CUNY Law School Faces State Investigation Over Anti-Jewish Bias After Supporting BDS

The State Human Rights Office launched a high-profile investigation into whether CUNY Law School discriminated against Jews when its faculty council passed a resolution last year supporting the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

The “active investigation” was confirmed in a Feb. 16 letter from the agency to Geoffrey Lacks, a professor at Kingsborough Community College who co-founded Student and Educator Equality at CUNY (SAFE CUNY).

“You will be contacted by a human rights specialist assigned to your case when an active investigation into your complaint begins,” wrote DHR Regional Director Joyce Yearwood-Drury Lax, Chair of Commercial at Kingsborough CC.

A government investigation has been long overdue.

On July 5 last year, SAFE CUNY sent a letter to the human rights agency arguing that the BDS resolution of the CUNY Law School Faculty Council, approved in May of that year, constituted a “discriminatory boycott” of Jewish students and faculty, as well as Israelis. in accordance with state human rights law.

The resolution denounced what it called “the ongoing military occupation and colonization of Palestine by the Israeli state” as “settler colonialism and structural racism supported politically, financially and militarily by the US.”

The resolution also demanded that CUNY sever ties with Israel and accused the school of “direct complicity in the ongoing apartheid, genocide and war crimes committed by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people through its investments and contracts with companies profiting from Israeli war crimes.”

The faculty also urged the school to end student exchange programs with Israel and join the BDS movement.

“We are pleased to learn that the NYSDHR will be investigating CUNY for implementing a BDS policy at its law school, in flagrant violation of the New York State Discriminatory Boycott Law,” Lax and SAFE CUNY told The Post. “A significant part of the BDS movement operates as a coordinated and sophisticated attempt to cause direct harm not only to Israel, but also to the economic interests of individuals doing business in and with Israel, or people who are considered too closely connected to the country.

“There is clear evidence that discrimination within the BDS movement affects the Jewish people and/or people that the movement believes are too closely associated with Israel in different ways. We believe that the new BDS rules applied at CUNY Law School are discriminatory based on real or perceived religion, ethnicity, and national origin. We hope the NYSDHR will recognize and expose the policy for what it is: discrimination against the protected classes of the Jewish people.”

The original complaint alleged that the administration of CUNY and the law school could not absolve themselves of liability for bias against Jews because the faculty board was actively involved in the running of the law school.

“CUNY Law School faculty sets policy and is involved in virtually every aspect of the school’s operations: grading, admissions, faculty recruitment, and more,” the complaint states. “His discriminatory boycott not only targets Zionist Jews and CUNY Israeli students and faculty, but also provided personally identifiable information with links to the names of suspected Israeli and Zionist Jews.

“The resolution passed even went so far as to support the boycott and liquidation of Hillel, the most popular Israeli and Jewish cultural student club in CUNY, which is universally welcomed on more than 850 college campuses across the US. In addition, he approved the abolition of Israeli student exchange programs and teacher scholarships with any connection to Israel or Israelis, a popular program among Israeli and Zionist Jews.”

The Israeli-Palestinian dispute has raged in recent years among faculty and students on a number of CUNY campuses, leading to a string of complaints of anti-Semitism and bullying that even prompted city council hearings.

After criticism of how it has handled a rise in anti-Jewish behavior on its campuses, CUNY announced last fall that it would spend nearly $1 million to address discrimination complaints, including building an online portal to track hate crimes across the system’s 25 campuses.

The controversy also sparked action in Albany, where Gov. Kathy Hochul extended an executive order issued by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, that bars the state government from investing in firms involved in BDS activities.

In October 2021, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli withdrew a pension investment from parent company Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream maker announced a boycott of merchandise sales in Israeli-occupied territories.

CUNY spokesman Joseph Tirella told The Post late Thursday that the university “does not comment on pending or threatened lawsuits.”

A spokesman for the Human Rights Division said he could not comment or confirm whether an investigation was underway.

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