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“Diplomacy” at Columbia
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The headline caused me to read the story “How Columbia’s President Has Avoided Fallout Over Israel-Hamas Protests” on The New York Times Web site. I found the story on a page aggregating related stories of campus controversy. I was distressed with the title of that aggregation: “Antisemitism on U.S. Campuses.” Both the media and college administrators seem to believe that any public support for Palestinians on campus must be shut down, either because it is deemed misguided or because any support for the avoidance of killing innocent women and children in Gaza is an affront to Jewry. All too frequently, such demonstrations are labeled “antisemitic,” but disapproval of the actions of the Israeli government is not the same as disapproval of Jews generally, a point seemingly lost on The New York Times. The article paints a generally favorable picture of Columbia University president Nemat Shafik, who is being praised for her “diplomacy” in the handling of controversy involving Israel’s ongoing warfare in Gaza. Her “diplomacy” consists primarily of temporarily suspending two groups described as “pro-Palestinian” and meeting with interested groups, though not with either of the two suspended ones. Supposedly, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace were suspended for not having given 10 business days’ notice of their demonstrations. This is a technical requirement of the university, though one often overlooked. It is certainly not a rule designed to foster the free exchange of ideas on a university campus. Dr. Shafik has only been university president since last July. She is an economist whose experience is primarily in international finance. She is a former president of the London School of Economics, but she appears to be more of a finance person than an academic who understands free inquiry. What has happened at Columbia is reminiscent of the way student demonstrations were too often suppressed during the Vietnam War. Universities have often shown more sympathy for popular views than for unpopular ones. The Times reports: “… detractors said [Shafik] has bent too far to the demands of Israel supporters, angering students and some faculty members but keeping powerful donors and trustees mostly happy.” Universities have an obligation to keep order on campus and prevent students from intimidating one another, of course. But concern for the feelings of Jewish students on university campuses seems no different from the state of Florida’s mandating that students not be exposed to ideas that make them uncomfortable. The university that doesn’t make its students uncomfortable from time to time is not doing its job. The Israeli government has never shown much sympathy for Palestinians, and most Americans share that attitude. It is time to acknowledge, however, that the Israeli program of making Gaza uninhabitable and killing large numbers of its citizens, especially women and children, is a moral outrage. America’s support of that program is likewise an outrage. — LED, 12/29/2023 |
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