“The president of Brooklyn College is wrong when she says that departments should have the right to selectively sponsor and endorse only one side of a controversy. That is a long step on the road to turning academic departments into biased, partisan, and one-sided propaganda centers, reminiscent of “political science” departments in the former Soviet Union that “encouraged” their students to follow the official party line.”
— Alan Dershowitz
In a post that appeared on the Friday Newsmax blog, a solid Brooklynite, nationally recognized defender of civil liberties and a strong supporter of Israel, Alan Morton Dershowitz gave us a very simple litmus test to judge the validity of some of the standards of "free speech and academic freedom" now being applied at Brooklyn College to the current debate about its Poli-sci Department’s open support of a pro-BDS program scheduled at Brooklyn College later this week (See “Alan Dershowitz: Does Brooklyn College Pass the 'Shoe on the Other Foot' Test?” by Alan M. Dershowitz, 2/1/13, Newsmax [http://www.newsmax.com/US/bds-movement-dershowitz-brooklyn/2013/02/01/id/488533...]
Mr. D first posits that “[t]he decision by the Brooklyn College Political Science Department to endorse the BDS movement—which includes the boycotting of Jewish-Israeli academics—has been ‘justified’ on freedom of speech and academic freedom grounds by the chairman of the department.” And Dershowitz goes on to point out, “Brooklyn College’s president has said that departments have the right to sponsor one-sided partisan events.” Then he makes the query, “Let’s see if these ‘justifications’ pass the ‘shoe-on-the-other-foot’ test.”
Then the real Harvard guy* hammers the Harvard of Bedford Avenue with these reduxios: “What would these administrators say if the philosophy department were to officially endorse the right to life and oppose a woman’s right to choose abortion? What if the economics department had officially endorsed Mitt Romney during last year’s election? What if the Spanish department had voted to endorse an academic boycott against Cuban or Venezuelan professors? What if the department of religion were to officially condemn homosexuality?”
Dershowitz starts off his devastating conclusion against the BC boneheads with “I can assure you that both the lyrics and the music would be very different....”; as in, they’d be singing a different tune – out of the other side of their mouth [Okay, I added in the last part to help out the Harvard guy a bit]. At any rate, the Dershowitz Newsmax piece is pretty good and worth a read, even without my added extras.
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* Mr. Dershowitz has long been associated Harvard University, because he holds the Felix Frankfurter Chair at Harvard Law School, however it should be noted that he is an alumnus of Brooklyn College and then went to law school at Yale.
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UPDATE: Top Brooklyn mayoral candidate William Thompson has succeeded in getting out-in-front of the rest of the mayoral field on the issue of the Brooklyn College supported anti-Israel BDS program ( See “NYC Mayoral Candidiate (Sic) Blasts Brooklyn College for BDS Event. – New York City Democratic mayoral candidate joined in the chorus of opposition directed at Brooklyn College for co-sponsoring BDS event.” by Rachel Hirshfeld, 1/3/13, Aretz Sheva 7/www.IsraelNationalNews.com [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/164840#.UQ7ouB0rWik]).
According to posted reports, New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson appeared at the rally at Brooklyn College Thursday and ripped that major division of CUNY for its plan to hold a BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) event against Israel with the co-sponsorship of the school’s Political Science Department. Speaking along with Assemblyman Dov Hikind and other political heavyweights in the Brooklyn Jewish community, Thompson said, “Those are our taxpayer dollars. We should not be using those dollars to express hate.”
Thompson also posted this very pithy statement to his website: ““New York has always been a city where people from all backgrounds come together. We will not allow it to become a place where communities are driven apart. Taxpayer funded institutions, like Brooklyn College, should not endorse divisive rhetoric, whether it’s anti-Israel, anti-Arab, or targeting any particular group. *** The 1st Amendment right of free speech extends to every single American, including those we may disagree with. However, it doesn’t mean a city college should endorse that speech. *** I call on Brooklyn College to end its support of this anti-Israel forum. As mayor, I will bring together New Yorkers from all backgrounds for constructive dialogue that fosters tolerance and cooperation among all.” ( See “NYC Mayoral Candidate Bill Thompson Blasts Brooklyn College for Anti Israel BDS Event,” 2/1/13, the algemeiner BETA (a) [http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/02/01/nyc-mayoral-candidate-bill-thompson-blasts-brooklyn-college-for-bds-event/]).
It should be noted that Thompson was not alone among the Democratic candidates to be critical of Brooklyn College; City Council members Quinn and DeBlazio both joined in a letter initiated by Congressman Jerrold Nadler condemning Brooklyn College’s support of the BDS event. However, Thompson's presence at the rally at Brooklyn College and his multiple personal statements in opposition to the Brooklyn College sponsored event clearly puts Bill Thompson at the head of the pack on the hot-button issue.
