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Here’s What New York’s Governor Needs to Do About CUNY
CUNY pro-Hamas students and supporters setup encampment at the school’s campus in New York City on April 25, 2024. Photo: Steve Sanchez via Reuters Connect
It is time for New York Governor Kathy Hochul to put some teeth into New York State’s Executive Order 157, by disciplining the Professional Staff Congress of CUNY.
According to New York State’s Office of General Services, Executive Order No. 157 (EO 157) directs State entities to “divest all public funds supporting the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. The first-in-the-nation action will ensure that no State agency or authority engages in or promotes any investment that would further the harmful and discriminatory Palestinian-backed Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in New York State.”
This Executive Order was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on June 5, 2016. EO 157 is still in effect.
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) is the union that represents approximately 30,000 professors and staff who are employed by the City University of New York (CUNY) and the CUNY Research Foundation.
PSC membership is open to full-time and part-time professors, and staff who have retired. On January 23, 2025, the delegate assembly of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) approved the, “PSC and NYCERS [sic] Israeli Investments Divestment Resolution” (PSC BDS Resolution). The Delegate Assembly is the principal governing body of the Professional Staff Congress, and the policy forum for the PSC. The Assembly discusses, debates, and designs the policy positions of the PSC. This resolution calls for divestment of PSC assets from Israel and Israeli companies.
Here is the relevant part of the resolution:
And, be it further resolved that the Professional Staff Congress shall divest its own funds from any investment vehicle that includes in its portfolio stocks and bonds of Israeli companies and Israeli government bonds no later than the end of January 2026, and shall continue in good faith to try to meet that investment objective.
The PSC resolution clearly supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement that seeks to weaken, isolate, and delegitimize Israel. The PSC resolution states:
Whereas, in the past, such as during the period of apartheid rule in South Africa, American institutions such as colleges and labor unions have used the tool of divestment to show their disapproval of state policies that violate international human rights laws, and also to weaken those states economically.
This PSC CUNY resolution places the PSC in direct conflict with the State of New York. How can the CUNY PSC be the representative of CUNY employees if New York State is prohibited from negotiating and signing contracts with the PSC?
I am a member of the CUNY Professional Staff Congress and I am outraged. I hope I am not alone.
The January, 2025 resolution of the PSC Delegate Assembly is just like their June 10, 2021 “Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People” (CUNY PSC Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People, June 10, 2021).
The 2021 screed is a one-sided polemic that places the entire blame for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians squarely on Israel. It is clear from the text of the 2021 resolution — “Whereas, Israel’s pattern and practice of dispossession and expansion of settlements, dating back to its establishment as a settler colonial state in 1948” — that the PSC views Israel as an imposed state, not a legitimate country.
EO 157 asserts: “the State of New York will not permit its own investment activity to further the BDS campaign in any way, shape or form, whether directly or indirectly” (EO 157).
The intention of the PSC to divest its assets from Israel and Israeli companies is clear support of the BDS campaign, and this requires Governor Hochul to act.
It is now incumbent upon Hochul to enforce EO 157 and cut direct and indirect financial support to the PSC until the PSC revokes its commitment to actively support the BDS campaign.
The first move by New York State should be to add the PSC to the list of “Institutions or Companies Determined to Participate In Boycott, Divestment, or Sanctions Activity Targeting Israel” (List of Companies and Institutions that engage in BDS Activity). The second step should be to exclude the PSC from future discussions and negotiations with New York State.
The BDS movement does the propaganda work of Hamas and prolongs the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis. By passing the BDS resolution, the PSC has become complicit in prolonging this catastrophic war that was launched by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The PSC is certainly not advocating for peace, but rather for the destruction of Israel.
Charles A. Stone is a Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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