Hunter College has agreed to reschedule the screening of a documentary critical of Israel, following an outcry from faculty members and students who said the administration’s earlier decision to cancel it violated academic freedom.
A screening of the documentary, “Israelism” had been scheduled for Nov. 14 as part of a film series organized by a professor in the New York school’s film and media department. She would be followed by a conversation with one of the directors and one of the protagonists of the film, a young American Jew who travels to Israel and the West Bank and discovers a reality very different from the history she grew up with.
But that morning, Hunter interim president Ann Kirschner announced that the screening would be canceled due to safety concerns.
“In the current climate, we seek to balance our commitment to free speech and academic freedom with the danger of anti-Semitic and divisive rhetoric,” Kirschner said in a statement.
The decision drew sharp criticism from Hunter, a public school that is part of the City University of New York, and beyond. The Hunter Senate, which includes students, faculty and staff, called it “an egregious and illegitimate violation” of academic freedom and demanded that the administration provide a venue for the screening within a month. The free expression group PEN America called the decision “totally antithetical to the principles of free expression.”
Shortly after the Senate meeting on November 15, a Hunter spokesman, Vince DiMiceli, said that rescheduling the film, although not mentioned in Kirschner’s original statement, “was always the plan.” (Kirschner’s statement has since been removed from Hunter’s website.)
On Wednesday, DiMiceli confirmed that the screening would take place on December 5 and would be followed by a discussion with one of the directors, Erin Axelman, and a rabbi, Andy Bachman.
DiMiceli said there would be no further comment from Kirschner or Hunter about the event, including why a rabbi had been added.
Since its release in February, “Israelism” has won several awards, including an audience award at the prominent San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. It has had dozens of screenings in community spaces and universities, including some sponsored by university Jewish groups and Jewish and Israeli studies departments.
But the film also received heavy criticism, including at least two online letter-writing campaigns aimed at convincing Hunter and other schools to cancel screenings. An online letter called the film “anti-Semitic” and said it had been “created solely for the purpose of convincing its viewers that Israel is an apartheid state.”
Most screenings went off without a hitch, according to Daniel J. Chalfen, one of the film’s producers. But on November 21, the University of Pennsylvania administration denied a Jewish student group’s request, made a month earlier, to hold a screening on November 28.
In a sentence, the executive committee of Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors expressed concern about the denial, calling it “yet another expression of the failure of our university leadership to uphold the principles of academic freedom.” Anyway, the film was shown Tuesday night, without permission, under the auspices of the school’s Middle East Center.
In a statement, Penn said it had told students they could show the film in February, citing concerns about safety. “The university’s first responsibility remains the safety of our university community,” she said.
At Hunter, the Dec. 5 screening will be limited to students. (Other films in the series are also open to the general public.)
Tami Gold, a professor in the film and media department who organized the screening, said she had questioned the administration’s insistence that a rabbi be added to the program. The film and the filmmakers, she said, should speak for themselves. But she said she was glad Kirschner had listened to teachers and students and “turned a corner.”
“What the Hunter president did should be an example of what other universities should be doing,” he said. “Do not be afraid of dialogue. Allow it and encourage it.”
