Remember Ami Horowitz’s latest video in which he exposed the blatant antisemitism at a Duke/UNC conference on the Gaza conflict?
It turns out there has been some fallout.
Some sponsors are asking for their money back and a congressman is seeking a government investigation after an anti-Semitic song was performed by a Palestinian rapper at a “Conflict over Gaza” conference at UNC-Chapel Hill last month.
In a scathing letter to leaders of the UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, which officially sponsored the event, UNC School of Law Dean Martin Brinkley said: “Due to your inclusion of conference content over which I had no knowledge or control, I have been forced to spend most of the last two days responding to outraged members of my own community who are ashamed and embarrassed to see the law school shown as a sponsor of what they consider hate speech.”
“As the organizers, who I assume were present during the performance, I would have expected you to intervene and stop a performance that so obviously and painfully contravened campus norms and values, and that so undercut the cultural understanding that you claimed to promote,” he wrote.
UNC School of Government Dean Mike Smith sent a similar letter, saying: “It simply is wrong to defend this explicitly anti-Semitic performance under the cloak of academic freedom. It crossed a bright line and you should have the integrity to reject it and take responsibility for it.”
Both departments asked for a refund of the $500 they spent to sponsor the event.
UNC Global, which oversees The Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies and the event in question, sent this statement to ABC11 on Tuesday: “The center is in conversation with co-sponsors who have requested a return of their funds and the center is working directly with them.”
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North Carolina Congressman George Holding requested the federal government investigate the conference since it was taxpayer funded. Rep. Holding’s letter to Betsy DeVos said: “It is irresponsible, immoral and unproductive for taxpayer dollars to fund overtly biased advocacy camouflaged as academic discourse.” Liz Hill, press secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, said: “We have received the Congressman’s letter and are reviewing it.”
What seems to be missing from the organizers’ response is an apology and promise something like this won’t happen again.
Of course, I am sure they are sorry…that they got caught.
