Decision left doctor ‘stunned’
New York University abruptly cancelled a professor’s talk due to several slides which discussed Gaza as well as the United States Agency for International Development.
Dr. Joanne Liu formerly led Doctors Without Borders and teaches at McGill University. She graduated from NYU.
The school cancelled her planned March 19 talk on the evening of March 18, according to CTV News.
The news outlet reported:
A couple of the slides in her presentation touched on the casualties in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war as well as the cuts at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Liu said she was told the slides about Gaza “could be perceived as antisemitic” while the USAID section might be perceived as “anti governmental.”
Liu, who was already in New York when she got the call, offered to make edits to those slides but then three hours later, after some deliberations, she said the university apologized and said they had to cancel.
“I was stunned,” Liu said.
She blamed the cancellation on a fear of losing money, as the Trump administration had frozen funds at Columbia University due to concerns about antisemitism.
NYU told CTV News: “Guest speakers at our institution are given clear guidelines at the outset. Per our policy we cannot host speakers who don’t comply. In this case we did fully compensate this guest for her travel and time.”
Liu provided further information on the slides during a recent interview with Democracy Now!.
The allegedly “antisemitic” slide was a “compilation of number of casualties in conflict zone in aid worker community. And this is what I was trying to explain to [the university official], because, as I said, yes, this is the reason why we don’t see casualties on the other side, because it’s about aid worker.”
She also planned to criticize the cuts to USAID.
Critics of the downsizing of the agency have cited concerns about international assistance for HIV/AID. At the same time, USAID has funded other projects, including transgender clinics in India.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, following a thorough review, determined only 17 percent of USAID programs were worth continuing.
Johns Hopkins University announced it would cut nearly 2,000 jobs in foreign countries which were subsidized by USAID, including the transgender clinics.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Professor Joanne Liu is pictured during an interview; Democracy Now!
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