College and University Monitor

Should a man who claims to “understand” why people are antisemitic be invited to speak at Columbia University — especially when this person wrote an opinion piece so dogmatic and bigoted that it was posted on the website of Hamas’ military wing, and who recommended an essay by known Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy?

Surely, at a time when “student safety” is of primary concern, one of America’s most prestigious universities would shun such a divisive figure.

Yet Columbia’s Center for Palestine Studies proudly hosted author and journalist Ben White this spring to discuss his latest book, Cracks in the Wall: Beyond Apartheid Palestine/Israel.

White is notorious for obfuscating the line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. He frequently uses classic antisemitic tropes when discussing the Mideast conflict, often replacing the word “Jews” with “Israel.” His talk at Columbia, moderated by former PLO official, CPS co-director, and Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies Rashid Khalidi, who according to an article in the New York Observer, is “comfortable and secure in his antisemitism,” was no exception....