New City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov is set to pull $50,000 in funding for the CUNY Law School over the faculty's support of a Boycott, Sanction and Divestment (BDS) movement resolution, New York Post reported on Friday.
Funding pulled over BDS
"I have pulled funding from the program and redirected it to Legal Services NYC,” Vernikov, who is a Ukrainian-born Jew, told The NY Post. “It seems as if antisemitism is the only politically acceptable form of racism which exists. We must stop handing out free passes to antisemites like candy.”
The institution has been embroiled in multiple scandals connected to anti-Israel sentiment, including having a BDS leader give the 2022 graduating class's commencement speech.
The faculty adopted a BDS resolution on May 11 that had been originally introduced and passed by the student government in December. The resolution officially endorses BDS, and calls on the institution to divest from Israel, end-all Israeli student exchanges, and cut ties with any groups that "repress Palestinian organizing."
The self-described "anti-Zionist" CUNY Law Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA) celebrated the faculty's decision "recognizing that the Palestinian people's struggle for freedom, justice and equality needs our support and calls for us all to fight against the institutional complicity that funds and supports their genocide."
“During a time when antisemitic hate crimes are up by 300%, it is incumbent upon our academic institutions to do everything in their power to protect their Jewish and pro-Israel students, not pass resolutions which directly place them in harm’s way.”
New City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, to New York Post
