At least 50 faculty members at City University New York (CUNY) have resigned or indicated they intend to resign following the adoption of a statement critical of Israel by the faculty union.
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union passed the resolution in the wake of the May conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
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Illustrative: Protesters attend a Palestine solidarity rally against board members of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) whom they accuse of supporting Israeli military efforts, outside MoMA in Manhattan, New York on May 21, 2021
(Photo: AFP)
“With the PSC CUNY resolution you have chosen to support a terrorist organization, Hamas, whose goal ('From the River to the Sea’) is to destroy the State of Israel and kill all my relatives who live there,” wrote Professor Yedidyah Langsam, chairman of Brooklyn’s College’s Computer and Information Science Department and its faculty council, in a letter of resignation to PSC President James Davis, reported the New York Post.
Langsam likened the current situation to that of 1930s Nazi Germany, maintaining that both faculty and students have felt very uncomfortable on campus.
The PSC said that at least 50 members have resigned or sent notices of their intention to do so, according to The Post.
Davis acknowledged that the anti-Israel resolution in question caused "distress," although he also claimed it was part of a targeted conservative-led backlash following a previous 2018 Supreme Court decision.
The resolution listed numerous grievances, including "the massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli state," likening the Palestinian struggle to those of people of color in the United States and black people in South Africa.
Langsam said the resolution failed to take into account some 4,360 rockets that Islamist groups fired from the Gaza Strip, nor the fact that Gaza is judenrein.
The dispute came amid the controversy regarding Ben & Jerry's announcement it would no longer permit its products to be sold in the disputed territories.