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<\/a>\u2018Paucity\u2019 of Columbia courses that aren\u2019t anti-Israel, Ivy\u2019s task force says<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\nJNS Staff<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Columbia University\u2019s Task Force on Antisemitism released its final report on Tuesday, drawing praise from Claire Shipman, acting president of the Ivy League school, for what she said was a \u201cseries of rigorous and thoughtful analyses and recommendations that cover a very difficult and painful period in the history of this university.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhile we know there is more work to do, we\u2019re very grateful to be in a new and much better place today,\u201d she\u00a0stated<\/a>. \u201cFor that, we owe a debt of gratitude to many, with the co-chairs and members of our Task Force on Antisemitism at the very top of that list.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Although Shipman\u2019s statement didn\u2019t mention the words \u201cIsrael\u201d or \u201cIsraeli,\u201d illegitimate criticism of the Jewish state and of Israelis was a central part of the 70-page report, which stated that \u201cmany Jewish and Israeli students reported that if they want to study the Middle East at Columbia, there currently are not enough options that don\u2019t treat Zionism and Israel as fundamentally illegitimate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe paucity of such course offerings should be corrected,\u201d the task force\u00a0stated<\/a>. \u201cAt the same time, as a best practice, we urge instructors to apply the same sensitivity to discussions of Israel that they would to topics that are of high personal sensitivity to students who have other strong primary identities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The panel added that the school \u201clacks full-time tenure line faculty expertise in Middle East history, politics, political economy and policy that is not explicitly anti-Zionist.\u201d It advised the school to \u201caddress this imbalance through the establishment of new chairs at a senior level in Middle East history, politics, political economy and policy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The report, which devoted significant space to describing academic freedom and detailing its history, decried a recent decision by the American Association of University Professors, one of the most important and powerful academic groups.<\/span><\/p>\n The task force stated that boycotts of professors, students, researchers and scholars from other countries \u201care not consistent with academic freedom,\u201d which \u201centails openness to scholars and students from other countries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis issue is especially concerning to the antisemitism task force, because the only significant academic boycott movement of the 21st century has been aimed at the only Jewish state, proposing to restrict the research, teaching and studying opportunities available to a cohort whose members are overwhelmingly Jewish,\u201d it said.<\/span><\/p>\n The task force noted that there has been a \u201cconsistent demand\u201d at the school to boycott Columbia\u2019s partnership with Tel Aviv University, which the panel said \u201cwould be a clear violation of the spirit of academic freedom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUntil last year, the AAUP consistently and categorically opposed academic boycotts. In August 2024, the AAUP changed its position, declaring \u2018academic boycotts are not in themselves violations of academic freedom; rather, they can be considered legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education,\u2019\u201d the report stated. \u201cAlthough it wasn\u2019t mentioned by name, Israel and its universities were clearly the object of this new policy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t see how this is not a limitation on the academic freedom of Israelis and anyone interested in interacting with them,\u201d the report stated. \u201cIt entails permitting political views to enter what was conceived of as a separate, politically protected realm\u2014something the AAUP has long steadfastly opposed in other circumstances.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The panel said that one of its main points was that Columbia ought to \u201cprotect freedom of expression to the maximum extent possible while also complying with antidiscrimination laws.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There ought to be neither censorship nor discrimination at the school, according to the task force. \u201cIn balancing these goals, we would err in the direction of protecting free expression, even when it makes members of our community uncomfortable,\u201d it said. \u201cImportantly, however the university decides to strike this balance, it must do so consistently for all protected classes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n That means that Columbia must be consistent, and \u201cprotections afforded to black, Latino, Asian, Arab, female, LGBTQ+ and disabled members of our community must apply equally to other protected classes, including Jewish and Israeli students,\u201d it said.<\/span><\/p>\n The task force added that disrupting classes is a \u201cserious violation\u201d of Columbia rules. It said the most egregious violation of academic freedom was when anti-Israel protesters disrupted a class about the Jewish state taught by an Israeli.