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Columbia University announced plans to open a center in Tel Aviv, and faculty members have split on the idea, The New York Times reported.
The center was announced Monday. It will not host undergraduates. The center joins 10 other global centers in cities including Beijing, Istanbul, Paris and Nairobi, Kenya.
Faculty supporters say it would be unfair to single out Israel by opposing Columbia ties. “One does not have to support the policies of the current government of Israel—and many of us do not—to recognize that singling out Israel in this way is unjustified,” said a letter signed by 172 people, adding that opposition to the Tel Aviv center was based on the argument “that Israel be put in a special category of institutional disapproval that Columbia does not apply to the dozens of other countries where its students and faculty work.”
But 95 faculty members signed a letter opposing the new center.
“The state of Israel, through formal and informal law, policy and practice, refuses to abide by international human rights laws and norms both domestically and in its treatment of Palestinians,” the letter said.
