Two Hunter College Palestinian studies faculty applications for teaching issues such as apartheid and genocide were canceled on Tuesday, according to a City University of New York statement, after direction from New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
The social science and art and humanities job postings were removed from the public university system's website, with the CUNY Board of Trustees Chairperson William Thompson Jr. and Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez saying that they had agreed with the governor and ensured that her order was enacted.
“We find this language divisive, polarizing and inappropriate," the CUNY trustees said of the postings.
The job offers, which are still visible but inactive on CUNY's Linkedin page, would have seen successful applicants to last Thursday's humanities "Palestine Studies cluster hire" teach all aspects of Palestinian culture including but not limited to: Jerusalem studies, Ottoman Palestine, colonialism, British Mandate, diaspora, displacement, apartheid, art, literature, language, architecture, ethnomusicology, theater, film and media, museums and urbanism as well as contemporary culture."
The social science posting similarly sought a "historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine" that included "colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid."
Thompson and Rodríguez indicated in their statement that they perceived the postings as being related to campus antisemitism and hate.
In response to the job offer cancellations, CUNY For Palestine on Thursday called on supporters to protest a reported visit the same day by the governor to The City College of New York.
"This is an open call for anyone who opposes her blatant racism against Palestinians and her attacks on the Palestine movement to show up and hold her accountable," the pro-Palestinian group said on Instagram. "If you believe in Palestinian liberation and the right to organize without repression, organize to call her out."
Within Our Lifetime leader Nerdeen Kiswani also endorsed protests against Hochul during her visit, calling it arrogant to attack the CUNY pro-Palestinian movement and then make an appearance on a campus. The anti-Israel activist shared on social media Hochul's Thursday New York City itinerary.
"This racism must be confronted!" CUNY alum Kiswani said on X Wednesday. "Palestine will not be silenced!"
The cancellation of the job postings was criticized by CUNY for Palestine as the silencing of crucial scholarship. The activists also said that the equation of Palestinian activism with antisemitism was a smear.
Slamming Hochul
The CUNY group's Thursday Instagram post slammed Hochul as a fascist who had pushed CUNY for cracking down on student protests and ignoring campus Islamophobia.
The United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York thanked Hochul on X Wednesday "for taking decisive action against a course that would have promoted hate and antisemitic conspiracy theories atCUNY."
The American Jewish Committee also thanked Hochul, saying in a Wednesday press statement that candidates sought under such conditions would have furthered "a divisive, one-sided narrative that would have been replete with falsehoods about Israel."
AJC also said that while CUNY had recently taken measures to address the concerns of its Jewish students and faculty, the postings should never have been published in the first place.
Like many American academic institutions, the CUNY schools have seen a dramatic rise in aggressive anti-Israel activism since the October 7 Massacre.
In May, the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment seized the CUNY Graduate Center and Mina Rees Library. New York City Revolutionary Youth said that they placed a flag declaring “Long live armed resistance” in a library section they named after Palestinian terrorist Bassel al-Araj.
In September, the Hillel centers at Baruch and Hunter colleges were both picketed with banners reading “Bring the war home” and “Hillel go to hell.”
CUNY has been criticized by Jewish groups and government officials for failing to take a strong stance against such action.