On May 20, 2019, a speech made by Steven William Thrasher at NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences convocation ceremony called for the boycott of Israel, labeled it an apartheid state, and praised BDS: “I am so proud, so proud, of NYU’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace,” he said, “for supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against the apartheid state government in Israel.” For the past several months, Thrasher has been partaking in what a an article published by Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications calls “an endowed professorship that will focus on social justice in reporting, with an emphasis on issues relevant to the LGBTQ community, at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.” The facts, however, undermine his position. His criticism of Israel not only deviates from but rather harshly collides with his purported scholastic and professional focus. Thrasher focuses on advancing the LGBTQ community and honorably advocates for equality. His obscured allegations against Israel are quite paradoxical to the established actuality that Israel, too, is one of the biggest advocates for LGBTQ rights among other imperative social justice matters. Israel hosts the largest Pride Parade in the Middle East, swore in the first openly gay member of Parliament in 2002, and has prohibited discriminatory practices socially, but also in all branches of the military since the early 1980s. Mostre recently, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, appointed Amir Ohana, an openly gay man, as justice minister of Israel. Consolidating Thrasher’s support of LGBTQ rights and his voiced support for Students for Justice in Palestine and BDS is not possible; they are mutually exclusive. Palestine, among many other Middle Eastern Nations, deems homosexuality punishable by death. Outworld Magazine published that Israelis, “are undeniably more accepting of the LGBT community than their Arab neighbors. Israel is an oasis in an otherwise-barren Middle East for LGBT rights. A number of Palestinian LGBT individuals who experience persecution seek asylum in Tel Aviv.” BBC published an article as well, highlighting Israel’s commitment to social justice. The headline read, “A number of gay Palestinian men are risking their lives to cross the border into Israel, claiming they feel safer among Israelis than their own people.” So how can Thrasher and those akin to his practices preach anti-semitism and pro-Palestinian discourse all the while upholding the values of homosexuality? It seems like the BDS movement and SJP have not thought this one through well enough. Judea Pearl, chancellor professor of computer sciences at UCLA, National Academy of Sciences member, Daniel Pearl Foundation president and NYU alumnus suggests a solution to this conundrum: facts. Simply tell the campus the reasons why BDS is morally reprehensible, why Jewish and Zionist students and faculty are welcome to NYU, explicate the distinct contributions they are making to the cultural tapestry of NYU, and emphasize the inspirational power that Israel’s miracle has had on other minorities aspiring for self-determination. It all comes down to the facts that exist, and upon differentiating that from rhetoric, anyone who is just as passionate about social justice as they are about anti-semitism will surely able to catch sight of their cognitive biases. Following Thrasher’s speech, NYU President, Andrew Hamilton, issued a statement criticizing the speaker: I found it quite objectionable that the student speaker chose to make use of the Graduate School of Arts and Science doctoral graduation to express his personal viewpoints on BDS and related matters, language he excluded from the version of the speech he had submitted before the ceremony. We are sorry that the audience had to experience these inappropriate remarks. Let me use this occasion to reaffirm the University’s position – NYU rejects academic boycotts of Israel, rejects calls to close its Tel Aviv campus, and denounces efforts to ostracize or exclude those in the University community based on their location in Israel, their Israeli origin, or their political feelings for Israel. Phillip Harper, the Dean of NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences also voiced his objection to Thrasher’s comments. He offered: My deep apology for the fact that our ceremony and its audience were disrespected in this way. The Graduate School’s commitment to fostering a strong ethos of community and collegiality remains as firm as ever, and we will work strenuously on this front in the months and years to come. Harper noted that Thrasher’s words “fell short” of the standards and expectations upheld by the institution: On the contrary, your statements had the effect of making some in the audience feel unwelcome, disrespected, and—precisely because you had been given a platform that they lacked. Harper further asserted that Thrasher knew his anti-semitic agenda would not be endorsed by the university: You no doubt expected that this would be the outcome, and for that reason omitted the remarks in question from the speech you submitted for prior review. President Hamilton’s and Dean Harper’s responses to Thrasher’s comments at commencement represent a good start. To effectively combat the growing anti-Semitism on campus, however, NYU’s administration will have to assiduously recognize and condemn those entities on campus, like SJP, that consistently harass and marginalize pro-Israel students. Comments by President Morton Schapiro and Provost Jonathan Holloway of Northwestern University – where Thrasher will be joining as a Professor – voiced that they “unequivocally reject BDS” and their antipathy: We do not share all of his views, nor do we feel commencement was the appropriate venue to express them. SJP is the subject of various legal actions taken by humanitarian groups as well as students. NYU senior, Adela Cojab, filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the US Department of Education. Her complaint details various incidents where SJP made “pro-Israel students feel unwelcome and unsafe,” including an episode that resulted in the arrest of SJP supporters – one for assault. In her OCR complaint, Cojab alleged that NYU’s complacency in the face of growing anti-semitism on campus violated Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act. The Act prohibits discrimination in any federal funded initiatives; ie, NYU. Moreover, a recent letter which has attracted more than 140 signatures from members of NYU’s School of Medicine called on a President Andrew Hamilton to combat the hostility, antisemitic climate, and normalization of anti-Semitism that runs rampant on campus, denoting its capacity to prevent honest discourse and limit academic freedom. Alumni have taken to social media and other outlets to express their discontentment as well. “If you, like me, are an #NYU alumnus: it is time to speak up. This is not an isolated incident of antisemitic bigotry at NYU (yes, BDS is antisemitic, just ask Germany).” “As an @NYUStern MBA alum I am ashamed of current anti-semitic bigotry at @nyuniversity.#NYU should be actively and strongly fighting BDS – nothing less.” The calls to action are in response to the burgeoning anti-semitism that seems to not only be accepted on campus, but exalted. On April 4, 2019, the President of NYU awarded the President’s Service Award to the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Furthermore, in early May, NYU’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis voted to sever its relationship to their Tel Aviv campus.