Déjà vu At Columbia As Malaysian PM Invited To Speak
AMY SARA CLARK
New York Jewish Week
Wed Sep 25 2019
Once again, Columbia University is in the hot seat for inviting a world leader who some believe is anti-Semitic to speak on campus. And once again, students are protesting, with a Change.org petition garnering more than 2,900 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was scheduled to speak Wednesday, Sept. 25, at Columbia’s World Leaders Forum, an annual event established in 2003 by university President Lee C. Bollinger.
Three pro-Israel student groups on campus — Students Supporting Israel at Columbia University, Aryeh and J Street U – wrote a letter to Bollinger last Friday noting Mohamad’s history of anti-Semitic remarks and questioning why the university would host “a vocal anti-Semite.”
The letter noted the Malaysian leader’s remarks to a summit of Islamic leaders in 2003 when he said that “Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.”...
