Embattled CUNY is set to host a panel titled “Globalizing the Intifada!” — before higher-ups came to their senses and canceled the event as protests spread on Monday.
City University of New York’s Lehman College has set aside space for an upcoming February 16 session, called “Globalizing the Intifada! Mapping the Struggle for Palestine between our Streets and Classrooms” and part of what the university described as a one-day “Engagement, Equity and Anti-Racism” conference.
“Intifada” is an Arabic word that has been used to describe a period of violent protests against Israel, including the infamous wave of terrorist attacks in the late 80s and early 2000s.
When details of the panel emerged on Monday and critics came out – accusing the event of being “a way of mentoring young terrorists” – the college dismissed it.
“The Engagement, Equity and Antiracism Conference aims to support professors in teaching struggling students, with pedagogy at the center,” said Jane Kehoe Higgins, director of the Lehman Institute for the Study of Literacy, in a statement to The Post — adding that the panel was pulled when school officials butted heads with its organizers, including CUNY teachers and students.
“The goal is to bring people together, not to cause harm or make students feel unsafe,” Higgins said. “It is not a podium for protest. After discussions with the panelists, I don’t believe we share the same goals.
“There are appropriate places for them to share their views, but this conference is not one of them and the panel has been cancelled.”
Opponents of the planned panel say the topic is blatantly antisemitic.
CUNY’s Lehman College is set to host a panel titled “Globalizing the Intifada!” as part of an anti-racism conference. CUNY
“This event is like a ‘how to’ guide for young terrorists,” Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a former longtime CUNY trustee, told The Post.
“Every day something crazy and unbelievable happens at CUNY,” he said. “Supporting the intifada is not only antisemitism, it is also anti-civilization.”
US Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) called out, “The Second Intifada [in the early 2000s] launched a wave of terrorist attacks and suicide bombings that killed 1,000 Israelis.
“Any event that seeks to ‘globalize the intifada’ is an open invitation to violence against Jews worldwide. The glorification of antisemitic violence has no place in a public university, where all students have the right to be and feel safe,” the congressman added.
Like other colleges across New York and the country, CUNY has come under fire over antisemitic incidents that have occurred on their campuses since the brutal October 7 attacks on Israel by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. The ongoing conflict between the two sides threatens to create World War III.
The original schedule highlighted panels to help students learn how to act in solidarity for the Palestinian people while not including the negative meaning behind the “Intifada.”
CUNY is already under investigation by Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration for antisemitic incidents, and she has launched a program to combat antisemitism in general at New York universities.
On Monday, a once-public Google document for the “Intifada” event was updated to remove any mention of the panel before it was set to private.
The schedule posted by the panel, seen by The Post before it was pulled, listed Brittany Munro, a member of the CUNY Graduate Center, as moderator. Munro, an international PhD student, is an instructor at Lehman College touted by the center as one of his best teachers in 2023.
Included in the panel of speakers is Professor Conor Tomas Reed from the Shape of Cities to Come Institute.
The updated schedule form shows the program removed and replaced with a panel about teaching.
According to Reed’s website, he has “been involved in nearly two decades of struggle at the City University of New York and in New York City around changing education and public space, anti-imperialism, police and prison abolition, solidarity with Palestine and Puerto Rico, reproductive rights, housing justice and so on.”
Also listed on the panel were Lucien Baskin of the CUNY Graduate Center and Reem Ockeh of Lehman College.
Baskin, who includes the phrase “From River to Sea” in his Twitter bio, is a doctoral student in Urban Education, and Ockeh is an English literature major.
Munro, Baskin and Reed are among more than 1,000 people who signed a CUNY community petition calling for a boycott of Israel as a show of solidarity with Palestinians over the war in Gaza.
Neither Munrow, Baskin, Reed nor Ockeh immediately responded to the Post’s request for comment.
Lehman College said the program was withdrawn over disagreements with panelists.
“The time has come for New York State to appoint an independent monitor, tasked with monitoring antisemitism on CUNY campuses,” Torres told The Post. “CUNY’s self-policing is no longer sufficient.”
A representative of the governor said, “Gov. Hochul has taken important steps to combat antisemitism on college campuses, launching the first antisemitism survey of its kind at CUNY earlier this year.
“Gov. Hochul has repeatedly condemned all forms of antisemitism and he supports CUNY’s decision to cancel this panel.”
Lehman College spokesman Richard Relkin added to the school’s position in another statement, saying, “We support the conference organizers’ decision to cancel the panel, as its polarizing title does not reflect the conference’s theme and is not in line with campus policy.
“Lehman College is committed to creating safe spaces for our community to have civil and productive conversations and we will continue to promote diversity and combat hate in all its forms, including antisemitism and Islamophobia.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
