Last Friday, the University of North Carolina’s Faculty Council held its first meeting of 2024. The meeting’s agenda included a resolution condemning anti-Semitism on campus. The background of the resolution was an on-campus event in November at which a speaker said, without rebuttal from others present, that “October 7 was for many of us from the region a beautiful day.” This was the text of the resolution:
We strongly condemn the antisemitic statements made during a Unity roundtable event No Peace Without Justice held on November 28, 2023.
You might think that is an easy resolution to adopt, but in today’s university culture, you would be wrong. Opponents of the resolution said things like this:
“There is no mention of Islamophobia here. There is no mention here of the disproportionate use of force that Israel has been, in my opinion, exerting in Gaza.”
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“Why single this out and not address ongoing harassment of Muslim faculty going on right now on campus?”
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“This resolution contributes to a hostile campus environment for many students, staff and faculty who fear being branded as anti-Semitic.”
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“I don’t feel comfortable voting for a resolution that condemns any opinion that is not a pro-Israel opinion.”
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“I fear that the is no right answer here because the resolution forces us to take sides in a larger battle.”
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“There have been comments made about condemning of violence, like speech advocating violence, but we have so much military on this campus and courses taught about the military.”
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“We cannot be confident that everyone has the same understanding of the concept of the term anti-Semitism…without clarifying that, I feel uncomfortable making a decision about this resolution.”
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“If we vote for the resolution, I am afraid, I have received emails from some members of the community who are worried because they feel marginalized by us not addressing other issues related to this, like war in Gaza.”
Bari Weiss’s name came up in the debate, and a UNC professor referred to her as “the notorious Islamophobe.” So, at the end of the day, the faculty of the University of North Carolina couldn’t bring itself to condemn the statement, at a UNC event, that Gaza’s massacre of Jews on October 7 was “a beautiful day.” The Faculty Council voted 32-29, with six abstentions, to table the resolution condemning anti-Semitism on campus.
The resolution was just too controversial for liberal college professors to get behind.
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