District 11 City Councilman Eric Dinowitz released a statement on Monday, July 26, in support of over 50 professors at the City University of New York who resigned from their union, the Professional Staff Congress of CUNY (PSC-CUNY), in response to a resolution passed by the union on June 10 which condemned Israeli government actions against Palestinians during the latest wave of violence which occurred in Gaza in May and June 2021.

 

Dinowitz said that in the resolution, PSC-CUNY called Israel an “apartheid” state and considered supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a movement which, according to the website, https://bdsmovement.net/, works “to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.”

 

The councilman said the resolution comes at a time when the Jewish community is facing a sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks in New York City, and amid backlash following the decision by ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s, “to boycott Israel.” Dinowitz said, “I strongly stand with the Professional Staff Congress members who resigned from their faculty union, following its recent passage of an anti-Semitic resolution.”

“The resolution, and its anti-Semitic sentiment, led over 50 members to end their association with an organization meant to protect their rights and fight for better wages and working conditions,” Dinowitz added. “This marginalization of members is antithetical to the principles of organized labor, and with their resolution, PSC-CUNY has chosen to side with an internationally recognized terrorist organization rather than the only democracy in the region, a democracy whose coalition legislature includes Arab-Israelis.”

 

The councilman continued, “A one-sided narrative disguised as support for the Palestinian people is offensive, and painfully reminiscent of the historical scapegoating of Jewish people. In my role as chair of the City Council’s Jewish caucus, I will work tirelessly to end discrimination towards Jewish New Yorkers and any marginalized communities throughout our city, unaccompanied by bias of any kind.”

 

Last year, Dinowitz spoke to the Norwood News about his previous work as a teacher to increase awareness and education around anti-semitism and hate symbols, as reported.

 

More recently, after a joint walking tour of Norwood in June with Democratic mayoral candidate, Eric Adams, and in the context of discussions around services for U.S. veterans, the councilman said, “There are certain things that we take for granted. My children are descendants of Holocaust survivors, and if not for the intervention of our service members, the U.S. Army, I don’t need to complete that sentence, right?”

 

He continued, “When I have a moment to sit back and think, I, in my own family, am a direct beneficiary of the work of them laying their lives on the line and so that’s a story of millions of us, whether it’s our families, our freedoms that we take for granted so they [veterans] should be getting all the help they deserve.”

 

Norwood News later spoke with the councilman about the latest wave of violence that erupted in May and June in Gaza and we asked him if, in his opinion, it was fair to distinguish between critiquing the policies of the Israeli government and anti-Semitism. He replied, “Let me put it this way. That we are able to have legitimate criticisms of a foreign government, like Israel, is due to the fact that we, here, have that freedom of the press. and that Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, has the freedom of the press.”

The councilman continued, “Of course, there are legitimate criticisms of any government. I have those criticisms of our own government here in the United States, but when those criticisms turn into swastikas, when it turns into bricks and shuls [Yiddish word for school/synagogue] and shuls being lit on fire, and Jews being beaten in the street, it moves beyond legitimate criticism of the only democracy in the Middle East and becomes anti-semitism.”

 

In reference to clashes between Palestinian-Americans and Jewish-Americans in New York City, Dinowitz said, “And I think, as is often the case, that’s what it always was. In many cases, it never was about Israel. We have Jews being beaten in the street and so when you step back and think, was it ever about legitimate criticism of a government, or was it about something else? You think, well, it was probably always anti-semitism.”

 

We asked the councilman if he could empathize with protestors who took to the streets in New York to support Palestine amid news of so much violence and injury in Gaza or if he saw such protests as simply, straight-forward anti-semitism, unrelated to what was happening in Gaza.

He replied, “Sounds like victim blaming to me. I don’t know what else to call that.. Jews being beaten up…What do you call it when you blame the person being beaten up on something, without even commenting on what’s happening in Israel? What else do you call it if Jews are being beaten up besides victim blaming, if there’s even an insinuation that it’s somehow that Jewish person’s fault for being beaten up….. victim blaming and anti-semitism.” He added, “The legitimate conversation around polices in the Middle East are separate from violence in New York City, violence that we’ve seen here in the Bronx.”

 

In the PSC-CUNY resolution, the union wrote that as an academic labor union committed to anti-racism, academic freedom, and international solidarity among workers, PSC-CUNY could not be silent about what it described as “the continued subjection of Palestinians to the state-supported displacement, occupation, and use of lethal force by Israel.”

 

The resolution referenced the escalating violence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Gaza, beginning on May 15, 2021, which “resulted hundreds of Palestinians being killed, thousands more injured, and the destruction of entire neighborhoods, including hospitals, schools, and residences.”

The union went on to reference that on May 18, 2021, Palestinian workers across the region staged a general “strike for dignity,” as a demonstration of unity and support for the residents of what they referred to as targeted communities, and that “Israel’s pattern and practice of dispossession and expansion of settlements, dating back to its establishment as a settler colonial state in 1948, has been found to be illegal under international law, by international human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch, [that] B’Tselem has designated the practices of Israel as ‘apartheid‘ and a regime of legalized racial discrimination perpetrated against the Palestinian people.”

