Education

‘Propaganda’: CUNY College To Give Students Credit For Attending Anti-Israel Film Event

Courtesy of Avraham Goldstein

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Kate Anderson Contributor
Font Size:
  • Borough of Manhattan Community College will give students a credit for attending a screening of an anti-Israel film during its “Palestinian Solidarity” series.
  • From March 1 to April 3, the Social Justice and Equity Center hosted a “Visual Timeline of Occupied Palestinian Land” with posters and graphics displaying the timeline of Palestinian history and the “longest military occupation in history,” according to the event page.
  • “I’m tired of Jewish and Israeli students at CUNY being bombarded with anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist propaganda,” Professor of Mathematics Jenna Hirsch told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A New York community college is offering students one credit for their degree if they attend a screening of an anti-Israel film on March 31, according to an event page.

Borough of Manhattan Community College (BCCM) has been hosting a “Palestinian Solidarity” series throughout the month of March, according to the school’s website. BCCM’s Social Justice and Equity Center (SJEC) is hosting an event on March 31 where students can watch the Netflix film Farha, which has been heavily criticized for its portrayal of the Israel-Palestine conflict and obtain one credit for their degree, according to the event page. (RELATED: School Apologizes After Palestinian Activist Goes Off Script On An Anti-Israel Tangent During ‘Diversity Event’)

“We will be ending our Palestinian Solidarity Series with a movie,” the event description read. “Join us as we educate ourselves about the Palestinian struggle by watching Farha, a film that depicts the Palestinian diaspora through the lens of a 14-year-old girl. No snacks will be provided in observance of Ramadan, but students are welcome to bring their own.”

Farha depicts Israel’s day of independence as the Nakba, which is Arabic for “catastrophe,” and follows the life of a Palestinian family that is eventually brutally murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), according to the St. Louis Jewish Light. Not long after the film’s release, Israeli officials denounced the project for its portrayal of the IDF.

“To me, it is ridiculous that Netflix chose to release a film whose entire purpose is inciting mockery against IDF soldiers,” Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli media, according to the St. Louis Jewish Light.

From March 1 to April 3, the center is hosting a “Visual Timeline of Occupied Palestinian Land” with posters and graphics displaying the timeline of Palestinian history and the “longest military occupation in history,” according to the event page. Posters along the timeline discuss several historical events and groups including the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which was considered to be a terrorist organization by the U.S. until 1991 despite continuing to engage in terrorist attacks via the Palestinian Authority, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

The posters make no mention of PLO’s terror attacks, referring to the group’s mission as an effort to “represent the Palestinian people and their objectives and to liberate Palestine from Israeli control,” according to pictures obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Other posters describe Hamas, a U.S., and Israeli-designated terrorist organization, as an effort to “[establish] an Islamic society in historic Palestine,” also without mentioning the group’s terrorist attacks against Israel.

Borough of Manhattan Community College Social Justice and Equity Centers’ “Visual Timeline of Occupied Palestinian Land” on March 15, 2023. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of Avraham Goldstein)

Avraham Goldstein, an assistant professor of Mathematics at BMCC, told the DCNF that the college uses “official credits” to attract students who would not otherwise attend.

“I think that the vast majority of the students are not involved in the Middle-East affairs and not really interested in the ‘Israeli-Arab conflict,'” Goldstein said. “Thus, the University lures them to get involved (and get brainwashed and then get themselves politically active in the anti-Israeli campaigns) by offering them these official credits.”

Another Associate Professor of Mathematics, Jenna Hirsch, told the DCNF that she confronted several staff members about the timeline display and asked if anyone had expressed concern about the exhibit, to which Hirsch was told that a “student came in really distressed about it.”

“I’m tired of Jewish and Israeli students at CUNY being bombarded with antisemitic and anti-Zionist propaganda,” Hirsch said. “I have never seen anything like this at BMCC, and it breaks my heart that our students have to see this.”

Goldstein also said that the event website has been taken down off the official university site and the displays have been removed despite the event being set to run for several more weeks. The university and SJEC did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Earlier this month on March 7, students were invited to attend another event titled “Let’s Talk Palestine” with Palestinian activist Maryam Shuaib to discuss “the structure of apartheid to the international impact of Israel’s jurisdiction,” according to the event page.

Goldstein told the DCNF that “there is no discussion going on” because when a “pro-Israel person” tries to talk it does not end well.

“It concerns me because there is a clear systematics smear campaign, which goes on more and more campuses of American Universities and Colleges,” Goldstein said. “Somehow, it became ‘okay’ to present the PLO’s side of the story, and not permit any other sides to talk. In the past 3-4 years the number of anti-Semitic incidents on various CUNY campuses rose dramatically (and even the Administration of CUNY and the pro-BDS CUNY union PSC-CUNY both have officially acknowledged this), and I believe that this rise is a direct result of all these Israel-bashing campaigns, in which Israelis and ‘Zionists’ are accused of various horrendous crimes and are not permitted open their mouth to expose these libels.”

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel