I remember how it was -- JR
Union College facing outrage over student who said pro-Israel rally attendees should ‘burn in hell’
Top brass at Union College is facing outrage from students, faculty and alumni alike after an undergraduate said attendees of a recent a pro-Israel benefit on the New York liberal arts school’s campus should “burn in hell.”
Ayah Osman, a junior at Union College, got into an altercation over the “atrocious” comment after being confronted by Stephen Berk, a professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies at the college who questioned the student about a social media post.
In an Instagram Story, Osman said that everyone who attends a Bingo night on campus to “benefit Israeli victims of terror” gets “a free guaranteed spot in hell.”
A clip of the heated exchange between Berk and Osman was posted to X by nonprofit watchdog StopAntisemitism. In it, Osman can be heard saying: “Professor, you called me a disgrace, but I think it’s very important to note how irresponsible it was of you…to completely misrepresent what I said.”
“I never said that all Jewish people should go to hell,” Osman added.
Berk replied: “I said that what you said what that people who attended that rally should burn in hell. Do you stand by that?”
“I do,” Osman said.
Berk told The Post that he believes Osman’s “really talking about all supporters of Israel.” He added that Osman’s “inflammatory” comments have made “Jewish students more nervous” on campus for the first time in the 56 years he’s taught at the school.
“There’s been no rebuke of this [Osman’s] statement whatsoever,” Berk said. “What should be done is a public repudiation of what this young woman said and we have yet to get that.”
Attempts to reach Osman for comment weren’t immediately successful.
Union College President David Harris has yet to comment on Osman’s remarks or any displays of antisemitism on campus, including the pro-Palestine event that emeritus professor Tom Lobe hosted on Wednesday called the “Humanitarian Crisis in Palestine.”
“Hate – whether it be antisemitism, Islamophobia or hatred toward any other group of people – has no place at Union, and the College works every day to combat hate through education and constructive dialogue,” a Union College spokesman said in a Thursday statement to The Post.
“The College has robust and well-established processes for investigating claims of bias and responds to every such allegation thoroughly,” the spokesman added. “Neither the existence of such investigations, nor the results, are shared by the College in accordance with federal privacy laws.”
Andrew Sole, a hedge fund manager at Esopus Creek Advisors who graduated from Union College in 1986 and was a student of Prof. Berk, said he “will not consider donating a dime to Union, nor should other alums, until Harris resigns forthwith.”
Sole added that it was “revolting to watch this antisemite at Union try to impugn Prof. Berk and smear Jews.”
A Change.org petition that has gained 4,500 signatures has since called on Union College to expel Osman, who has “tarnished the inclusive image of our institution” with her remarks and caused “distress among the Jewish students on campus.”
“When questioned about her inflammatory remarks regarding attendees at an Israel-supporting rally…she showed no remorse or understanding for the harm she was causing,” the petition’s description reads.
Berk declined to comment on whether he agreed that Osman should be expelled — “that’s an administrative decision,” he said.
Cigdem Cidam, an associate professor of political science at Union College, moderated the pro-Palestine event, according to a post on an Instagram page for the school’s political science department.
Union College’s political science department has disabled comments on the post.
Ten student groups on campus sponsored and attended the one-day “presentation and discussion on the humanitarian crisis in Palestine,” the post said, including the Muslim Student Association (MSA), Black Student Union (BSU), Women’s U, MAMBA, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Asian Student Union (ASU), African Student Association (ASA), World Around U (international students association), Bhangra and Cricket Club.
Signatories to the change.org petition who commented under “reasons for signing,” included a man named Scott, who identified himself as a 2008 Union College “alumnus horrified by this breach in the code of conduct.”
https://nypost.com/2023/11/02/business/petition-demands-union-college-expel-pro-palestine-student/
****************************************************CUNY professor, ex-CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill says Hamas a ‘government organization,’ not terrorists
Al Jazeera host and CUNY professor Marc Lamont Hill slammed the media for “framing” Hamas as terrorists as a way to delegitimize the group instead of calling it a “government organization” despite its control of Gaza.
Last week, Hill appeared on Briahna Joy Gray’s “Bad Faith” podcast after he hosted a Hamas spokesperson on his Al Jazeera English (AJE) program “UpFront.”
