I am a 1967 graduate of Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences. The Times of Israel has reported that, by disgracefully lopsided majorities and with apparently little debate, Cornell University’s Student Assembly on Thursday voted to cut ties with Israel’s Technion University and condemned the university for hosting center-left Israeli politician Tzipi Livni. She is a well-known dove who opposes the Netanyahu government.

The passage of the resolutions shows that campus anti-Israel activism stirs together a brew of university politics, unproven international legal allegations of genocide, and the hijacking of representative groups like the Student Assembly, dedicated to local issues, to advance opposition to Israel.

These clearly antisemitic resolutions trot out the usual lie about genocide against a country that has over two million Arab citizens who enjoy freedom of worship and political rights to the extent that Arabs were even included in the last Israeli cabinet and serve on the Israeli Supreme Court, among other things. The resolutions also attack the Technion, which is the Israeli MIT, because it cooperates with Cornell on a technology center in New York City whose benefits are spread throughout the world. They say Israeli political figures, regardless of their views, shouldn’t be allowed to speak on campus and should rather be censored.

It would have been intolerable for me to have continued to be a Cornell student were I there now. Israel’s conduct in Gaza is not angelic, to be sure. But singling out Israel, its political leaders, and its universities alone to demand a cutting of ties reeks of antisemitic animus. Russians can invade and bomb Ukraine, China can oppress its Uyghur Muslim minority and try to cancel Tibetan culture, carnage can continue in Sudan, and Burma can try to extirpate its Muslim minority. But these haters care nothing about such oppression. They only attack Israel, which provides political rights to its Arab population, has elections, and has freedom of worship.

The roots of anti-Jewish rhetoric as to Israel have unfortunately been with us for a while. The 1940s opposition to Zionism was grounded in a hope that Jews could be driven from the land. The attacks on Tzipi Livni and the Technion are a newer, updated form of this hatred. They create the antisemitic trope that only Israel is beyond the pale.

So what is to be done? The president of Cornell can and should reject these resolutions with a resounding letter of disapproval. Beyond that, there should be efforts, supported by Cornell students, faculty, and alumni, to rein in the Student Assembly. What occurred last week should not happen again. If that effort involves reconstructing the Student Assembly, so be it.

Also, Cornell students, like I was, and alumni, like I am, have to speak out. We must make our voices heard, remembering also that Cornell is in part a public university with schools, for example, of agriculture and labor relations. We cannot let it be hijacked by hatred.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)