February 25, 2005

Off the Public Payroll

Last week I commented on the uproar that followed the appointment of Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi to, as the New York Sun put it then, "lecture a group of New York City public school teachers on how to teach Mideast politics to schoolchildren."

Today, the Sun runs an editorial reporting that Khalidi's appointment has been scuttled following objections to his virulent, and continuing, anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli remarks. That's excellent news, as the last thing NYC should shell out cash for is to provide a platform for the likes of Khalidi to spew forth his venomous opinions to a group that would then carry his propaganda to young students. If tolerance of others is still a virtue, preaching hate to school children should be an obvious violation of the norm in public education.

Here's how the Sun describes the situation, which is still somewhat fluid:

Now that one of Columbia's anti-Israel professors, Rashid Khalidi, has been dismissed as a teacher trainer by the New York City public schools, his allies are making a belated attempt to rally around. Even while Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, is earnestly trying to assure Jewish leaders and potential donors that he genuinely is committed to addressing the issue, his spokeswoman, Susan Brown, was quoted yesterday in a newspaper describing Mr. Khalidi as "a respected professor and scholar."

Well, Mr. Khalidi may be respected on Morningside Heights and in the United Arab Emirates, whose government donated $200,000 to fund Mr. Khalidi's chair at Columbia. The UAE, after all, has a formal policy of denying entry visas to Israelis. He may be respected in Saudi Arabia, where is based the Olayan Group, whose Olayan Charitable Trust also helped fund Mr. Khalidi's professorship at Columbia. But there is no reason to have him teaching teachers how to teach the Middle East.

The public and authorities show concern, rightly, for the influence of Saudi-funded schools that produce the likes of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a former Washington-area student who was arrested for taking part a plot to kill President Bush. We should be equally concerned about the effects of Rashid Khalidi and others in Columbia's highly politicized Middle East Institute, where anti-Semitism is given a scholarly gloss. Here's hoping that Khalidi is kept out of the public schools -- forever.

— Winfield Myers

| Feb. 25, 2005 | 6:58 AM