Based on published reports, the only Republican that spoke up enough to be heard by the media was George McDonald. According to Mr. McDonald, Brooklyn College “crossed the line in allowing the political science department to use taxpayer dollars to co-sponsor an anti Israel forum.” He also noted that [BDS] advocates had compared Israelis to Nazis, and praised terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as "social movements that are progressive."’ Republican mayoral candidate McDonald concluded by saying that “Free speech is a cornerstone of our democracy, academic freedom is essential but hate speech can never be condoned, let alone funded with taxpayers dollars.”
Why are most of the city’s Republican officials and Republican-leaning candidates for mayor missing the boat on the very important issue of Brooklyn College's fostering the anti-Israel BDS event on February 7th?
BACKDATE: Azi Paybarah announced “...Add Councilman Jumaane Williams to the chorus of elected officials criticizing Brooklyn College, which is co-sponsoring an upcoming lecture from two speakers who support divestment from, and boycotting of, Israel...” and his headline goes at least one step further saying “Jumaane Williams joins the chorus against a Brooklyn College lecture about Israel” (See Azi Paybarah’s 2/1/13 post “Jumaane Williams joins the chorus against a Brooklyn College ....” on Paybarah's blog “This is How New York Works – CAPITAL” [http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/02/7488550/jumaane-williams-joins-chorus-against-brooklyn-college-lecture-abou]
However, digging into the item posted by Mr. Paybarah would show that Councilman Williams’ (another Brooklyn public official who graduated from Brooklyn College) in his letter to the BC president, though somewhat critical of the upcoming BDS event and specifically in “support [of] the views that ha[d] been expressed by my fellow alumnus Alan Dershowitz in this matter,” actually was making a constructive middle-ground suggestion to remedy the brouhaha over what at this point is clearly an “anti-Israel” presentation. According to Azi Paybarah’s report, “Williams said he wanted to see ‘both sides of this hot-button matter to be discussed with equity, preferably in the same forum...'." On the other hand, Councilman William's was equally clear that "If that cannot be accomplished, I urge the removal of the department’s sponsorship of this event."
Why is it just one republican I never heard before?
Why aren't republicans like Golden in to this?
The COnservtive cHristian Republicans are suppose't be strong supporters of the State of Israel and pm Bibi Netanyahu. Is it's Stae Senator Golden is a conservative christian republican.
From what I have learned in reaching out and researching the rally opposing the BDS Conference, at least two independent Brooklyn Republicans have spoken out against the anti-Israel conference scheduled for Thursday, February 7th -- Brooklyn Young Republican President Glenn Nocera and Brooklyn Tea Party President Joseph Hayon.
Hayon was the only clearly self-identifying Republican at last week's rally at Brooklyn College to protest the upcoming anti-Israel BDS program. In his capacity as Brooklyn Young Republican President, Nocera posted a Facebook note to the Brooklyn College President indicating his dissatisfaction at the Brooklyn College President's decision to allow this week's BDS Conference to go forward, and to protest that it is co-sponsored by one of Brooklyn College's Departments.
UPDATE: “Republican” Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets all “Ivory Tower” about the Brooklyn College BDS protesters and then says they belong in North Korea —
Bloomberg is the guy that Brooklyn Republican Chairman Craig Eaton keeps holding up as his bold and brilliant political stroke because of his 2009 endorsement of Bloomberg — that was after Bloomberg ceased being a Republican or a religious observer of term limits. Bloomberg also remains a pfobrssmg (political friend of Brooklyn Republican State Senator Martin Golden - especially since "Marty" voted for the SAFE anti-gun law).
Mayor Mike Bloomberg says he’s a supporter of Israel and then says it’s wrong to stand up for Israel when it is under attack at a publicly funded institution like CUNY’s Brooklyn College (See Colin Campbell’s post “ACADEMIA – Bloomberg Suggests North Korea as a Home for Brooklyn College Critics.” Politicker, 2/6/13 [http://politicker.com/2013/02/bloomberg-suggests-north-korea-as-a-home-for-brooklyn-college-critics/]
Maybe Brooklyn Republicans like Eaton and Golden want to stay on lame duck but big bucks Bloomberg’s good side; and that’s why they have kept their mouths shut about today’s partially publicly-supported anti-Israel BDS program at Brooklyn College. At least if Eaton and Golden said so, we’d know it was on their radar-screen; so far it’s been more than a week that the anti-BDS rally of Brooklyn Pols has been in the news and not a peep from anybody in the Brooklyn GOP establishment, including Golden and Eaton. The only Brooklyn Republicans to have spoken out are independent Republicans Joseph Hayon and Glenn Nocera.
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