Sandi Cooper

Overview

Sandi Cooper [Sandi E. Cooper] expressed support of anti-Israel agitators and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Cooper is a professor in the Department of History at City University of New York (CUNY).

Supporting Anti-Israel Agitators

In March 2018, Cooper signed a petition expressing support for a controversial children’s book that demonized Israel. 

The book titled: “P is for Palestine,” was written by anti-Israel activist Golbarg Bashi. 

Controversy surrounded the publication of Bashi’s book, specifically because of its failure to mention Israel and its glorification of “intifada.” 

In the petition, signatories wrote that opposition to the book’s apparent demonization of Israel “is the most recent—and shameful—instance of Israel-related censorship in our neighborhood”

In May of 2011, Cooper served as the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Faculty Senate chair, when the university’s Board of Trustees voted to award playwright Tony Kushner an honorary degree. 

The decision was denied, however, after one board member brought to light Kushner’s vocal anti-Israel sentiments and membership on the board of the anti-Israel Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) organization. 

Upon hearing of the revocation of his honorary degree, Kushner penned a letter in which he stated: “I believe that the historical record shows, incontrovertibly, that the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes as part of the creation of the state of Israel was ethnic cleansing.” 

In the same letter, Kushner went on to say: “I am on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace… and I’m honored by my association with them”

Following the controversy, Cooper expressed concern for the board’s decision, criticizing the opposition to granting Kushner the degree because of his “presumed anti-Israel sentiments.”

According to an article published in June 2011, Cooper “wrote to trustees and the chancellor objecting to [the] attack on Kushner as a distortion of the playwright’s views.”

In the same article, Cooper was quoted stating that “As Kushner says…[his views involve] complicated thoughts not conducive to being understood in sound bites.”

Supporting BDS

In 2016, Cooper signed a controversial petition submitted to the American Historical Association (AHA), which alleged that “Israel’s restrictions on the movement of faculty, staff and visitors in the West Bank impede instruction at Palestinian institutions of higher learning” and that “Israel restricts the right to lecture or teach at Palestinian universities.”

The petition went on to demand that “the AHA commits itself to monitoring Israeli actions.”

Cooper also signed an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, demonizing Israel and calling for an end to foreign aid. 

The July 31, 2014 letter, addressed to former U.S. President Barack Obama and the American Congress, called “to suspend US military aid to Israel, until there is assurance that this aid will no longer be used for the commission of war crimes.”

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

University Website: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/History/Faculty-Bios/Sandi-E-Cooper