Legal scholar calls out AAUP group for its 'distressing anti-Israel bias'

A legal scholar has recently come out against the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) for its alleged bias against Jewish and pro-Israel supporters on college campuses.

In a Nov. 27 op-ed for The Hill, Northwestern Law professor emeritus Steven Lubet criticizes the AAUP for having “displayed a distressing anti-Israel bias that sadly undermines its commitment to even-handed protection of free expression.”

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A life member of the AAUP, Lubet calls out the organization for referring to Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israelis as simply “the events of October 7,” rather than the largest killing of Jews since the Holocaust. 

”An uninformed reader might well conclude that the AAUP’s demand to protect academic freedom — against interference from ‘donors, legislators and well-funded political organizations’ — has followed a mere ‘event’ such as a parade or perhaps a thunderstorm,” Lubet writes.  

The professor emeritus also blames the AAUP for not condemning any on the ongoing threats and instances of anti-Semitism that Jewish students and faculty are increasingly facing in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

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”Rather than defend or even acknowledge the rights of Jewish students, the AAUP has instead scolded the administrators who have addressed the alarming rise of antisemitism on campuses and elsewhere, saying, ‘College and university leaders have no obligation to speak out on the most controversial issues of the day,’” he states.

In concluding his piece, Lubet says he hopes that the AAUP may adopt the Chicago Statement, which he says “calls for institutional neutrality and precludes institutional statements on political issues.”

Campus Reform contacted Lubet for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.