|
« AAUP Homepage
|
Middle East Studies Professors Draw Fire
By Gwendolyn Bradley
In February, the New York City Department of Education barred Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi from participating in a training program for secondary-school teachers after the New York Sun published an article critical of the professor. Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies and director of Columbia's Middle East Institute, had spoken about Middle Eastern culture and politics at two teacher-development workshops in the previous year. Neither speech occasioned controversy itself, but the Sun said that Khalidi should be disqualified from participating in the program because he had purportedly made remarks in the past attacking Israel.
The incident occurred in the context of an ongoing controversy at Columbia in which some students have accused Middle East studies professors of speaking out against Israel and creating a hostile learning environment for students who support it. In October, a group called the David Project produced a video titled Columbia Unbecoming, in which some pro-Israeli students charged that they had been intimidated inside and outside the classroom by pro-Palestinian professors in the department of Middle Eastern and Asian languages and cultures. The video triggered criticisms of the accused professors, and one received hate e-mail. Other students and faculty members denied that the alleged intimidation had taken place and one accused the pro-Israeli group of carrying out a "witch hunt," according to the New York Times. In response to the controversy, a five-member faculty committee was set up to investigate and report on the charges. Its report, issued in March, has itself become an object of criticism.
|