<\/span><\/p>\n Columbia students also shouldn\u2019t have to face \u201cfraught discussions of issues relating to their membership in a protected class\u201d when those issues aren\u2019t related to the course, \u201csuch as discussions of abortion in calculus or of correlations between race and incarceration in astronomy,\u201d the panel said.<\/span><\/p>\n It stated that free speech means that any government or group can be criticized. It named the \u201cpolicies of the Israeli government,\u201d the \u201cpolicies of Hamas\u201d and \u201cthe United Nations\u201d as three examples.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, we heard from many Jewish and Israeli students that their instructors offered critical comments about Israel in classes with subjects far removed from Israel and the Middle East,\u201d the report stated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The task force recommended that the university condemn offensive speech rather than limiting it, and it said that when it comes to faculty use of social media or \u201cother outside activities\u201d that it is \u201cwary of empowering administrators to decide what is in and out of bounds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Per the report, the more than 200 Israeli students at Columbia \u201cis thought to be a greater number than any other Ivy League university.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnyone who is teaching a class at Columbia should be aware that comments about Israel can be highly impactful to students, including Jewish students who are not Israeli,\u201d it stated.<\/span><\/p>\n It added that \u201cthere should be no orthodoxies at Columbia\u2014not just about Israel\u2014but about race, gender, criminal justice, affirmative action, climate policy, international law, income inequality and any other subjects where the expression of some views may offend members of our community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The report stated that there have been \u201cill-informed statements\u201d in classes that have accompanied \u201charsh condemnation of Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne student told us the instructor in such a class told students that Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, was an antisemite, and Jews of Eastern European origin are not really Jewish,\u201d the report stated. \u201cThese are, at best, tendentious statements that are highly contested in the academic literature but were not presented to students that way. The readings in the class generally did not reflect the full range of academic writing on Zionism, only material that was harshly anti-Zionist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The task force advised colleagues to remember that Zionism \u201cis a strongly held principle for the great majority of Jews worldwide, including but not limited to those who live in Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnti-Zionism is hardly a forbidden sentiment at Columbia, and that\u2019s as it should be. But it\u2019s an illusion to believe that anti-Zionism expressed as a moral absolute will not make many or even most Jewish and Israeli students here feel unwelcome,\u201d it said. \u201cThey deserve the same degree of sensitivity as anyone else at Columbia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are angry and heartbroken that members of the Columbia community (including some members of the faculty) would condone (or even celebrate) terrorist atrocities, deploy antisemitic tropes and peddle bigoted stereotypes,\u201d the task force said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese statements have been appalling and we condemn them. We have no desire to defend the indefensible,\u201d it said. \u201cBut as noted above, we are concerned about relying on administrators to be the arbiters of what tenured and tenure-track faculty members can and cannot say.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The report also said that students must not be pressured to participate in protests, teachers shouldn\u2019t use stereotypes, \u201creasonable\u201d religious accommodations are necessary and students ought to be free to disagree with professors.<\/span><\/p>\n It also advised Columbia to proceed \u201cas quickly as possible\u201d with its announced plan to open a global center in Tel Aviv.<\/span><\/p>\n Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em> \u2018Paucity\u2019 of Columbia courses that aren\u2019t anti-Israel, Ivy\u2019s task force says JNS Staff The school\u2019s Task Force on Antisemitism published its final report, which, among other things, said the American Association of University Professors appears to discriminate against Israel. Columbia University subway station. Credit: Charlotte May\/Pexels. Columbia University\u2019s Task Force on Antisemitism released its final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[33,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126513"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126540,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126513\/revisions\/126540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe school\u2019s Task Force on Antisemitism published its final report, which, among other things, said the American Association of University Professors appears to discriminate against Israel.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
![](\"https:\/\/me.jnsi.org\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Columbia-University-Subway-Station-NYC-1320x880.jpg\")
Columbia University subway station. Credit: Charlotte May\/Pexels.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nFree speech<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\u2018No orthodoxies\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
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