
The mayor spoke in response to a well-timed open letter from Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, urging him to hang tough in talks with United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. Moskowitz boosted the cause of overhauling the contract in groundbreaking Council hearings last year and deserved none of the petulance that informed the rest of Bloomberg's response.
The mayor and Weingarten appear to be cordially approaching an agreement, with unofficial accounts suggesting that teachers are in line for raises of up to 14% over three years. For that kind of dough, Bloomberg ought to buy plenty of management prerogatives.
Having trumpeted the necessity of contract reform, Bloomberg will be judged less on dollars and more on whether he abolishes provisions that give senior teachers the pick of assignments; that make firing bad teachers well-nigh impossible; that let teachers refuse to perform duties like supervising lunchrooms, and that prohibit merit pay and bonuses in hard-to-staff schools and subjects.
Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein began the negotiations by proposing an eight-page contract to replace the behemoth that controls virtually everything in the schools. Now, the slim contract is off the table. Will its replacement eliminate ironclad seniority rights and scrap provisions that protect incompetents? Achieving such reforms is critical, and Bloomberg is the one official who has a chance of standing up to UFT muscle.
There is talk that the mayor and Weingarten have joined forces to hammer out a contract that will help the city win a huge court-ordered increase in state funding from Albany. Fair enough, but Bloomberg would be wrong to accept a deal that doesn't guarantee that the expected new money would be well spent.
You can e-mail the Daily News editors at voicers@edit.nydailynews.com. Please include your full name, address and phone number. The Daily News reserves the right to edit letters. The shorter the letter, the better the chance it will be used.
Well, wonder no more: know you all that this nation has cancer!
Pretty tremendous editorial, in the Daily News. They've done nothing but improve, at least editorially, since 9/11.
We are truly in an epic battle here, against the forces of Nihilism.
this isn't shocking. Remember that professor that wished for a MILLION Mogadishus?
For a longer time than anyone cares to recall, this school (as well as Harvard, Yale, etc et al ad nauseum) has had a cap on the number of Jews who can be admitted, particularly those from New York City.
This is not news and is not a surprise.
Columbia Abuzz Over Underground Film (faculty bigotry exposed)
Tenured Extremism-Israel resembles Nazi Germany.
Columbia U. Releases Edward Said Chair Donors: Names Arab Government
Columbia Professor vs. "Zionist Propaganda"
The Treatment of the Middle East at Columbia University
I also suggest checking the keyword ColumbiaU
This is sad. Some people just don't get it. I take that the Third Reich and Soviet Union never died. Not saying that anti-Semitism started with them, it always has been around since day one. What makes Communists and Nazis different is that they killed large number of Jews.
This type of Bigotry is not uncommon in universities. Thomas Sowell writes of the biggest discrimination toward blacks happens to black conservative professors in State Universities.
I don't have a PhD, but I DO know that intelligence without morality is not wisdom. Wisdom comes from above.
"Remember that professor that wished for a MILLION Mogadishus?"
Oh yes, I do. And this is supposedly one of the very best Universities in America, but what it really is, is a disgrace.
And so it goes.
There's a great story about Amos 'N Andy: Amos says "Andy, I hear a lot about 'good judgment' and that to get ahead, I need 'good judgment.' Where do I get 'good judgment'?"
Andy says "Well, Amos, 'good judgment' comes from experience!"
Andy thinks about this for a minute and asks "Andy, where does one get experience?"
Andy replies "Experience? Well, Amos, experience comes from 'bad judgment'!"
I've always loved that story, for the truth that it tells.
Daniel Pipes and Campus Watch is trying to keep an eye on these maggots, but it is obvious that he needs help.
It would be hard for us to disagree more. But you're welcome to your point of view; I just don't share it.
In case I didn't say so, Thank you for the links!
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