March 15, 2023
Dear Chancellor Matos Rodriguez,
We are heartened that you are addressing discrimination and antisemitism at CUNY and by your leadership of a visit to Israel by CUNY College Presidents to strengthen ties with universities in Israel and the West Bank.
We are therefore dismayed that the Online Portal for Students and Staff to Report Community Acts of Discrimination and Retaliation lists The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism as an External Resource. The Jerusalem Declaration seeks to remove barriers to the singular use of double standard in criticism of Israel and thereby undermines the fight against antisemitism.
Point 14 of the Jerusalem Declaration states:
Boycott, divestment and sanctions are commonplace, non-violent forms of political protest against states. In the Israeli case they are not, in and of themselves, antisemitic.
This statement is disingenuous. Boycott, divestment and sanctions are not commonplace. The very meaning of BDS in the world today is the boycott of Israel. BDS applies every negative trope about the Jewish people to the state of Israel. Rational people should understand what is in store for the Jews of Israel if BDS achieves its goals. It will be anything but “nonviolent.”
The Jerusalem Declaration brushes aside the firm stand against restrictions on speech of The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which states, “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” Ending the use of double standards against groups is the starting point of the fight against discrimination, not an impediment, just because it applies to Israel. Prejudice and discrimination will not vanish at CUNY or anywhere else as long as there is an exception made for a single group with regard to which belief in lies and readiness to apply a double standard are accepted and seen by many as a test of virtue.
Removing the Jerusalem Declaration from the online portal is fully consistent with your statement regarding the BDS Resolution Adopted by the CUNY School of Law Student Government Association.
Since the main tool used to dig into the wellspring of antisemitism by bodies within CUNY is the double standard employed to condemn Israel, any effort to stand against antisemitism at CUNY is doomed to failure if the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism is offered as a possible model for dealing with antisemitism. The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism should therefore be removed from CUNY’s portal to reporting on community acts of discrimination.
We ask that you meet with our group, the CUNY Alliance for Inclusion, which works to preserve civility and academic integrity at CUNY. We are ready to engage with you and your office on issues that touch us deeply. These issues need urgent attention if CUNY is to maintain a welcoming, free, and vigorous social and intellectual climate.
Sincerely,
The CUNY Alliance for Inclusion