New York City Council’s 14-member Jewish Caucus is drafting a new law to fight the anti-Semitism permeating the city university’s campuses.
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) last week called on officials to deal with the rise in the number of hate incidents on City University of New York (CUNY) campuses.
The ZOA last week sent a letter to CUNY demanding a probe into ‘Students for Justice in Palestine,’ which it said has engaged in “anti-Semitic and violence-inciting conduct” against Jewish students, the NY Post reported.
The NYC Council Jewish Caucus also sent a letter to CUNY Chancellor James Milliken “demand[ing] to know what comprehensive actions” and, saying it “insist[s] the chancellor inform Council members of CUNY policies for reporting hate-based campus incidents to the NYPD – and if no system exists, set one up immediately.”
Caucus chair and Council member Mark Levine (D-Manhattan) told The Post,“We’re not convinced that the university is adequately tracking what is clearly a pattern of bigotry.”
The university’s chancellor ordered an independent probe into the bias claims, days later. But CUNY has done little else in response, other than issue a statement.
“Our campus-based public safety officers are trained to identify possible hate crime incidents. They refer these incidents to and work closely with the [NYPD],” the statement said.
“Further investigation may lead the police to designate an incident as a hate crime. We report any such designations publicly to a federal registry as all colleges and universities are required to do.”
The City Council Jewish Caucus is now drafting legislation to require CUNY (City University of New York) to report all bias incidents to the Council.
Brooklyn Council member Chaim Deutsch is slated to be lead sponsor on legislation.
