NYU abruptly canceled a presentation by Dr. Joanne Liu, former head of Doctors Without Borders, because she included data about Gaza that could be seen as “anti-governmental” or “antisemetic”

Dr. Joanne Liu currently a pediatric emergency physician at Sainte-Justine hospital and a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Previously, she was the international president of Doctors Without Borders.

On March 19, Dr. Liu was scheduled to give a presentation at New York University, her alma mater, to discuss challenges in humanitarian crises.

The night before Dr. Liu’s presentation, she received a call from NYU’s vice chair of the education department who had concerns about Dr. Liu’s intent to speak about the ongoing casualties in Gaza, as well as cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

“She tells me that there was a slide that she thought that could be troubling the audience, and it could be perceived antisemitic because I was showing the number of casualties in conflict zones in aid workers,” Dr. Liu recalls. “And it is an extract from the Aid Worker Security Database. And, of course, there is a fair amount of casualty in Gaza, knowing what is happening right now, but in other countries, as well, like Sudan, like South Sudan and Ukraine. In addition to that, she said, “Well, we think that it could possibly be perceived, as well, as anti-governmental, the way you talk about the U.S. cuts, the picture of Zelensky and Trump.””

Dr. Liu says she offered to work with NYU to make edits as long as she could keep her overarching message. Instead, Dr. Liu received a phone call three hours later saying her conference had been canceled.

In a statement to CTV News, an NYU spokeperson said, “Per our policy we cannot host speakers who don’t comply.”

Toward the end of her interview with Democracy Now, Dr. Liu offered this: “I truly and strongly believe that universities are the temple of knowledge, but, as well, of plurality of ideas. And if we do not allow that, we are basically killing the essence of what university is about. It’s about having people to be able to express a different point of view in a safety environment, where, as well, students can be exposed to it and make up their mind. That is what is necessary, and that is what makes a university, even a country, stronger, by plurality of ideas.”