As the fall semester approaches, it remains unclear what can be expected from student protesters, outside agitators, faculty instigators and college administrators in regards to pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitic behavior. Numerous lawsuits have been filed and either settled or are moving through the courts while, at the same time, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating and settling various complaints that have been filed with it.
College administrators are grappling with balancing free speech and academic freedom claims with the civil rights of Jewish students who have been the subject of physical, mental and verbal abuse that has mostly gone unpunished. Some universities are reconsidering their approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives; others are instituting training sessions for employees. Unfortunately, students show no signs of tiring or interest in discontinuing their offense against Jewish students and faculty and the State of Israel and they seem to have deep pockets funding their efforts. Join us for a discussion to unpack all of this with campus expert, Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa.
About the Speaker: Asaf Romirowsky is executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). He is also a senior nonresident research fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA) and a professor (affiliate) at the University of Haifa. Trained as a Middle East historian, he holds a Ph.D. in Middle East and Mediterranean Studies from King’s College London in the United Kingdom and has published widely on various aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict and American foreign policy in the Middle East, as well as on Israeli and Zionist history.
Romirowsky is co-author of Religion, Politics, and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief and a contributor to The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel. Recently, he co-edited Word Crimes: Reclaiming the Language of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, a special issue of the journal Israel Studies.
His publicly engaged scholarship has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The National Interest, The American Interest, The New Republic, The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Ynet and Tablet, among other online and print media outlets.
