Corey Robin

Overview

Corey Robin has spread anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel, engaged in anti-Israel activism, and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of June 2023, Robin was listed as a professor of political science at Brooklyn College (BC). Robin also served in the same position at the City University of New York Graduate Center (CUNY GC). BC is part of CUNY.

Robin was affiliated with the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at BC (Brooklyn SJP) in 2014.

Robin received a PhD in political science from Yale University in 1999.

As of April 2024, Robin indicated on Twitter that he was located in Brooklyn, New York.

Spreading Anti-Semitism and Hatred of Israel

On May 12, 2021, Robin tweeted against Israel’s security barrier, equating it to the Warsaw Ghetto, where Nazi Germany rounded up hundreds of thousands of Jews for forced labor. About 80,000 died of starvation and other harsh conditions in the ghetto, which was also a transfer point for the Nazis to send Jews to be murdered in concentration camps.

Robin wrote in his tweet: “...whenever I look at the separation wall on the West Bank, I can't help but think of the Warsaw Ghetto…”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

On March 13, 2019, Robin wrote: “…The problem with dual loyalty to the State of Israel is not that Israel is a foreign state; it’s that it’s a serial abuser of the Palestinian people, a vicious ethnocracy that is not deserving of our loyalty at all.”

The concept of “dual loyalty” is an anti-Semitic accusation that alleges Jews are more loyal to Israel than to their own nations.

On March 3, 2019, Robin tweeted: “...Jews are in a relatively good position in the US and are the oppressors in Israel…”

On September 7, 2018, Robin wrote on Facebook: “It's not the products or trade that really matters; indeed, India, China, and other states are fast moving to closer ties with Israel. What really matters is the specter of ‘delegimitation [sic].’”

On July 19, 2018, Robin tweeted that while “Israel murders innocents in Gaza…the bulk of the Palestinian resistance is non-violent.”

Throughout 2018, Hamas organized and funded the “March of Return” riots where tens of thousands of Palestinians approached the Israel-Gaza border, attempting to breach Israel’s security fence. They sent explosive devices into Israel, shot firearms and threw projectiles at Israeli soldiers, necessitating the use of live fire in response. One Hamas leader declared [00:00:30]: “We will take down the border and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.” The riots intended to highlight the “right of return,” a Palestinian demand long discredited as a way to destroy Israel.

The violent riots continued until the end of 2018, accompanied by military-style attacks carried out by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other terror organizations. The attacks included gunfire, armed rioters penetrating Israeli territory, throwing IEDs and hand grenades and launching incendiary kites into Israel.

Anti-Israel Activism

On November 20, 2014, Robin moderated a Brooklyn SJP panel event featuring Steven Salaita. The event description said it was about “the constant push by Zionists to silence academic discourse relating to the Palestinian struggle and criticisms of Israel.”

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

On November 11, 2014, Robin wrote a blog post in where he stated he was “proud to announce” that the political science department that he chaired was co-sponsoring the Salaita event. He expressed “a certain disappointment” with other departments for refusing to co-sponsor.

On August 8, 2014, Robin published a blog post calling for a boycott of the University of Illinois (UIUC) to pressure the school to reinstate Salaita. Robin eventually called for an end to the boycott after Salaita and UIUC reached a settlement. Robin also stated that the boycott had “been tremendously hard on many departments at UIUC, particularly those departments that were most in support of Steven.”

SJP

SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.

The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.

SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.

SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.

SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.

Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.