NYU denounces the statement issued by GSOC; it is deeply and troublingly misguided.
Hamas’ attack on Israel was an act of terrorism. The indiscriminate killing of civilian non-combatants and the taking of children and the elderly as hostages are repugnant acts that are not morally justifiable. Moreover, blaming the victims of terrorist violence for their own suffering and deaths—as GSOC’s statement does—is wrong and unconscionable.
In addition, NYU remains staunchly committed to the NYU Tel Aviv program, and flatly rejects both GSOC’s demand to close it as well as GSOC’s demand to boycott Israeli academic institutions. Boycotts of Israel of the kind GSOC calls for directly conflict with the principles of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas.
