An adjunct professor at CUNY accused Israel of carrying out 75 years of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” against Palestinians during a rally at the school’s Graduate Center in Manhattan Wednesday — just months after the school was probed by the city over accusations of antisemitism.
Speaking through a megaphone to a gathering of more than 100 students, the unidentified teacher also accused the US government of supporting Israel for “capitalist” reasons alone, and called out politicians who she said failed to support pro-Palestinian movements.
“Eric Adams is telling lies to paint our movement anti-Semitic, but it is not” she said, calling out New York City’s mayor while the crowd cheered in response.
The statements come at a particularly fraught time after the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas on Israel which have left 1,400 dead.
She also singled out New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for allegedly not supporting Palestinians.
The teacher’s words were met with chants of “Judaism, yes, Zionism, no!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a statement many consider to be anti-Semitic by calling for the eradication of Israel from the Mediterranean coast to the Jordan River.
NYC Councilman Charles Barron, a CUNY schools graduate, later took the microphone and made further incendiary claims including promting fringe views such as Israelis being “European converts to Judaism” who had no claim over their land.
“For 75 years they have taken Palestinian land and been trying to justify it saying they were the Jews of the Bible and this is their promised land,” Barron claimed.
“The Jews of the Bible were black. These are European converts to Judaism who stole Palestinian land. It is not their promised land.”
Barron’s claims represent a niche interpretation of history which is not widely held by most scholars. Historically, the Jewish people have been a diaspora who spread across Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East centuries ago.
Modern day Israel was founded in 1948 and is as a home to Jewish people of all backgrounds originating from around the world, as well as Arabs.
“I want to express my solidarity with my beloved Palestinian people. We got to have spine in the city council. We can’t be kowtowed and afraid of the Israeli lobby,” he said.
Palestinian people live in two areas in the region, The West Bank and the Gaza strip, the latter of which has been controlled by Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US, since 2007.
A first-year CUNY student who spoke accused anyone who doesn’t have a hardline stance on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people of being the cause of “genocide.”
“To everyone who wants to have a general stance, you are uneducated and you are the reason we have a genocide,” she said.
A number of passing taxis honked in time with chants of “Free, free Palestine!” while demonstrators held signs reading “CUNY teachers stand with Palestine,” and “CUNY stands with Palestine.”
“When people are colonized, resistance is justified!” the crowd also chanted.
Back in May, the NYC Council opened a probe into alleged antisemitism in the CUNY school system and other college campuses in the city. It came after faculty at the CUNY School of Law endorsed a resolution calling for the school to divest itself of any investments tied to Israel, which it called “complicit in the ongoing apartheid, genocide, and war crimes” against Palestinian people.
The rally on Wednesday was the latest held on a CUNY campus in support of Palestinian interests since Hamas launched is bloody sneak attack on Israel.
The midtown demonstration was met with about 10 counter-protestors who carried Israeli flags.
Some passersby called the protesters “murderers,” and they responded with “genociders.”
CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez issued a statement saying he was “horrified” by Hamas’ attack, and called end to all violence in the region.