Mayoral wannabe Zohran Mamdani joins other lefty pols in ripping CUNY for pulling ‘antisemitic’ job posting
Socialist wannabe mayor Zohran Mamdani was among eight lefty state pols to rip CUNY’s chief Tuesday for pulling a job posting for a “Palestinian Studies” prof who’d allegedly be allowed to promote antisemitism.
The controversial posting for the CUNY Hunter College position, first reported by The Post last month, said, “We seek a historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender, and sexuality.”
Critics immediately blasted the alarming job description, saying it was for a post that would allow the peddling of antisemitism against the Jewish state of Israel and was akin to courses offered in the Nazi-era, which ascribed all the world’s crimes to the Jewish population.
Gov. Kathy Hochul swiftly agreed and ordered CUNY to take it down, which it did.
But Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, co-signed a letter Tuesday by state Sen. Jabari Brisport that accused CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez of caving to pressure from Hochul and stifling academic freedom and pro-Palestinian viewpoints regarding Israel and the war in Gaza.
“Although we are well aware that this is an issue that has multiple perspectives, we will note that we have heard repeated complaints over the years that CUNY has engaged in a troubling pattern with respect to speech that supports Palestine,” said the protesting lawmakers, who are backed by the far-left Democratic Socialists of America.
“There is right now a widespread perception that you have been acting with bias against those advocating for the human rights of Palestinians,” the letter-writers said of Rodriguez.
The other DSA-backed lawmakers co-signing the letter were state Sen. Julia Salazar and state assembly members Claire Valdez, Emily Gallagher, Marcela Mitaynes, Phara Souffrant Forest and Sarahana Shrestha.
“We see nothing wrong with this posting,” the letter states. “Our own institution offers a concentration in ‘Genocide, Mass Violence, and Crimes Against Humanity.’ “
The protesting pols noted that late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu — who gave the 154th commencement address at Hunter College — once said, “Israel has created an apartheid reality within its borders and through its occupation,” and, “The parallels to my own beloved South Africa are painfully stark.”
The DSA lawmakers wrote, “Topics in this job description —settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, and apartheid — are all deeply relevant to the present conflict in Palestine and to your own concentration’s studies.”
When The Post broke the story about the job posting, former CUNY Board Trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld raged, “This course takes antisemitism to another level at CUNY.”
A Hochul rep quickly responded to the outcry, saying the governor “directed CUNY to immediately remove this job posting” and to conduct a thorough probe of the professorship “to ensure that antisemitic theories are not promoted in the classroom.”
Hours later, Matos-Rodriguez and CUNY Board of Trustees Chairman Bill Thompson issued a joint statement saying that the language for the job posting was “divisive, polarizing and inappropriate” and that they “strongly” agreed with Hochul’s directive to remove the posting.
They also said they’d be working with Hochul and other “stakeholders” to tackle campus antisemitism.
The DSA members asked the chancellor in their letter to reveal communications he had with Hochul’s office regarding the job posting.
“Did the governor threaten to withhold funding from your institution?” they asked.
The state is the principal source of funding for the City University of New York’s four-year schools such as Hunter, and the city chips in to help pay for its community colleges.
“What exactly within the job posting do you find to be ‘divisive, polarizing and inappropriate?’ ” the DSA pols asked the chancellor.
In their letter, the lawmakers pointed out that the CUNY Law school faculty criticized the administration for mischaracterizing students’ pro-Palestinian comments as “hate speech” against Jews and for cracking down on pro-Palestinian campus protests with police.
Fatima Mousa Mohammed, the fiery anti-Israel activist who landed on The Post’s front page for a hateful commencement speech she delivered at CUNY Law school in May 2023, recently blamed Israel for the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles in a bizarre rant.
CUNY’s City College in Harlem has meanwhile been engulfed in Jew-bashing protests and destruction.
Anti-Israel vandals caused at least $3 million in damage at CCNY schools and the need for costly extra security last year.
An independent probe commissioned by Hochul and released in September found that CUNY needs a top-to-bottom overhaul to combat “alarming’’ antisemitism fanned by its own faculty and do-nothing higher-ups.
CUNY did not respond to a Post request for comment.
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