donshafi911@IAmTheFaceOfTruth🔻

 

Four CUNY Professors Say They Were Fired for Supporting Palestine

As Congress grills CUNY's chancellor, the terminated Brooklyn College faculty say Palestine activism is "the only thing we have in common."

July 15 2025, 6:06 p.m.

Four adjunct professors at the City University of New York say the university fired them because of their activism for Palestine. The administration’s decision to cut ties came as a surprise to both the faculty and their department heads, who had already recommended their reappointment and assigned them classes in fall — some of which had student waitlists. The affected professors, and faculty in support of them, said they remained in good standing with their academic departments and had great reviews from students. 

The university has not given an official reason for ending its relationship with the professors, who all taught at Brooklyn College, and did not clarify their decision in a request for comment from The Intercept. The university terminated one professor and did not reappoint three of them. 

“We’re filling in the blanks because they’ve told us nothing,” said one of the four affected professors, who requested anonymity for fear of being doxxed and harassed. “The only reason we know it’s related to Palestine is because that’s the only thing we have in common.” She and three others are fighting for reappointment and have filed grievances with Brooklyn College. 

Most Read 

When she first received a notification in June from human resources that she would not be reappointed to teach, she flagged the person in her department who assigned her classes. “He thought it was a mistake — and that we must have checked the wrong box,” she said. That confusion made her believe the decision had nothing to do with her teaching ability. “The decision made by our departments was to hire us. The decision made by the Administration was to fire us,” she said. “It’s just sending a message that no one’s job is safe.” 

“The decision made by our departments was to hire us. The decision made by the Administration was to fire us.” 

The Professional Staff Congress, or PSC — the main labor union for CUNY faculty — and the CUNY chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine have both said the professors’ removal violates due process and free speech rights. The union said it has written at least four times to the college administration requesting more information and has not received clarity on why these professors were let go. 

In a June 30 letter to CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, PSC President James Davis demanded the professors’ reinstatement and noted their non-reappointment and termination as “highly irregular.” Davis noted that the classes remained on the schedule, even when the instructors were let go. “In no case was the job performance of the instructor evaluated as unsatisfactory. In no case did the college inform the instructor or the department chair of a misconduct finding that could warrant such an action. In no case was it the department chair who notified the instructor of the non-reappointment, nor was the chair notified in advance,” he wrote. “While the unexplained nonreappointment of teaching adjuncts is not unusual at CUNY, this fact pattern is deeply concerning. What the four instructors who lost their CUNY jobs at the same time have in common is their public protest against Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights.”

“What the four instructors who lost their CUNY jobs at the same time have in common is their public protest against Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights.”

A separate letter from more than 100 Jewish CUNY faculty and staff, addressed to Matos Rodríguez, condemned the removal of the four professors and argued that the decision violated departmental academic autonomy to determine staffing for scheduled classes. “Firing them does not make CUNY, New York City, New York State, nor the United States safer for Jews,” they wrote. “Firing our colleagues is an abhorrent act setting a dangerous precedent.”

The staffing changes at CUNY came in the lead-up to a congressional hearing Tuesday morning probing claims of antisemitism on college campuses. University leaders from CUNY, University of California, Berkeley, and Georgetown University testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee. 

On July 9, New York City Councilmember Inna Vernikov called the termination of the four professors and the recent suspension of student organizer Hadeeqa Arzoo Malik, who leads City College of New York’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, a “last ditch attempt … to save face.” In 2023, Vernikov was arrested after she openly carried a gun at a pro-Palestinian protest at Brooklyn College; the charges were later dismissed. Both she and Rep. Elise Stefanik, D-N.Y., accused CUNY’s chancellor of trying to back out of testifying.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Stefanik launched baseless attacks on other CUNY faculty members. She pushed for disciplining law professor Ramzi Kassem on the grounds that he represented Mahmoud Khalil, and Saly Abd Alla, the university’s chief diversity officer, over her past work as a civil rights director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Minnesota. “Does it concern you that New York taxpayers are paying for the legal defense fund of Mahmoud Khalil?” she asked Matos Rodríguez.