 

According to the website, https://www.btselem.org/, B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, “strives to end Israel’s occupation, recognizing that this is the only way to achieve a future that ensures human rights, democracy, liberty and equality to all people, Palestinian and Israeli alike, living on the bit of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”

 

The union also referenced the fact that the International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into Israel’s practices, and that PSC-CUNY “condemns racism in all forms, including anti-Semitism, and recognizes that criticisms of Israel, a diverse nation-state, are not inherently anti-Semitic.”

PSC-CUNY referred to Israel’s “state-sponsored policies of settler colonialism” and said such policies linked the Palestinian struggle for self determination to the struggles of indigenous people and people of color in the United States, and that since World War II, Israel has been the largest overall recipient of U.S. foreign aid, including $3.8 billion in 2020, the vast majority of which has been military assistance.

 

The union said that by failing to challenge the U.S. government’s support for Israeli expansionism and what it called violent incursions in the occupied territories, U.S. labor organizations have largely given approval to these policies.

 

Union representatives added that in 2016, the PSC-CUNY “Resolution on the Freedom of Speech and Assembly for All Faculty, Staff and Students at the City University of New York” affirmed the right of faculty, staff, and students to advocate for campaigns of boycott, divestment, and sanctions without penalty, as protected freedom of speech.

 

It therefore resolved that PSC-CUNY condemn “the massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli state;” and further resolved that in fall 2021, that PSC-CUNY facilitate discussions to consider PSC support of the 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS).

 

Lastly, PSC-CUNY resolved to “call on the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to stop all aid funding human rights violations and an occupation that is illegal under international law.”

If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza.

The fighting has left thousands of Palestinians homeless, & forced over 50,000 people to seek shelter in @UNRWA schools, mosques, & other places with little access to water, food, hygiene – @antonioguterres pic.twitter.com/L1uAxu3s0O

— UN Spokesperson (@UN_Spokesperson) May 20, 2021

The full text of the resolution can be read here.

 

Supporters of Palestine gathered outside the 43rd precinct in the Bronx on May 31, to raise awareness of the violence in Gaza, as seen in the attached video, reported by the Daily Mail UK.

 

Meanwhile, in the wake of what the #EndJewHatred movement call Ben & Jerry’s anti-Semitic decision to stop selling ice-cream in parts of Israel, elected officials, religious leaders, and community advocates are holding a protest to #EndJewHatred at Ben & Jerry’s, located at 200 W. 44th St., in Manhattan on Thursday, Aug. 12, to oppose what they call anti-Semitic and illegal commercial boycotts against Jewish people and the Jewish state.

 

The protest comes as officials in at least 5 states – Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois – have expressed their “deep concern” and intentions to evaluate whether to divest their public pension funds from Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever. According to the #EndJewHatred movement, local NYC institutions, such as Morton Williams and Gristedes have already reduced their offerings of Ben & Jerry’s products in New York.

 

According to the protest organizers, activists and community leaders will hand out free ice cream and educational materials about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and will call for a “week of action” at Ben & Jerry’s stores and properties around the world.

 

 

The group is calling for a boycott of Ben & Jerry’s and a complete State divestment from its parent company, Unilever, unless Unilever reverses what the protestors call a bigoted and discriminatory decision. Representatives from the #EndJewHatred movement said they are mobilizing thousands of activists, starting with Thursday’s Manhattan protest to end what it calls racism in corporate policies.

 

On June 2, Congressman Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) released the following statement, saying “We are deeply concerned about the increasing anti-Semitic expressions and violence in American streets and globally. We urge U.S. political, civic and faith leaders to denounce the use of hateful, anti-Semitic rhetoric which endangers not only the Jewish community, but also damages our national social fabric.”

 

He continued, “Similar expressions of antisemitism are a problem in Latin America as well, a region hit particularly hard by the pandemic and facing prospects of severe economic and civil decline. We notice with deep concern an erosion of democratic rule, the rise of authoritarianism, and the growing malign influence of China, Russia, and Iran.”

 

The congressman concluded, “Our Caucus will continue to work to strengthen trilateral ties among the United States, Latin America, and Israel based on shared values and growing common interests. We will continue to build bridges between our nation’s Jewish and Latino communities, for communities who have faced discrimination and hate must always stand in solidarity.”

 

In terms of hate crimes in New York City, the NYPD confirmed that citywide, through Aug. 8, 2021, there have been a total of 355 hate crimes, of which 117 were anti-Semitic. Meanwhile, recorded year-to-date anti-Muslim hate crimes as of Aug. 8, 2021 amounted to 8. There were 2 recorded during 2020.

The NYPD said that the referenced hate crime task force statistics may be subject to change as “active possible bias” cases can be reclassified to “non-bias” cases and removed from those counted statistics, upon investigation.

 

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story referred to “Jewish protestors,” in one sentence. We have updated this sentence to “the #EndJewHatred movement” as this is the name of the group which is organizing the rally outside Ben & Jerry’s on Aug. 12. We have also updated the story to put the words “to boycott Israel” in quotes to demonstrate that this wording was based on Councilman Dinowitz’s full statement.