The Envoy

Hunter faculty voted to reschedule the screening of the film “Israelism” to Nov. 28 during a meeting earlier this week, held 24 hours after the interim president initially canceled the film’s showing.

The award-winning film is a 2023 documentary about two millennial American Jews who travel to Israel and the West Bank, but are confronted with a different depiction of the country than what they were raised to believe after witnessing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. 

The film, originally scheduled to be shown at Hunters Lang Hall on Nov. 14, was organized by the film and media department with the co-sponsorship of the Arab studies department. The co-director Erin Axelman was set to be in attendance to facilitate a Q&A afterwards. A few hours before the event, however, Hunter Interim President Ann Kirschner released a statement, announcing the screening was canceled due to antisemitism concerns in the wake of swastikas sightings around campus. 

“In the current climate, we seek to balance our commitment to free speech and academic freedom with the danger of antisemitic and divisive rhetoric,” said Kirschner in her statement. “As recently as yesterday, swastikas were drawn on posters surrounding our buildings, a fact that is under investigation by the New York City Police Department. With that in mind, the College has decided it will not proceed with this film screening on campus at the current time.”

There has been no evidence that the perpetrator(s) who drew the swastikas were affiliated with Hunter College at the time of this article’s publication. 

The decision sparked intense reactions amongst the Hunter community, with faculty and students referring to the decision as a violation of academic freedom. A faculty senate meeting held the following day addressed the situation, including a proposed resolution to reschedule the filming. While only faculty has the authority to vote on issues at the meeting, held inside the seventh floor West Building lecture hall, students came with posters to display their support of the film’s screening.

Faculty and students had the opportunity to directly voice their concerns to President Kirschner, who attended the meeting via Zoom. Hunter Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President Bassrou Juwara and Professional Staff Congress (PSC) union member Sandor John were amongst the speakers advocating on the film’s behalf. 

“I think you need to be careful with the things you send to your community, we are watching, we are seeing everything,” said Juwara. He further criticized Kirschner for “associating students with Hamas sympathizers in a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest” in an Oct. 12 statement.

“We can go on and on saying the school has yet to acknowledge the existence of Palestinian students on our campus,” he continued. “As the student representative who was elected by the students, I feel the need to tell you that the school needs to do better, the office of the president needs to do better, you need to show all of your students that you are here to protect all of them, not just one side, but all of them.” 

The son and grandson of Holocaust survivors, John spoke in favor of the film’s showing, referring to its abrupt cancellation as “McCarthyism-style” censorship”

“[This film] which was unilaterally canceled in a violation of academic freedom will go down in the history of academic violations,” said John.  

PSC Union member and Women and Genders Studies Professor Jennifer Gaboury echoed John’s concerns about academic freedom, referring to it as the “bedrock of the academic system,” while also bringing forth the concern of Accuracy of Media “doxxing trucks” that have been located outside Hunter’s campus recently. The trucks, which have also appeared on Columbia’s campus, list names of faculty members, claiming them to be “CUNY’s Leading Antisemites.” Gaboury, whose son is Jewish, was one of the names listed.

In response to the criticism, Kirschner condemned the doxxing truck, saying she would have enacted the same measures against professors screening pro-Israeli films. 

“To have shown the film last night struck me as not responsible for campus safety. That was my number one concern,” Kirschner said. “We need to lower the temperature on campus, not add heat to it. We need to find ways to talk across the divide, not find ways to polarize us even further.” 

Some faculty members, including Barry Cherkas, a mathematics and statistics professor, sided with Kirchner’s decision, saying he “does not believe the president did anything wrong, in fact, I think she did the right thing. She’s trying to make sure the campus is a safe place and this was a correct decision.” 

Tami Gold, a Jewish professor from the film and media department, arranged the film’s screening in June. She said the administration approved the event during the summer to show it, though requested the screening be limited to solely the Hunter community due to “too much contention” and emails sent to professors and the administration advocating against the screening.

The film provides commentary on topics such as the Israeli Defense Force (of which the documentary’s producer and co-star was a part of) and the relationship Jewish people have with Israel. 

In a series of emails sent to the film and media department, some Jewish students voiced concern and offense towards the film, saying it has “has no place at our university.”

 “This film insinuates that American Jews are ‘brainwashed’ to support Zionism and Israel, omitting any context of the ancestral connection that Jews worldwide have to Israel,” said a sophomore media studies student, whose identity will remain anonymous for security purposes.

“It also implies that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict started in 1948, ignoring thousands of years of Jewish history in the land of Israel that contributed to the modern-day conflict. This context is crucial to understanding the conflict, and intentionally omitting this background information is dishonest and not in the name of academic integrity.” 

Despite the rocky tension, Gold said Andrew Polsky, the dean of arts and sciences, supported her completely. Due to “outside forces pressuring the president,” that support eroded. 

“All of a sudden we’re told it’s being pulled due to security,” Gold said. “The film is trying to pull apart the fact that young Jewish people have been sold a bill of goods, and I was not sold the same thing in my family.”

Kirschner did not watch the whole film, but found some of its content “mocking,” according to comments provided by Kelly Anderson, chair of the film and media department, and Vince DiMiceli, Hunter’s vice president of communications for a New York Times article.

With a clicker vote majority of 33 out of 53 in favor, Hunters’ senate voted to reschedule the screening for later this month. According to The Athenian, Gold still plans to hold the November 28 screening in the Lang Hall.

Sarah, a junior majoring in political science who declined to provide her last name, is the Palestinian daughter of a refugee father who survived the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, also referred to as the “Six Day War.” Sarah said she and her peers have faced increased harassment on campus by students and faculty due to their Arab/Palestinian origins and wearing of hijab. They felt they have received little support from the administration regarding their safety.

“We are not silenced, and we will not continue to accept suppression and censorship on campus, and we will continue to fight for the Palestinian cause,” said Sarah. “We demand protection of all students, and if the administration doesn’t offer that protection, then students will feel danger in the upcoming days, months and years.” 

Following the faculty senate meeting, the documentary filmmakers took to Instagram to release a statement about the reinstatement of the screening. 

“Our film has screened at over 40 venues since February, including 18 Universities across the U.S, and has been hosted by Israel Studies Chairs at UCLA and George Washington University. All screenings have fostered respectful and nuanced conversations,” said the statement.

“As our film demonstrates clearly, we can and must fight for Palestinian freedom while also fighting against antisemitism.”

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Edit (11/20): A previous version of our article incorrectly spells the Israelism co-directors name as Eric Axelman. It is Erin Axelman.