CrossFireArabia
Columbia University could terminate prominent law school professor, Katherine Franke, over comments showing concern over a university program that allows Israeli soldiers to join campus and attack Palestinian students, reported the Intercept.
The university has ousted law professor Katherine Franke as part of an investigation that followed an interview on “Democracy Now!” in January. During that interview, Franke was asked about reports that two Israeli students, who served in the Israeli occupation army, had sprayed a chemical at students, who were protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza according to the Al Quds News Network.
Franke responded stating that “Columbia has a program with older students from other countries, including Israel… It’s something that many of us were concerned about because so many of those Israeli students who then come to the campus are coming right out of their military service. And they’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus, and it’s something the university has not taken seriously in the past.”
Israel’s media and lobby claimed that Franke was calling to ban all Israeli students from campus.
“What’s of greatest concern is not really my 20-year-plus career at Columbia, but what this says about peaceful protest on our campuses, around the lives and dignity of Palestinians,” Franke told The Intercept.
“What’s happening to me is happening to our students, it’s happened to people on many other campuses. And it’s, to me, shocking at a place like Columbia — which prides itself on being a home for, if not only tolerating, maybe welcoming student engagement with public events or public affairs like the crisis in the Middle East. And yet they’re punishing me and others for standing up for our students who I think are engaging in appropriate protest.”
Franke is one of several Columbia staff to face investigation, many of whom have defended Palestinian rights stated Al Quds News Network.
