This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Katherine M. Franke[1] is an American legal scholar who specializes in gender and sexuality law.
[1] Franke began practicing law in the 1980s as a civil rights litigator, having received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to work on addressing social discrimination faced by people with AIDS.
She then joined the New York City Commission on Human Rights as a supervising attorney in its newly created AIDS division.
[11] In October 2023, following the Hamas attacks on Israel, and Israel's bombing of Gaza, Franke co-authored a letter, signed by more than 150 Columbia faculty, entitled "An Open Letter from Columbia University and Barnard College Faculty in Defense of Robust Debate About the History and Meaning of the War in Israel/Gaza".
In December, during a Congressional hearing on antisemitism, Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said Franke was an example of discrimination on campuses during a dialogue with Columbia University president Minouche Shafik.
[3][16][17] Stefanik: Let me ask about Professor Katherine Frank from the Columbia Law School who said that 'all Israeli students who have served in the IDF are dangerous and shouldn't be on campus.'
"[16] In November, an external investigation concluded that Franke had violated the university's equal opportunity and affirmative action policies with her comments.
[16] In January 2025, Franke announced her retirement from Columbia, which she says she was forced to take by the university because of her critical views of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
[18] The United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, reported that Franke has been "another victim of the pro-Israelism that is turning universities, and other spaces of public life, into places of obscurantism, discrimination and oppression".