The president of Case Western Reserve College condemned a pupil authorities decision that calls on the Ohio college to divest from corporations that “immediately present weaponry, safety programs, prisons, or army assist for the unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territories” inside two years.
The decision was proposed by the campus chapter of College students for Justice in Palestine and authorized by the Undergraduate Scholar Authorities on Tuesday night time.
President Eric Kaler issued a assertion the next day calling the decision “profoundly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.”
“Passing this decision final night time undermines the security and luxury on our campus of members of our Jewish group,” he stated in an announcement. “Whereas the decision requires disinvestment in a naïve record of corporations that they view as oriented to the army or in assist of company correction prisons, undoubtedly it promotes anti-Semitism. A vote for this decision is clearly a vote towards Israel and an aggression in the direction of the Jewish members of our group.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy group, has referred to as on Kaler to retract his response, apologize and meet with Palestinian college students.
“President Kaler conflates the professional grievances of the Palestinian individuals with antisemitism and hate,” Julia Shearson, government director of CAIR’s Cleveland chapter, stated in an announcement. “In doing so, he commits the logical fallacy of attacking a straw man. Furthermore, he dismissively erases the attitude of the Palestinian college students on campus, a lot of whose fast households are immediately impacted by the Israeli occupation. If President Kaler needs to advertise the college’s said core values, he ought to cease denigrating Palestinian college students and as a substitute attain out to them and their allies on campus and pay attention with an unbiased ear to their views.”