The Anti-Israel Hate and Moral Bankruptcy at UNC Is Stunning
Students sit on the steps of Wilson Library on the campus of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, US, Sept. 20, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Drake
On Nov. 28, I attended a now-notorious anti-Israel event titled “No Peace Without Justice: A Round-Table Talk about Social Justice in Palestine,” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
The event was sponsored by two campus departments, and UNC’s Student Life & Leadership program.
One of the speakers, Dr. Rania Masri, said: “Oct. 7 for many of us from the region was a beautiful day.” Masri went on to fawn over Hamas paragliders, and called for “the eradication of Zionism.”
As I reported, not a single panelist or UNC professor in attendance disagreed with Masri. Rather, two panelists openly concurred. In fact, after the event, a panelist – the Rev. Mark Davidson – wrote on social media: “It was a good conversation, and I felt privileged to be part of the panel.”
Danielle Purifoy, a UNC professor of geography, helped organize the event. On Oct. 7 — the day Hamas massacred 1,200 in Israel, used rape and sexual assault as weapons of war, and took hundreds of hostages — Purify tweeted, “Solidarity with folks fighting to free themselves in Palestine” and retweeted, “colonialism is bad for settlers.”
According to a 2022 tax filing, Purifoy was recently board chair of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), where Masri is currently co-director. Ajamu Dillahunt Jr. serves as NCEJN’s current board co-chair. All three are anti-Israel activists.
Public records reveal that Masri wrote to Purifoy and Dillahunt after the event. Rather than apologize for her hateful comments, Masri apologized for getting caught:
I’m reaching out to you, Ajamu, to let you know of attacks that are being made against me, that could have repercussions on NCEJN.
I gave a talk at UNC five days ago, and a statement that I made has been taken out of its historical context and mis-construed. It was stupid of me to say it knowing that Zionists are around the corner and waiting to pounce.
I am truly, very very sorry, for any harm that I have caused — to UNC, to NCEJN, and to the larger movement.
Five days after the event, UNC Provost Christopher Clemens wrote a blistering letter of concern to UNC faculty that included Claudia Yaghoobi, Director of the UNC Center for Middle East & Islamic Studies, and Conghe Song, chair of the Department of Geography and Environment. They were included since their two departments sponsored the Nov. 28 event.
Clemens wrote:
I will admit that I struggle to understand what the rhetoric in this event was supposed to accomplish.
I would like to meet as soon as possible to hear more about the logic of the choices being made and to discuss a particular development on campus that I find chilling. With the exception of abortion, I am not used to hearing members of the academy appear to be enthusiastic about violence against innocent human beings. Yet I see a recurring theme in the classroom, in seminars, in public statements, in emails I receive, and in the public square in which some scholars are unapologetic (at the least) about the rapes and murders of their fellow human beings. Do we have a contingent of faculty who think these things are necessary? Do anti- Zionism and critical whiteness studies weave together into an anti-Semitism? If so, are there scholars who can address it? What are the elements of this conjuncture that it would be productive to explore?
One thing is clear: from the outside, the academy appears to be fostering a banal kind of evil.
In preparation for the meeting with Provost Clemens, Purifoy sent an email to Conghe and Sara Smith. Smith is a UNC professor of Geography who introduced the Nov. 28 panel:
I hope that today’s meeting will go as well as possible. I’ve attached a screenshot of Mark Davidson’s comments about the panel last Tuesday which might be helpful. He and Rania [Masri] approved of my sharing it with you.
In the comments that Purifoy attached, Davidson wrote, “The inmate prison-break from the concentration camp [Gaza] in the early morning hours of October 7 was, from a Palestinian perspective … something to celebrate.” In this single sentence, Davidson compared Israel to the Nazis and celebrated Hamas.
The antisemitism and moral bankruptcy on display at UNC is stunning. I agree with UNC’s Provost Christopher Clemens: “One thing is clear: from the outside, the academy appears to be fostering a banal kind of evil.”
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
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