5 March 2025
While President Trump threatens to halt federal funding to universities that tolerate further demonstrations, meaning of course demonstrations in support of an end to genocide in Gaza and justice for all Palestinians in the region, Governor Hochul of New York has ordered the removal of an advertisement for a post in Palestine studies, calling it “hateful rhetoric”. In the following article, Corey Robin (pictured), who teaches in the New York public university system, describes the damaging absurdity of Hochul’s intervention.
Kafka Comes to CUNY
02.28.25
Three days ago, the New York Post reported that Hunter College was looking to hire a scholar in Palestinian Studies. The job ad read:
We seek 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.
It took less than a New York minute for Governor Hochul to order the job listing taken down and for CUNY leaders to comply. According to Hochul’s office, “Hateful rhetoric of any kind has no place at CUNY or anywhere in New York State.” The hateful rhetoric in question? These words and phrases: “settler colonialism,” “genocide,” and “apartheid.”
If a scholar studying these historical phenomena cannot be hired at CUNY, if a job advertisement mentioning these historical phenomena cannot be posted at CUNY, it’s safe to say that it probably won’t be long before any course examining these phenomena cannot be taught at CUNY.
Let’s be clear about what this means. First, any Palestinian voices and history mentioning these phenomena would be taken out of the curriculum. Second, any anti-Zionist Jewish voices and history mentioning these phenomena would be taken out of the curriculum. And, third, any Jewish Zionist or pro-Israel voices and history that mention these phenomena would be taken out of the curriculum.
Let me give you a concrete example.
My wife’s grandparents were refugees from Nazi Germany who fled to the United States in the 1930s. After they died, my wife went through the trove of Judaica they had kept in their possession, some of which my wife now has. One book in their library stands out: An original edition of A Palestine Picture Book, published by Schocken in 1947, featuring photographs by Jakob Rosner for the Jewish National Fund.
The book has stunning photographs of Palestine, pre-1947.
It also has stunning text. Here are some example:
1. “It is barely forty years since the large-scale Jewish colonization of Palestine was begun. Despite natural and political handicaps, Jewish colonization, once begun, continued.”
2. “Long a barren waste, it has been transformed by Jewish settlers into a place of fertile fields and green gardens in a generation’s time.”
3. “Orange plantations now cover thousands of acres of the once water-starved coastal plain in dramatic contrast with the parched tracts of soil where colonization has not yet begun.”
4. “From Lake Chinnereth the Jordan flows through a wide valley studded with new and thriving Jewish settlements.”
5. “They have devoted their life and labor to the one aim of developing their settlements into strong and efficient units. Many of the new agricultural colonies are either.”
6. “…and landscaped prospects of the permanent settlement….All collective settlements…The fully developed settlements…the collective settlements…Some settlements…especially settlements…A number of settlements…brought upon a settlement…fathers and mothers of the young settlers, left Europe to join the settlements…When a settlement is founded…in every settlement…reproduces the work of the settlement…”
Virtually every page is a reference to colonies, colonists, settlers, and settlements. Put the words together, and what do you get? A concept and a text, written by Jews, that Governor Hochul, the leaders of CUNY, and the leaders of Hunter College have decided is hateful rhetoric that has no place at CUNY.
Please grasp the irony: In the name of protecting Jews against anti-Semitism, we would have the governor of New York and the chancellor of CUNY, neither of whom is Jewish, prohibiting the teaching of a Jewish text, written by Jews, published by Jews, featuring photographs taken by Jews for the Jewish National Fund, owned by my wife’s Jewish refugee grandparents, now owned by my Jewish wife.
The words censorship and academic freedom and McCarthyism and authoritarianism don’t even begin to describe the reality of what we’d be facing here: Jewish texts banned by non-Jews in the name of the Jews. It’s like a fable out of Kafka or a short story by Babel or a novella by Roth. I’d suggest we adopt one of those readings instead, but perhaps it won’t be too long before they would be banned, too.
