A University of Virginia (UVA) professor told students on Monday that he was canceling classes in support of an anti-Israel boycott at the school, according to an email obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
UVA apartheid divest, union Members of the UVA student group referendum They called on the school to divest donations from companies that profit from Israel.group held On Monday, it was “Yes to Divest and Walkout.” Krista Robbins, an associate professor of art history at UVA, told her students that she was canceling her class “in solidarity” with her strike. (Related: Biden administration reopens civil rights investigation into Harvard University)
“I am writing this letter in solidarity with the “Yes on Divest Walkout” organized by the UVA Apartheid Divest Coalition to inform you that today’s classes are canceled. I recognize that this issue is polarizing right now, so I would like to share with you why I made this choice,” Robbins wrote in an email to students on Monday.
Ms. Robbins then asked the class to watch several pro-Palestinian videos and explained that her feelings were for “the Palestinian people.”
“My decision to cancel classes comes from my own compassion for the Palestinian people and my desire to see them live freely,” Robbins said in an email. Ta.
October 12, 2022, on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo credit: DAXIA ROJAS/AFP via Getty Images)
of referendumThe bill, introduced by UVA’s Apartheid Divest, would determine how much of the university’s endowment “is involved in or benefits from the Israeli state’s apartheid regime and serious violence against the Palestinian people.” It requires UVA to submit to an “audit process” to determine whether the company will be invested. ” and demands the sale of such funds.
UVA Board of Elections Chairman Luke Lamberson told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “ultimately” the referendum is “unenforceable.”
Lamberson said no changes will be made to the endowment without the initiation of the University’s governing board, the Board of Visitors.
Several students recently called on UVA administrators to do more to combat anti-Israel activity on campus.
“Some students have been spat at, shoved, and have been subjected to vicious abuse and anti-Semitic slurs,” he said. lawyer Joel Need accompanied the students.
“There is a child who is so intimidated by the students in the dormitory that he has to move off campus, sleep somewhere else, and stop wearing yamika to feel safe.” Another child “When they walk past these protests, they feel the need to tuck their jewelry or Jewish stars into their sweaters or shirts so no one can see them,” Nied continued. .
Since the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, students and universities across the United States have seen an increase in pro-Palestinian activities and anti-Semitic acts on campus.
Several elite universities, including Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and Columbia University, have created anti-Semitism task forces in response to rising anti-Israel activity on their campuses. Many pro-Palestinian student groups at universities across the United States have raised anti-Israel slogans such as “From River to Sea” calling for Israel’s removal.
UVA and Robins did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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