February 5, 2025
This letter originally appeared in The Washington Post.
I was surprised by the way The Post framed a long story about Katherine Franke’s departure from Columbia Law School. By centering on the professor’s perspective and casting an overwhelmingly soft, uncritical focus onto her story, The Post played down Franke’s remarks and the effect they might have had on students and faculty who were experiencing harassment and a toxic environment on campus. The Post proceeded to lionize Franke as a downtrodden victim of an unfair crackdown brought on because of her outspoken political critique of Israel.
An investigative piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, however, came to a solidly reasoned conclusion that Franke was guilty of discriminating against Israeli students but was actually not fired from her position at Columbia because of it.
Such emotional string-pulling reinforces a well-worn narrative that demonizes Israel while ignoring faculty members’ legal and professional obligations to extend fair and equal treatment to all, including Israeli and Zionist students and those who have done their required service in the Israel Defense Forces.
