CUNY's Shame - the Kushner case

The trustees of the City University of New York supported the political agenda of an intolerant board member and shunned one of America’s most important playwrights, Tony Kushner. CUNY decided to deny his honorary degree for political reasons. Mr. Kushner, who is Jewish, described the ousting of Palestinians from their homes in the 1940s as a form of “ethnic cleansing.” He has also said Israel is engaged in the deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture.

Obviously such politically incorrect remarks does not endear him to many Jews who have been on their immoral trajectory to support the case of Israel no matter how terrible the crimes of the pariah state are against the indigenous Palestinian people. The trustee responsible for blackballing Mr. Kushner is Jeffrey Wiesenfeld. Interestingly, one may recall that Wiesenfeld told The Times’s Jim Dwyer that some Palestinians are not human. So what kind of standard is CUNY upholding? Should not the school call for the resignation of Wiesenfeld for his obscene and racist remarks? Instead it chose to deny an honorary degree to a voice of conscience of our time. What a joke!

What are we coming to when a public university that is supposed to nurture free speech and free thought decides to quash them? Shame on CUNY!

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