The White Paper Report on the manner in which Brooklyn College handled the controversial BDS event is nothing short of a white wash. It clearly minimizes both the galactic mismanagement of the event which included Brooklyn College administrators’ decision to hand decision making power over to an individual who was not even a CUNY student, and the obvious discriminatory decision to remove four students who were obviously Jewish from the event for no apparent reason.

The report also fails to discuss, for even a moment, the process by which the Brooklyn College Political Science Department chose to sponsor this event and not others, nor does it discuss a long term pattern by which Jewish students in the Political Science Department on this campus are denied the same academic freedom as are others.

When I chose to oppose the official sponsorship of this hateful speech by the Brooklyn College Political Science Department, some charged that I was an opponent of academic freedom. I insisted then, as I do now, that nothing could be further from the truth. What occurred at this event underscores my point—that in the absence of balance and fairness, not all students on the campus enjoy a sense of academic freedom, and that academic freedom also applies to students and not just professors.

The report concludes that because other obviously Jewish students were not removed from the event, that their obvious Jewish background did not play a role in their wrongful removal. That reasoning is absurd on its face: the fact that not all Jews were discriminated against does not preclude that some Jews were discriminated against. Clearly, as the report notes, there is no credible evidence that these 4 students had done anything wrong whatsoever-their obvious religious background and the fact that they had clearly come prepared to defend their position resulted in their wrongful expulsion. And try as they might to wash their hands of the responsibility for the event that they had officially sponsored, Brooklyn College administrators participated in this wrongful expulsion.

One wonders what consequences there will be for these administrators, who not only assisted in this act of discrimination but who were also condemned by this report for “mismanaging” just about every aspect of this event.

Of course, the report barely comments on the decision allegedly made by the students at this college-sponsored event to exclude the press….or the fact that a non-student affiliated with the group selectively chose to allow certain press members to attend. But, naturally, that attendance list did not include the Daily News reporter who wore a yarmulke. Coincidence? Does academic freedom not include a constitutional right to a free press? Could Brooklyn College have evicted 4 Jewish students who had done nothing had a free press been in full attendance?

This report fails. It does not call for a uniform standard for the sponsorship of events by a college department or at least a uniform and transparent process for making such decisions. It does not question why the college turned over decisions about press and security—and the removal of 4 innocents—to a pro-Palestinian activist who was not a CUNY student. It does not suggest or call for any repercussions for administrators who willingly assisted the removal of 4 Jewish students at a college-sponsored event. It does not insist that there be protocols and procedures for the admission of a free press at college-sponsored events. Nor does it look at context: the history of one-sidedness from this faculty, department or college administration on issues regarding the Middle-East.

Was this the academic freedom that others claimed to be supporting, or can we now see that true academic freedom is a two way street and the Brooklyn College street continues to be one-way.

I urge the CUNY Administration to take appropriate steps and not hide behind this white wash report.

(YWN Desk – NYC)