“With the PSC-CUNY resolution you have chosen to support a terrorist organization, Hamas, whose goal (`From the River to the Sea’) is to destroy the state of Israel and kill all my relatives who live there,” one professor wrote in his resignation letter, according to the Post.
"You do NOT represent us and I will not be a part of an organization that supports those who wish to destroy us,” the professor added.
The PSC-CUNY document, titled "Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People," opens by saying that "as an academic labor union committed to anti-racism, academic freedom, and international solidarity among workers, the PSC-CUNY cannot be silent about the continued subjection of Palestinians to the state-supported displacement, occupation, and use of lethal force by Israel ."The resolution refers to a "practice of dispossession and expansion of settlements, dating back to [Israel's] establishment as a settler colonial state." It also talks about what it calls Israel's "state-sponsored policies of settler colonialism," which it says "link the Palestinian struggle for self determination to the struggles of Indigenous people and people of color in the United States."
It concludes with 3 resolutions. The first that PSC-CUNY "condemns the massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli state." The second that PSC-CUNY will facilitate discussions considering support of the BDS movement. The third resolution calls for the Biden administration to stop all aid "funding human rights violations and occupation that is illegal under international law."
PSC-CUNY President James Davis told the New York Post that the resolution caused some members of the union "distress," and said that there are conservative forces attempting to use the resolution to damage the union by causing members to resign.
On Monday, State Senator Anna M. Kaplan issued a statement in response stating that she "stands with the CUNY professors who have had enough," according to the NY Senate website.
She continues, "this situation is akin to the institutional marginalization of Jewish people that we saw in the 1930's; a sentiment that has been echoed by Jewish faculty who are feeling increasingly uncomfortable on campus in the wake of the controversy."CUNY is supposed to be an educational community for all people, from all walks of life, to uplift themselves through education. It's time for CUNY-PSC to engage the community to better understand the harm they have caused, so they can move forward in a way that repairs the damage, and restores CUNY as a beacon for all."