NYU students urge university to fire Palestinian professor
Amin Husain, is one of the co-founders of Decolonize This Place, the group that vandalized New York City's subways last month.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFNew York University banner(photo credit: NYU PHOTO BUREAU)New York University (NYU)'s College Republicans members called for Palestinian NYU professor Amin Husain to be fired, Fox News reported on Tuesday.Husain, is one of the co-founders of Decolonize This Place, the group that vandalized New York City's subways last month. Fox News said that Hussein had urged its followers to "f**k s**t up."In an interview for Fox News, NYU College Republicans President, Kristen Gourrier, and Vice President, Bobby Miller, said that they were not surprised to learn about Husain's involvement in the subway protests."I mean, I definitely think that there are a lot of people at NYU who have similar kind of extreme views," said Gourrier."And it's the result of being in a place where you're challenged so little on your ideas that you end up villainizing the other side to the point that you're able to justify acts like this that to the rest of us just seem really inappropriate," she added."The professor is really just a far-left extremist. He has no business impressing his reprehensible views on the minds of young adults in a classroom setting," Miller said."And, quite honestly, it's disappointing that NYU hasn't taken the necessary steps to make sure that this professor is nowhere near students in the future. As you mentioned, this had not just affected students. This affected commuters all over the city and NYU should make a statement by firing this professor so they don't condone violence," he added.NYU spokesperson reacted and said that "the university abhors violence, rejects calls for violence, has longstanding ties to Israel – including a campus there – and is opposed to acts of vandalism on the public transit system, which is needed and shared by all New Yorkers. It is, however, the case that among the thousands of part-time faculty we hire each year some will disagree with NYU's positions. Such is the nature of free speech and academic freedom."However, NYU College Republicans representatives told Fox News that meetings with professors "on the right side of the political spectrum" were protested by other students.Beyond his vocal opposition to Israel, Husain has spoken publicly about his throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers. At NYU, he teaches activism and in some of his workshop, he uses Direct Action Front for Palestine, an anti-Israeli group, as a case study. His violent group, Decolonize This Place, calls for "Free Palestine," and for the boycott of Israel.
This is not the first time NYU has been in the spotlight for such issues.A student sued NYU in 2019 for antisemitism after the school awarded Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) the President’s Service Award for “student organizations that have had an extraordinary and positive impact on the University community.” SJP threatens and harasses Jewish and pro-Israel students n campuses across the United States.“NYU has a Tel Aviv campus that is sustained by endowments, and standing against BDS makes economic sense,” former NYU student Adela Cojab said.“They know how to do for their own interests. But on the ground they are afraid to act out because of public perceptions.” she added.