Texas College forces out school president who opposed pro-Palestine event after Oct. 7 massacre

A Texas college leader was pushed out of her position following a controversy related to a pro-Palestine event on campus. 

After just over a year in her role as President of San Antonio College (SAC), Naydeen González-De Jesús has been pushed out of her leadership position after an allegation that she attempted to cancel a pro-Palestinian “teach-in,” reported the San Antonio Express-News.  

The Alamo Colleges District, which SAC is a part of, announced on March 15 that González-De Jesús was reassigned to start an administrative position, the Express-News wrote. 

At the core of the controversy is González-De Jesús’s alleged attempts to stonewall a “Teach-In for Palestine” lecture that took place last year shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians, reported Texas Public Radio. 

González-De Jesús reportedly tried to cancel the teach-in but was then persuaded to merely delay the event.

[RELATED: UC Berkeley announces criminal investigation after violent mob violently shuts down Jewish event: ‘Overtly antisemitic’]

Both SAC administrators and SAC’s student government sent letters to Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Mike Flores expressing “votes of no confidence” in González-De Jesús, with the administrators’ letter blaming her for allegedly creating a harmful atmosphere on campus, including through her supposed opposition to the “Teach-In for Palestine” event, related Texas Public Radio. 

One point of contention was González-De Jesús’s telling student government leaders (while seemingly not realizing a student was recording her): “If I invite someone from the KKK, I will also need to invite someone that completely does not agree with the KKK, right? So that we can show both points of view, not to dismiss one side or the other, but to include,” Texas Public Radio wrote. 

González-De Jesús’s opposition to the pro-Palestine event also prompted the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) to send a letter stating that FIRE was worried by what it called “San Antonio College’s overly restrictive handling of a campus teach-in about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” as related by KSAT. 

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Though González-De Jesús sent an email saying she was sorry for “misunderstandings” about the incident, it appears opposition to her remained strong up until her reassignment, with one student saying: “We definitely need something better because we deserve it . . . to know that we are now not so ‘SAC proud,’ it’s heartbreaking,” according to Texas Public Radio. 

The former university president’s conduct had some supporters, however, with Nammie Ichilov, a SAC faculty member and leader of the Jewish Federation of San Antonio, saying González-De Jesús’s attitude to the pro-Palestine event was correct considering the “growing concern of antisemitism, otherwise known as Jew hate, on college campuses,” wrote the San Antonio Express-News.

Campus Reform has contacted San Antonio College for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.