Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., is promoting an effort to force a California-based college to abandon its study abroad program to Israel.
Daniel Segal, a professor at Pitzer College, a Claremont, Calif. liberal arts college, posted a photo of Tlaib posing with a #SuspendPitzerHaifa brochure. He praised the freshman congresswoman’s support for suspending the college’s relationship with Haifa University until Israel met a list of demands.
@RashidaTlaib is in with #SuspendPitzerHaifa. @pitzercollege @caliactivist @sareemakdisi @YousefMunayyer @jjz1600 @RepJudyChu @jvplive @theIMEU pic.twitter.com/5NUQoQk6c7
— Daniel A. Segal (@DanSegal14) March 11, 2019
Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, has been a vocal opponent of Israel policy and has a world map in her congressional office with a Post-It note over Israel with “Palestine” written on it.
A November 2018 petition stated that “Israel has passed increasingly draconian policies banning political speech and barring activists for Palestinian human rights from entering the country” and that “Israel has a systemic practice of racial discrimination at the border.”
Another vote, set for Thursday involving both faculty and students, would send a resolution to the board of trustees and president to make a decision on whether to suspend the program or not. The Claremont Independent reports that they were denied access to cover the vote, claiming that only the “left-leaning” publication, The Student Life, was granted access to the vote.
Describing the motion as a potentially “major blow,” Pitzer College President Melvin Oliver questioned the fairness of the decision in front of the Pitzer College Council, according to The Student Life, another student-run publication of the Claremont Colleges.
“Why would we not suspend our program with China? Or take our longest standing program in Nepal where the Pitzer in Nepal program has been run for over 40 years,” Oliver said. “During that time, they have had a bloody civil war that killed 19,000 people. Why Israel?”
Tlaib and her staff did not respond to requests for comment.
