LONDON: City University of New York has been ordered to remove a job advertisement for a Palestinian studies professor by the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul.
The listing, for the university’s Hunter College, said CUNY was looking for “a historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality.”
Hochul instructed the advert be removed after a backlash from several Jewish groups. Pro-Israel group StopAntisemitism posted on X that the listing was an “antisemitic blood libel.”
A spokesperson for Hochul told the New York Post that the governor had directed CUNY “to immediately remove this job posting and conduct a thorough review of the position to ensure that antisemitic theories are not promoted in the classroom.”
In a joint statement, the university’s chancellor, Felix Rodriguez, and its board of trustees chair, William Thompson Jr., said they “strongly agree with Governor Hochul’s direction to remove this posting, which we have ensured Hunter College has since done.”
However, the decision has prompted complaints from faculty members at CUNY, with the staff union saying in an open letter to Hochul and Rodriguez: “We strongly object to your removal of a job posting for a Palestinian Studies faculty position as a violation of academic freedom at Hunter College.
“We oppose antisemitism and all forms of hate, but this move is counterproductive. It is an overreach of authority to rule an entire area of academic study out of bounds.”
CUNY has been the setting for multiple pro-Palestine protests since the Gaza war started. Numerous demonstrators have been arrested on campus, while The Nation reported earlier this month that members of the student body were being investigated by the university for their roles in leading protests and boycotts of Israel.
