US academics denounce new center to be opened in Tel Aviv

Columbia University's announcement to open a centre in Tel Aviv has drawn outrage from nearly 100 faculty members who say the university should reverse the decision because of the new far-right government in Tel Aviv and also Israel's discrimination against Palestinians.

The plans for the new center would include programs on climate change, technology and entrepreneurship and would build on several programs the university already has with Israel. Columbia has several study abroad and exchange programs with Israeli universities.

But in the weeks leading up to the announcement, Columbia law professor Katherine Franke began to circulate a letter in opposition to the center. As of 3 April, the letter has 95 signatures, according to the Columbia Daily Spectator.

“The state of Israel, through formal and informal law, policy, and practice, refuses to abide by international human rights laws and norms both domestically and in its treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories,” Franke wrote in the letter.

A separate letter in support of the university's decision has received around 172 signatures, according to The New York Times.

The letter opposing the new center also argued that Israel would bar certain faculty members based on their identity, politics, and scholarship.

A number of faculty and students at the university have been barred from entering Israel in recent years.

Israel's far-right government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been receiving sharp criticisms from a number of segments of society in the United States, including liberal Jewish organizations.

However, while this newfound criticism has been levelled against the country, many academics and activists have for years been critical of Israel for its treatment of Palestinians, while human rights groups inside and outside of Israel have said it amounts to apartheid.