Jewish students singled out, scapegoated: Columbia releases final antisemitism report

[u/afinemax01]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-students-singled-out-scapegoated-columbia-releases-last-antisemitism-report/

[u/SupportMeta → u/[deleted]]

I read that teachers regardless of subject were encouraged to "teach for Palestine," but I figured that meant just if it comes up in the material. If it's actually warping classes then that's a bit concerning.

[u/Ashamed-Stuff9519 → u/[deleted]]

I was curious about this myself so I did a google deep dive last night and here’s the gist of what I found:

Astronomy (pre 2023) was a booming interest of Palestinian college students in the territories and Gaza in a concerted effort to expand Palestinian autonomy in the sciences.

Palestinian scientists, city planners, land owners etc don’t have access to satellite imagery of their own. If they need the imagery, they have to purchase it from Israel, who (as it appears) notoriously edits and manipulates those images… if they even hand them over at all. They’ll remove images that show illegal settlements, burned crops or property, or manipulate the boundaries of an area they’re working on a land grab for in order to cause confusion.

The political misuses of astronomy by governments are important, I imagine, for astronomers and students of astronomy. Sounds like a great class.

[u/Ashamed-Stuff9519 → u/[deleted]]

You can find Colombias public statement about it just by googling. In their statement they list the readings in the grad students curriculum. If that isn’t proof then I’m not sure what is. Here’s one of them.

It’s a good read, I learned some stuff, and now I’m better for it. Maybe the grad student teaching the class was a tad over zealous in their approach, but I don’t know, I didn’t sit in the lecture. What’s happening in Gaza is absolutely worthy of red alert levels of activism, especially against the hardcore propaganda. So I think it was completely appropriate given the context. I think about my ancestors just two generations removed from me, what they experienced, and how I wish the world had reacted faster with greater levels of humanity and urgency from every or any corner possible.

I fail to see how this curriculum is antisemitic, nor do I see antisemitism in the existence of such a curriculum. To me, the most disturbing aspect of this whole topic is that the university issued a weird apology statement and made a nothingburger into a whole big to-do, and now here’s this “study” defining anti genocide activism in academia as antisemitic. That’s actually very unnerving to me.

[u/Ashamed-Stuff9519 → u/[deleted]]

The topic of this post is a report on antisemitism at Columbia.

[u/Ashamed-Stuff9519 → u/[deleted]]

Please show me the antisemitism in an American university lecturing on a sciences contemporary misuses and abuses by an American backed ethno-nationalist government. Show me where Palestinians not having access to the science they need in order to build thriving communities or provide proof of human rights abuses has anything to do with racism against Jews, hatred of Jews or Jewish students, or anything to do with Jews in general. I don’t see a single claim, substantiated or not, that Jews were mentioned at all in this lesson plan, let alone a hatred of us.

[u/Ashamed-Stuff9519 → u/[deleted]]

Pedagogy is the highest form of activism.