Pitzer College President vetoes Boycott-Jews (BDS) vote to end Haifa Study Abroad Program

Unlike the Jew-hating Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Pitzer College President Melvin Oliver cares about the well-being and success of his students. This is why he rightfully vetoed this bigoted resolution against Israel’s Haifa University. Israeli universities are among the finest in the world today, and no one should boycott them. Oliver wrote in a statement that “the recommendation puts in place a form of academic boycott of Israel and, in the process, sets us on a path away from the free exchange of ideas, a direction which ultimately destroys the academy’s ability to fulfill our educational mission….By singling out Israel, the recommendation itself is prejudiced.”

If the Democrat Party were a civilized political party, they would ostracize Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who advocated for bigotry against Israel and bigotry against pro-Israel American students in a city that is close to 2500 miles away from her home district. Unfortunately, the Democrat Party is nowhere close to being a normal or civilized political party. Therefore, the bigoted and highly inappropriate conduct of Rep. Tlaib will go unpunished.

The detestable Tlaib doesn’t even care that Arab Israeli’s represent 25 percent of Haifa University’s student body. Tlaib is only concerned about spreading hatred of Israel, because that is the environment in which she was raised. Jewish Americans who support the Democrat Party are supporting the spread and normalization of anti-Semitism.

“Pitzer College President Vetoes BDS vote to end Haifa Study Abraod Program,” by Cnaan Liphshiz, The Forward, March 15, 2019:

Faculty at California’s Pitzer College voted in favor of suspending its study abroad program in Israel, but the institution’s president said he would ignore their motion.

Thursday’s non-binding recommendation by faculty at the college governing body was spearheaded by proponents of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel, according to the American Jewish Committee, which condemned the vote as an “outrageous attack on academic freedom.”

The recommendation to suspend the study abroad program at Haifa University passed with a majority of 68 in favor and 25 opposing. Another eight voters abstained. Shortly afterwards Pitzer College President Melvin Oliver rejected the motion, stating that, “I am refusing to permit Pitzer College to take a position that I believe will only harm the College.”

The motion calls for suspending the program until “the Israeli state ends its restrictions on entry to Israel based on ancestry and/or political speech” and until it “adopts policies granting visas for exchanges to Palestinian universities on a fully equal basis as it does to Israeli universities.”