Statement sparks ‘fear’ and ‘anger’
Ethnic Studies Department removes Palestinian support post from website
A statement of support for Palestine made by the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado Boulder sparked anger and fear in some members of the Jewish community on campus.
The statement inaccurately claimed the Israeli people were responsible for the Oct. 7 music festival attack and that Israel is committing war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people. It continued to discuss settler colonialism and made calls for action against Israel without mentioning Hamas or the many Israeli lives lost in the Oct. 7 attack.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
CU Boulder alum and Superior resident Sara Fruman said the statement was “inaccurate” and “anti-semitic.”
“I’m extremely upset to see the university allowing such statements,” Fruman said. “It puts Jewish lives as risk at the university and in the Boulder area.”
The statement was posted on Oct. 22 and has since been removed from the department’s website and replaced with a new one. CU Boulder Chancellor Phil Distefano recognized the department’s decision to remove the statement on Oct. 30.
“This month, some of our students, faculty and staff have reported that they don’t feel safe and are in fear of being harassed and discriminated against,” Distefano said in the Oct. 30 statement. “The university will continue to stand for academic freedom, free speech and nondiscrimination, but we will never condone or abide the direct or indirect endorsement of antisemitism, Islamophobia, violence, discrimination, racism or hatred in any form.”
Distefano said in another statement on Oct. 26 that the statement made by the Ethnic Studies Department is not an official CU
Boulder position on the Israel-hamas War.
“While the principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression protect the speech of University of Colorado Boulder faculty, staff and students, that does not mean their points of view represent the perspectives of the university — nor that we endorse them,” Distefano said.
‘Upsetting, slanted view’
Fruman said the statement failed to acknowledge that 1,400 innocent Israeli people were killed in an unprovoked attack by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 at the Supernova music festival. The statement said what happened on Oct. 7 was an “unprecedented genocidal attack on the Palestinian people” and did not mention Hamas, or the many Israelis’ deaths, at any point.
Additionally, Fruman said, the use of words like “genocide” and “Israeli state killing machine” in the statement are inflammatory and inaccurately depict the reality of the situation.
“I totally am for advocating for a better life for the Palestinian people, but this is all an extremely upsetting, slanted view,” Fruman said.
Junior Yehuda Halevi said the statement contained “harsh rhetoric” and discussed occupation and settler colonialism to push an ideology without presenting any evidence.
“We’re all aware of the tension going on with the conflict, and matters like this are happening and part of our leaders are allowing hateful speech that calls for the eradication of the Jewish state online with no acknowledgment of our losses and the complexity of the issue,” Halevi said.
CU Boulder spokesperson Steve Hurlbert said the statement was made by faculty members in the Department of Ethnic Studies.
“Faculty within departments and colleges/schools at the university sometimes make statements in response to national and world events that impact their communities or are within their area of academic expertise,” Hurlbert said in a statement. “The university supports free speech and is also committed to academic freedom.”
Consistent with the university’s support of academic freedom and free speech, Hurlbert said, leaders at CU Boulder do not censor the expression of faculty or staff on such matters of public or social concern.
“The university will continue to stand for academic freedom, free speech, and nondiscrimination, but we will never condone or abide the direct or indirect endorsement of antisemitism, Islamophobia, violence, discrimination, racism or hatred in any form,” Hurlbert said.
‘Campus doesn’t feel safe’
Junior Jake Varano said the department should be “straight up embarrassed” about the statement.
“It makes me feel angry and makes me feel embarrassed to be a Buff and be a student at the University of Colorado,” Varano said.
Yisroel Wilhelm, CU Boulder’s Chabad Rabbi, said people see the statement as a personal attack on the Jewish community.
“I have never, in my 18 and half years, heard from more parents, current students and alumni,” Wilhelm said regarding reaction to the statement. “They are absolutely horrified beyond any words of the one-sidedness of it in addition to there being a lot of lies.”
Wilhelm said there’s a “full blown mental-health crisis” for Jewish students on campus, and Jewish faculty are also fearful after seeing the message spread online. He said students are choosing to hide their Jewish identity. Some won’t come to Jewish events anymore and others make sure not to wear necklaces they used to wear because they don’t want to be targeted, he said.
