To Dean Morrison and whom it may concern at NYU School of Law:

The undersigned write today to express extreme dismay regarding hateful, alienating, and borderline antisemitic* statements that members of the law school community have repeatedly and unabashedly made over the past few days on COASES, the NYU Law student list-serv. These statements have been signed on to by a plethora of student organizations, including: MLSA, LSEJ, NLG, MELSA, BALSA, and RLSC. Particularly distressing is the fact that several of the students who have participated are the recipients of prestigious scholarships awarded to students who are dedicated to civil rights and the promotion of free speech. Members of our community are actively made to feel unsafe, unwelcome, and vilified by people you have publicly acknowledged to represent NYU Law’s values.

For example, one Filomen M. D’Agostino Scholar is institutionally celebrated for her contribution to driving political discourse forward and promoting the free exchange of ideas, but instead plays a divisive and alienating role in the NYU Law community. On a day when Israeli noncombatant civilians were murdered in the town of Bnei Brak, she stated that the acknowledgment of this atrocity by other students gave her “mad ‘all lives matter’ vibes.” The day after Israeli noncombatant civilians were murdered in a mass shooting in Tel Aviv, she and other members of the LSJP proudly and explicitly justfied the targeting of family and friends of members of our law school as “the Palestinian right to resist occupation.” She was explicit in her refusal to condemn murder, since “Palestinians are not obligated to engage in racialized ‘nonviolence’ theory.” This was all after she alerted the entire law school last summer that, “to all the Zionists, we’re keeping receipts.” She simultaneously took to Twitter to retweet, “may genocidal settlers never see peace. amen.” She tweeted a screenshot of a COASES email condemning violence against Israelis, and remarked “sorry i had to read this so y’all do too [vomiting emoji].” One of her comments on this tweet read “the subject was Condemning Terror Attacks Against Israel [clown emoji].” In the past, she has retweeted “my love language is marg bar Israel,” which is Farsi for “death to Israel." Finally, and most disturbingly, she publicly liked a post that reads “Long live the Intifada” a mere two hours after the Tel Aviv shooting.

Our hope is not to seek retribution against our peers for viewpoints with which we disagree and our intention is not to call out one student in particular. In fact, the above student’s participation in the most recent COASES exchange was far from unique: there were other participants who boasted Root-Tilden-Kern and IILJ titles in their signatures. It is our contention that speech that, in any other context and by other speakers, would have been swiftly condemned as the glorification and incitement of violence was instead supported by a number of student groups - each representing a large swath of the student body - in part because the speakers have been institutionally distinguished. Absent clarification to the contrary, NYU Law, through its chosen representatives, has made clear to the broader NYU community that it is commendable - or, at the very least, acceptable - to advocate for violent resistance against Israelis.

We ask the following:
That the NYU Law administration do a better job of proactively protecting an atmosphere of free, respectful, and non-violent speech and to outline its strategy in doing so.
That the administration publicly state its expectation that all members of the law school community are committed to nonviolence in promoting social justice goals.
That those brought to the law school to drive political discourse forward bear the responsibility of actually doing so, and that they be held accountable through articulated prestigious scholarship guidelines and requirements and monitored compliance with those guidelines throughout their time in law school.
That those involved with NYU Law Admissions do a better job of vetting their prestigious scholarship candidates in the future, ensuring that candidates are committed to non-violence and respectful dialogue.

The school’s ability to act on these requests will have a large impact on the extent to which we feel able to continue supporting and engaging with NYU Law. We look forward to hearing from you.

* Suffice it to say that there are students and student organizations who feel comfortable using phrases like “Zionist-funded US and Western media,” “the Zionist grip on the media,” and “Ashkenazi Jewish whiteness.”