Daily Princetonian publishes, immediately retracts, slanderous op-ed about the Princeton Committee on Palestine

Sunday night, the Daily Princetonian published an op-ed with the headline "Princeton Committee on Palestine: Apologists for jihad." The op-ed, written by a guest contributor Richard L. Cravatts argued that the Princeton Committee on Palestine (PCP) is a "campus group of anti-Israel activists who have help [sic] lead a campaign of libel and delegitimization against the Jewish state, and, at times, ugly anti-Semitism disguised as being merely criticism of Israeli government policies."

There was one problem, though. The op-ed had already been published. Twice. An almost identical article by the same author had already been published in The Times of Israel and The San Diego Jewish World. As in those articles, the evidence Cravatts "cites" as proof of the PCP's apologist behavior is actually events from other campuses, including Boston University, Northeastern University, and the University of Chicago. In an attempt to make this edition of the op-ed seem even remotely about the PCP and Princeton,  Cravatts added a single sentence throw-in regarding an incident involving the PCP last spring.Luckily, the 'Prince' was able to retract the article before the issue went to print. Where the article had once been on the 'Prince' website is now a statement that simply reads:

Editor’s note: The article originally published “Princeton Committee on Palestine: Apologists for jihad” was taken down after editors discovered it had been published in another publication. The decision to remove the article was unrelated to the topic or views expressed by the author. The ‘Prince’ regrets the error."

In a statement on their Facebook page in response to the article and its subsequent retraction, the PCP wrote that they "are extremely disappointed by this statement, and urge the Prince to publish and review its ethical standards to prevent politically-motivated defamation of student groups."The article, the PCP wrote, "is the dictionary definition of politically-motivated libel – a published false statement made against a group, for the purpose of damaging the reputation of that group."The original article published in the 'Prince' is viewable here as a Google Doc.As for the author, his bio on The Times of Israel website states that he is "the president of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and the author of Genocidal Liberalism: The University’s Jihad Against Israel & Jews." He has no affiliation with the University, according to his LinkedIn page.