“Jews worldwide are getting attacked in the streets,” Fruman said. “When the university makes a statement like this, it makes me fearful for the Jews on campus.”
Senior Lucy Friedman said there haven’t been a lot of days on campus where she hasn’t faced people screaming in her face or making anti-semitic comments. It’s become the norm, she said.
“For me and for everyone (affected), its hard to keep going on our normal lives because our lives aren’t normal right now,” she said. “Campus doesn’t feel safe.”
Varano said the statement and the war is affecting a lot of students on campus. For him, the past few weeks have been difficult. He said he’s always watching news, waiting for something to happen.
“A lot of us, me included, know people who were in
Israel or at the music festival that were murdered, kidnapped or affected in some way,” Varano said.
One of Varano’s close friends from New York, where he’s from, is one of the American hostages. Another of his friends, also CU Boulder student, knows someone who was murdered at the music festival.
“This is very close to a lot of people on campus,” Varano said. “This isn’t something happening very far off and in another continent.”
Hurlbert said the university understands that Jewish and Palestinian students, faculty, and staff are concerned and at times fearful, given the highly charged nature of current events.
“We will continue to provide resources of support and care for all students, faculty and staff,” Hurlbert said in a statement.
‘Make humanity the issue’
CU Boulder released a joint statement on Oct. 11 about the Hamas attacks and two statements from the chancellor about the Ethnic Studies Department statement, one on Oct. 26 and another on Oct. 30.
Varano said because CU Boulder keeps changing the statements, it makes the university seem like it doesn’t know what it believes. He said the university needs to say one thing and stand by it, and that there should be no sides to take.
“Just have a statement. One real statement … and just put humanity in it rather than geopolitical issues,” Varano said. “Make humanity the issue rather than focusing on sides.”
Nearly 300 CU Boulder students and alumni signed a letter to Distefano on Oct. 31 citing concerns about the new and old statements posted by the Ethnic Studies Department.
The letter said the removal of the original statement was a positive step forward but that the new statement still contains problematic elements.
“Attention was made to the statements that were made, and instead of apologizing for it, they doubled down on it,” Halevi said.
The letter said the new statement endorses Jewish organizations that are not credible and wrongly faults Jewish people for stifling the department’s free speech.
“This is not an attempt to stifle free speech, but to call out academic leadership that is using their status in the community to spread misinformation resulting in hate and violence,” the letter said.
When asked about the letter, Hurlbert said:
“There has been extensive correspondence with a variety of groups associated with CU Boulder and beyond regarding this issue and the Israeli/hamas conflict in general. The Chancellor’s responses have mirrored his public statement.”
In the new statement, the Ethnic Studies Department said it removed the original statement because its been under attack for it and doesn’t wish anyone in the community to feel unsafe. Hurlbert said the faculty in the Department of Ethnic Studies conferred and decided to take down its statement for the reasons it stated.
Friedman said she’d like to see the university provide some form of education on the war to stop disinformation and hate coming from people who don’t understand it.
That way, she said, however people feel about the conflict will at least be an educated view. She’d like to see counseling services advertised more and a more direct action plan, using the University of Wisconsin Madison’s statement as an example.
“I do think (the university) is trying, I just don’t think it’s happening to the extent it needs to be,” Friedman said.
Halevi said the campus needs to address the mistakes of the department’s statements. He said CU Boulder needs to acknowledge the statement was misinformed and polarizing and created a divide within the community. He also wants to see specific claims in the statement corrected so people can understand which parts specifically were wrong and why.
CU Boulder is very good at supporting the racial, ethnic and religious community at the school, Halevi said, with support for the Black and LGBTQ+ communities and the university’s stance on anti-asian hate during the pandemic. But, he said, the Jewish students feel a lack of support.
“It feels unfair to be overlooked,” Halevi said. “Although we may look like the large percentage of the white community that is in Boulder … we are experiencing hatred and we deserve the same level of advocacy that any other minority group would receive.”
Friedman said Palestinian students should absolutely be supported by the university and able to feel safe on campus, but not at the expense of Jewish students.
“No matter which side you stand on, there are people on both sides who are being hurt,” Friedman said, adding, “For CU not to acknowledge initially that they care about their Jewish students (is upsetting).”