Another controversy brews at Columbia University: Students are claiming that some teachers are anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist, and anti-American, with the release of a documentary short. Sponsored by The David Project, the documentary claims that professors in the Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures Department (aka Mealac) created an unhospitable environment for Jewish students. Columbia President Lee Bollinger has tapped Provost Alan Brinkley to lead an inquiry into the film's claims, including one that Professor Joseph Massad calls Palestinians the "new Jews" and Jews "the new Nazis." And Representative Anthony Weiner is getting into the act, calling for Massad's firing. The Daily News has an editorial that says Bollinger's actions are too little, too late, but from what Gothamist has read, it doesn't seem like The David Project had screened the film until yesterday. Racial tensions have, sadly, pretty much always been a norm at Columbia (its history of problems with its Harlem neighbors speaks to that). Earlier this year, a cartoon in the student paper caused some rifts in the Columbia community.
