December 14, 2019 "Information
Clearing House" -On December 11, President Trump
signed an executive order that
effectively weaponizes antisemitism as a
cudgel to beat back BDS activities on
college campuses. The order threatens to
withhold federal funding from universities
if the government determines that they’ve
failed to prohibit discrimination.
Trump’s move was barely announced before
a member of congress attempted to use the
new playbook. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA)
has sent a letter to Secretary of Education
Betsy DeVos asking for Georgetown University
to be investigated over its alleged
anti-Israel bias. The news was reported on
Twitter by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s
Washington bureau chief Ron Kampeas.
“I have recently become aware of
systematic support for biased,
anti-American, pro-BDS individuals and
scholarship at Georgetown University’s
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies that
are not in accordance with the mission of
Title VI funds and contrary to America’s
national security interests…The so-called
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
movement is a dagger aimed at the heart of
one of America’s closest allies, Israel,”
reads the letter. Riggleman cites a report
on Georgetown faculty from Islamophobic
commentator Daniel Pipes’s
website as the basis behind his
concerns.
