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By Adam Kredo
(JUNE 27, 2023 / WASHINGTON FREE BEACON) The White House's newest hire is a City University of New York (CUNY) professor who has accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and "systematic genocide," a move that is raising alarms among the many people who are already concerned about the Biden administration's failure to combat antisemitism on America's college campuses.
Ramzi Kassem, a professor at CUNY's law school, was tapped to serve as a senior policy adviser for immigration in the White House's Domestic Policy Council. Kassem is a vocal Israel critic who spent a portion of his time as an undergrad at Columbia University writing scathing criticisms of the Jewish state, a Washington Free Beacon review found. Kassem, who helped defend terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, charged the Jewish state with genocide and decried "unconditional" support for Israel.
Kassem's hiring comes as the Biden administration fights the perception it is feeding Israel's opponents. A closely watched White House plan on combating antisemitism, for instance, was recently watered down by anti-Israel activists. The State Department admitted on Monday that it is boycotting research partnerships with certain Israeli organizations.
CUNY announced that Kassem "will work to support the Biden-Harris agenda across a range of immigration issues" using his expertise as "a national leader on progressive immigration reform." Kassem enters the White House after working for more than a decade at CUNY, which has repeatedly found itself in hot water for promoting antisemitic hate speech and, in some cases, subjecting Jewish students to "severe and persistent antisemitic harassment." CUNY's law school, in particular, promotes antisemitic boycotts against Israel and recently featured a graduation speaker who accused Israel of sending "lynch mobs" after Palestinians.
Kassem's past writings strike a similar note. In an April 1998 article, the White House adviser claimed there is "sufficient evidence" implicating Israel in a "systematic genocide" against the Palestinians. The Jewish state's behavior, Kassem wrote in the Columbia Spectator, is "a clear-cut case of ethnic cleansing." In another April 1998 article, titled "Zionism Impedes Middle Eastern Peace," Kassem claimed European Jews came to the Middle East "with the intention of conquering the land." A two-state solution between the parties "is not viable, nor is it desirable," he insisted.
Kassem also maintained that peace will only be achieved if Israel affords Palestinians the "right of return," a long dormant policy proposal that would erase Israel's Jewish majority.
"It doesn't make sense that Jewish Americans living in Brooklyn have more rights to the land than Palestinians who live in Lebanon and can't return to their historical land," Kassem was quoted as saying in a November 2000 Spectator interview.
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