This semester, Kylie Broderick taught the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite her publicly promoting the view that Israel should not exist, declaring that Palestinians are the only legitimate side in the conflict, and urging “everyone at UNC ... [to] boycott Israeli products.”
She even scheduled a quiz on Yom Kippur — the holiest day of Judaism.
Now a new video has emerged, in which Broderick declares, “The concept of objectivity is a colonizer’s tool and one we must discard entirely,” and that “objectivity is neither desirable nor possible in teaching history.”
In this new video, recorded at the end of November, Broderick spoke on a “Teaching Palestine” virtual panel, complaining, that the UNC administration “spent a good deal of time examining my ability to be objective, whatever that means.”
Broderick states that instructors should aim to be activists who “teach justice in the classroom.”
She reports that UNC wanted her to meet with Jewish Studies faculty, calling it a nonsensical request, describing “university leaders” as “either illiterate or more likely deliberately cowardly.”
Her talk begins, “I want to recognize I am also on stolen and unceded indigenous territory here in North Carolina,” and went on to refer to the United States and Israel as “twin settler colonies.”
Broderick promoted the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) during the panel, and earlier in 2021, she signed a letter affirming her commitment to promote BDS “in the classroom and on campus.”
And UNC still chose her to teach a course on Israel and the Palestinians.
In a series of conspiratorially bizarre statements, she refers to ABC News as part of the “allegedly secular media,” and asserts that there are efforts “seeking to criminalize teaching about Palestine from a pro-Palestinian perspective or a truthful perspective.”
In this new video, Broderick shared, “All in all, the University [UNC] received thousands of emails about me demanding I be fired and they came from all echelons of society. But honestly, what was more troubling than the mobilization of the Hasbara network, was how the university wanted me to respond to their baseless accusations.”
Broderick’s presentation was steeped in antisemitism — on what the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes as “The myth of excessive Jewish power.” She repeatedly complains that UNC — the same university that chose her to teach a course on Israel — is “playing into a Zionist playbook,” and that the university expected her to function under “Israel’s rules.”
She argues that it is crucial to “dismantle the power that Hasbara and other pro-colonial causes have historically had over universities.” She states that the pro-Israel media was able to “dominate the airwaves.”
After concluding her presentation, the moderator — Jamila Ghaddar — immediately responded, “Thank you so much Kylie for that thorough presentation of this violent attack you faced.”
In Broderick’s upside-down academic world, espousing blatant antisemitism is normative, and those who call out her hatred and extreme anti-Israel bias are somehow violent.
Kylie Broderick has made it very clear that she views the college classroom as her own private playground — a place where she feels free to indoctrinate students against Israel with no consequences. She disregards and disrespects other views. This extremely biased, antisemitic agenda has no place in academia.
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