Hill suggested Hamas would be willing to speak with other news organizations but that the media refuses to do so because of the group’s terrorist status.
“I’m not convinced that they’re unwilling to talk to these other networks. It seems to me that other corporate media outlets have made the decision that they don’t want to be in conversation with them, and part of why is because they’ve decided to frame them as a terrorist network,” Hill said.
“And when you have Netanyahu and others saying that they’re no different than… ISIS, then it becomes- you wouldn’t do an exclusive with ISIS on CNN so they’re not going to do one with Hamas,” Hill continued. “And it’s part of a broader project, I think, of framing Hamas not as a government organization – even if you think that what happened on October 7 was an act of terrorism – by framing them as a terrorist organization rather than a government, rather than a democratically-elected government and/or political party, it makes it easy to avoid political and diplomatic solutions.”
Hill repeatedly insisted he was not a supporter of Hamas but said he understands “what happens when you take away people’s political options, and you isolate them.”
Oct. 7 was the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust, as Hamas invaded Israel and killed at least 1,400 soldiers and civilians including women, children and the elderly.
Hundreds more were kidnapped and taken into Gaza.
Most news organizations in America have referred to Hamas as a terrorist organization, but other foreign outlets, like the BBC initially, refused to do so.
BBC’s world affairs editor John Simpson explained to viewers, “Terrorism is a loaded word, which people use about an outfit they disapprove of morally. It’s simply not the BBC’s job to tell people who to support and who to condemn – who are the good guys and who are the bad guys… We don’t take sides. We don’t use loaded words like ‘evil’ or ‘cowardly’. We don’t talk about ‘terrorists’.”
Following overwhelming backlash, the British broadcaster was forced to do an about-face and acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization rather than referring to the group as “militants.”
Hill was fired from CNN in 2018 when he called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” an expression widely seen as a declaration for the elimination of Israel, during a speech at the United Nations. He addressed the controvsery on the podcast with Gray.
“The people who were critical of me would argue that I was echoing a specific chant from Hamas, who, when they were formed in 1987, were saying, ‘We don’t support a two-state solution.’ Right? ‘We’re a liberation organization, and we want all of historic Palestine to be returned to the Palestinian people,’ which was, frankly, the default position of the Arab world between 1948 and 1967, right, was that all of historic Palestine would be returned to Arabs,” Hill told Gray.
**************************************************
Australia must teach young people technology skills, says WiseTech’s Richard White
Richard White, one of Australia’s most successful tech entrepreneurs, told the Economic and Social Outlook Conference on Thursday it was “incredibly wasteful” for Australian companies to be forced to use overseas talent to fill their need for technology skills.
Mr White, founder and CEO of $20bn logistics software company WiseTech Global, said Australia needed to “break the mould” and use “non-traditional thinking” to succeed in giving more young people tech skills.
He told the conference technology companies were Australia’s economic future, and they were driven by education. But the lack of trained technology talent meant our companies were at war with each other to secure skills.
“If you haven’t got the talent in the economy, you have to fight for the last person standing … you are fighting over scraps,” Mr White said. The other option was to import talent “but as a continuous solution, particularly for the long term, it doesn’t work”.
Mr White said efforts to boost STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education had failed. “We have talked about STEM voraciously for 10 years, and yet our engagement with mathematics, science and engineering has fallen,” he said.
“Something’s wrong, and it’s not about more money because we put a lot more money in and didn’t get better results.”
Mr White, who began his career as guitarist in a rock band, then turned to repairing electric guitars and developing computer-controlled stage lighting before entering the logistics software business, said tech jobs were “very secure and extremely well paid”.
“They’re very diverse. They’ll hire anybody that has the requisite skills. And yet, only 4.7 per cent of students undertake tertiary studies in that computing area,” he said, adding reform in education needed to start when children were young.
Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research director Abigail Payne said Australia had a higher youth unemployment rate than many comparable countries, even now, when demand for labour was high.
Professor Payne said too few young Australians were going on to tertiary education and the system was too rigid, forcing school leavers to make early career choices. “Why do we keep thinking you know at 16 what you want to do in life? Why aren’t we creating greater flexibility?” she asked.
Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson told the conference that Australia’s school standards were a “national embarrassment”.
******************************************************
My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
******************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment