On February 20th the Minnesota Republic hosted a conversation surrounding anti-semitism at the University of Minnesota. The panel included Richard Painter, Micheal Hsu, and Marian Rourke. Painter is a University of Minnesota Law professor and former White House ethics lawyer. Hsu is a former member of the University of Minnesota’s Board Of Regents, while Marian Rourke is a Minnesota State Representative.

The event was graciously moderated by Constitutional Lawyer, James Dickey.

James Dickey was quick to note the significance of the event and gave great context to start the night.

Dickey stated:

Professor Painter, here to my left and Regent Hsu filed a complaint with the Federal Department of Education last December after Hamas terrorists brutally murdered more than 1,200 Israeli citizens and took hundreds more hostage on October 7, 2023. When Israeli forces responded to those brutal attacks intending to dismantle the Hamas war machine, several departments of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota issued statements using their university websites condemning Israel and appearing to justify Hamas’ terrorist acts. These were the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Departments.

It said on their website, and still is on their website, for example, that, quote, “Israel’s response is not self-defense, but the continuation of a genocidal war against Gaza and against Palestinian freedom, self-determination, and life”. They also reaffirmed its quote, “support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement”. The department also called on students, colleagues, and friends around the country to call for lifting the siege, ending the occupation, and dismantling Israel’s apartheid system.

Cultural studies, for its part, said that Israel had used the attacks as an excuse to redouble the brutality already visited upon ordinary Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and the occupied territories. The Israeli state’s ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people must end. It called Israel’s actions genocidal as well. 

The American Indian Studies Department, on its website justified Hamas’s actions as a quote, “right of return” and described Israel’s actions as a quote, “genocidal expression of its right to exist”. These statements attempt to disclaim that they were only the views of the professors signing them, but they use university property and the maroon and gold to host their viewpoint, something others in the university without the levers of power cannot do. These professors are free to hold these views and even share them. However, by appropriating the university’s colors and website to disseminate them, these professors have clouded the university culture especially in the College of Liberal Arts.

With the power of anti-semitism statements like these have become a flashpoint across the nation and they are representative of a university culture of anti-Semitism. And because of statements like these by leaders at this university, Professor Painter and Regent Hsu asked President Ettinger and the provost in a November 17, 2023 letter to stop the use of university property to spout these antisemitic viewpoints. As they put in that letter, quote, in sum, six days after 1,200 Israeli citizens were murdered in cold blood by terrorists and hundreds taken hostage. 

GWSS issued a statement condemning Israel, the victim of the terrorist attack, but not condemning Hamas, the perpetrator of the attack. Therefore, after getting no response from the administration to address these atrocious statements, Professor Painter and Mr. Suh then filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education. In the complaint they asked for an investigation into their concerns about anti-Semitism at the University of Minnesota. 

In the complaint, Professor Painter and former Regent Hsu noted that these statements are openly anti-Semitic. The call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions that have been so-called by the Anti-Defamation League. They also asked the Department of Education to put a stop to what they call the intimidation, emotional distress, and harm to Jewish students from the anti-Semitic departmental faculty statements on Israel. Furthermore, they are still calling for academic freedom in non-university forums. 

More questions following this context are available via Minnesota Republic.