Matos Rodríguez said he was not familiar with those individual employees, but stressed that any employee who violates CUNY’s rules will be investigated. He said CUNY had no complaints related to Abd Alla and that she is not directly involved with handling cases related to students and faculty.

Pro-Palestinian protesters repeatedly interrupted the hearing. As Matos Rodríguez spoke, one person yelled: “Israel is burning children alive.” Later in the hearing, another protester also shouted to disrupt Matos Rodríguez’s remarks, prompting Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., to say: “Shut up and get out of here … get out of here you loser.”

Matos Rodríguez emphasized the university’s zero tolerance policy for encampments and said it had hired 150 full-time security employees and contracted with 250 security personnel. He said the university disciplined three students as a result of the encampments.

Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., relayed to the chancellor CUNY faculty members’ concerns about professors who were not reappointed despite having fully enrolled classes scheduled for the fall. “As a former professor myself and a department chair — somebody who believes deeply in transparency and fairness — I want to ask you: would you be willing to follow up with my office and provide more information on the policies and procedures that guide faculty appointments and reappointments at CUNY?” she asked. Matos Rodríguez said he was willing to cooperate fully with the committee.

This was the ninth event held by Congress focused on claims of antisemitism on campus since October 7. None have been held to address Islamophobia or anti-Palestinian discrimination. Earlier high-profile hearings probed leaders from Harvard University, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania; the presidents of those schools all resigned after testifying. 

The CUNY, Georgetown, and UC Berkeley chapters of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine signed off on a letter before the hearing calling on their respective presidents to “defend their institutions from baseless attacks and affirm principles of academic freedom and free speech.” 

“They must oppose the weaponizing of antisemitism through the equation of Jewish safety with the silencing and exclusion of those who speak up for Palestinian freedom and an end to genocide,” the statement read. The faculty argued in the letter that these congressional hearings have routinely shown university administrators inaccurate examples of antisemitism — and used that to pressure them to crack down on students and employees.

“These hearings are political theater. That’s all they are.”

Free speech experts agree with that assessment. “These hearings are political theater. That’s all they are,” said David Cole, a Georgetown Law professor who testified in his capacity as an expert on the First Amendment at an earlier hearing in May. “It almost doesn’t matter what the university presidents say … there is no effort to even determine what the truth is, what actually happened, or whether any legal lines have been crossed.”

We’re independent of corporate interests — and powered by members. Join us. 

Become a member 

Professors across the country are worried about their speech and actions being policed under an overly broad definition of antisemitism. The American Association of University Professors, a union representing about 45,000 members nationwide, has criticized the conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel.

In the meantime, the professors who can no longer work with CUNY are scrambling to find another source of income and protect themselves from doxxing and harassment.  

One of the four CUNY professors said it feels as though CUNY’s administration is opposed to protecting student safety. She recalled trying to protect students at Brooklyn College’s encampment in May as faculty placed themselves strategically between police and students. 

“We just knew that something really bad was going to happen,” she said. Now, she’s scared to speak publicly. She also misses teaching. “It was not only the way I made my living but also what gave me purpose,” she said. Despite the costs, she is still committed to the Palestinian cause. “The reality is, it is working. What they’re doing is working,” she said. “This repression is repressive, but I feel strongly that I can’t let it stop me. The situation in Gaza is so extreme, we have to continue to fight — and I think it’s shameful for anyone to be fired for opposing a genocide … History will not treat this period kindly.”

Another of the professors is worried about covering their oldest child’s college tuition. “I don’t know if my family will have to move, what we’ll do about health insurance, or whether the right-wing groups now doxxing me will escalate their harassment,” they said.

“Though no reason was given for my firing, it’s impossible not to see this as retaliation — for supporting students and for exercising my lawful political expression outside the classroom,” they said.

“Though no reason was given for my firing, it’s impossible not to see this as retaliation.”

They have no plans to slow their activism around Palestine. “Absolutely not. In the face of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians killed, entire families wiped off the earth, every university destroyed, and the widespread obliteration of agricultural land and hospitals, I cannot and will not be silent.”