Brooklyn College professor says he got canned because of pressure from a local pol angry over the teacher’s pro-Palestinian politics.
A college spokesman said Kristofer Petersen-Overton, 26, was dropped Wednesday from teaching a Middle East politics class because he didn’t have a Ph.D.
"[He] simply did not have the credentials to be teaching at the graduate level,” said spokesman Jeremy Thompson.
But the adjunct prof says he thinks he was fired because Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) complained to City University of New York Chancellor Matthew Goldstein about the course reading list .
“It’s pretty clear that this was politically motivated,” said Petersen-Overton. “I don’t blame the pro-Israel crowd. I blame the administration for caving in to the pressure.”
The dismissal came one day after Hikind fumed to Goldstein about the syllabus - which he said included many anti-Israel books - and Petersen-Overton’s internship in 2007 with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. “This guy was literally radical and one-sided,” said Hikind. “Whatever your point of view is, if you’re a teacher you’re supposed to present both sides.”
