The 47-year-old Jewish business professor at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, N.Y., was outraged by the Professional Staff Congress of CUNY's recent 83-34 vote on a June 10 resolution condemning "the continued subjugation of Palestinians to state-supported displacement, occupation, and use of lethal force by Israel," as well as "racism in all its forms, including anti-Semitism, xenophobia, xenophobia, x The resolution also referred to Israel as an apartheid state and left Hamas out entirely.

Whoever wrote this was not very intelligent,” Lax told JNS in a phone interview. “You can’t have it both ways. If Israel is an apartheid state, how can it also be a diverse nation-state? It’s clearly an anti-Semitic trope to call it an apartheid state. Do they not know that there are Arabs in the government? They serve on the Supreme Court and makeup 20 percent of the population. It’s absurd. Facts matter.”

Lax, an attorney, said he's leaving the union because he doesn't want his money to fund anti-Semitism. He claims that his union dues amount to around 1% of his earnings. He made it plain in a letter to PSC president James Davis that just because a resolution claims it isn't anti-Semitic doesn't mean it isn't. He also stated that the resolution aims to halt American financial support for Israel, which is akin to divestment and a third of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.