Activist and scholar says he is being denied tenure at Harvard University because of his views on Israeli occupation. There is a long history of attempts to suppress or have outspoken critics of Israel fired from academic posts.
Reader Comments: Dems Should Quickly Move on Bold Package; Fascism Not to be Debated, But Defeated; Mike Pence as Franz von Papen; Nuclear Treaty Ban - letter from Vietnam; Trouble in Kansas - Your Help Needed; Angela Davis; resources, announcements
Reader Comments: Mueller Report, Now Congress Needs to Investigate; Elizabeth Warren; Taxes; Daniel Ellsberg; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Chelsea Manning; Puerto Rico; Drug War; Academic Freedom and CUNY; Portside Labor Honored; lots of Announcements
The attacks are a threat to academic freedom and the criticism of Israeli human-rights abuses. CNN should immediately reinstate its former commentator; it should not cave in to the idea that criticizing Israel is anti-Semitic or hate speech.
The very idea that the government can control what words we use and don’t at a university-related event seems to violate everything we as a country hold dear about the independence of educational institutions from government control, not to mention the sanctity of free speech..."
Universities giant and small, public and private, bring African-American men to campus at grotesque levels to earn the school millions in football and basketball revenues. Stories about academic freedom and free speech have been appearing in newspapers more frequently over the last few weeks. And curiously enough political actors on and off campus who traditionally have been least likely to be concerned about these subjects are becoming its major advocates.
Reader Comments - Victory for Americans: Walgreens Won't "Invert"; Rosetta Comet Rendezvous; Reflections on My Seven Months in Israel; Incipient Inflation Freak-Out Could Wreck Economy; Jews Who Protest Israeli Policy; Academic Freedom Under Attack - The Firing of Steven Salaita; Anti-Semitism; Virgin America Flight Attendants Vote To Join Union; Healthcare - the NHS; Market Basket Srtike - Why Its So Important;
On This Day in History - FDR Signs Social Security Act
Steven Salaita was fired from his position as associate professor in the American Indian Studies program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) apparently over views critical of Israel, especially its current massacre in Gaza.
On May Day, activist and scholar Angela Davis speaks out. "The recent tragic destruction of the Graduate Center for Worker Education and the wholesale purging of progressive faculty, staff and graduate students is an unconscionable assault on an invaluable urban working class institution. Brooklyn College also ended its support for the Center's esteemed peer review journal "Working USA"."
The banning of Students for Justice in Palestine at Northeastern University, replicates sanctions being imposed against numerous student Palestinian rights groups across the country. Israel's heavy-handed reaction to these campus organizations is symptomatic of its increasing isolation and concern about waning American support and have alienated traditional supporters of Israel, including many young American Jews.
Spread the word