Pro-Israel forces attempt to silence University of California Santa Barbara professor

Pro-Israel forces attempt to silence University of California Santa Barbara professor

www.wsws.org

On January 19 University of California Santa Barbara sociology Professor William Robinson sent an email to students on the roster of his Global Affairs course in which he compared the Israeli occupation of Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. He was subsequently brought up on disciplinary charges by the Academic Senate of the university, as well as subjected to harassment and persecution by pro-Israeli elements.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
sb4af.wordpress.com

The charges against Robinson pose a serious threat to academic freedom. They are an effort to intimidate critics of Israeli policy at a time when that regime’s actions have produced widespread revulsion. Ultimately, the aim of such witch-hunts is to silence those opposed to the policies of one of the US government’s key allies.

The source is fairly biased but reflects views of many. The views of the author are strong but again these are supported by many.
It's a worry that such blatent violation of freedom of speech exists in such influential organisations.

Make what you will of his views but suppression of any sort is negative to society in many ways.


www.wsws.org
(visit the link for the full news article)
Edit:Material in question sb4af.wordpress.com...

[edit on 25-5-2009 by and14263]

Looks like the Israel Lobby is hard at work trying to cement anyone that goes against the Israel State as anti-semitic.

I love this quote from him:

"The essence of the charges,” Professor Robinson said, “is that the course material I submitted was anti-Semitic, and according to these letters [from the ADL and the two students], it was anti-Semitic because it was critical of the state of Israel. That is absurd, that the condemnation of the policies of the state of Israel is equivalent to anti-Semitism. One, anti-Semitism, is the discrimination against and oppression of a religious/ethnic group, and the other, criticism of Israel, is a condemnation of the policies of a nation-state.”

Luckily for us and unluckily for Israel there are far more Non-Jews than Jews in the U.S. The reasoning being that obviously non Jews will be more prone to view the events from a different angle; while Jews might have to take a second look as it does affect them and their history.

I'm hoping that all of these blatant power grabs from Israel will become widely seen as the 'conspiracy' that it really is. I for one will always be against injustice whether it be against Palestinians or any other race of people.

I've seen arrogant, skewered professors who are so impressed with their own credentials, they assume that whatever position they assume must be correct just because it's theirs.

I locked up with a few, and this was after my combat tour.

I'd tell them, just teach the course, stick to the facts, and if you won't state your opinion, I won't correct you in class.

Didn't do too well in those courses, but it seemed to be worth it.

reply to post by dooper

I know what you're saying and in many ways it's a crime for those in education to push their own strong views on others. I don't believe educators should be unbiased but people should be left to make their own mind up.

as for Isreal having a shield of invicibilty, that reminds me of Ali G; "Is it because I is black?"

Holy crap! What happened to Freedom of Speech?.
I believe the professor's assessment of the illegal military occupation by the Jewish military is fair and true.

This is a direct attack on the principals of free speech and academic integridy.

There will eventually be a backlash to this that will not serve anyone well.

Israel needs to understand American's will not be told what to do say or think by anyone.

Israel and Zionists should respect American's constitutional rights or be prepared to suffer the backlash of American's citizens.

How dare they attempt to do this in this country.

It has gone to far. It's time for real American's to put these little bigoted cretins in their place.

6 feet under.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

I wonder if this stuff keeps on happening because they know there will never be a big enough back lash to make a change? You could say this for every part of a disfunctioning democracy. I hear you and echo your motivation but I worry it will never happen.

I am tired of College Professors thinking they can spew any kind of mindless dribble and indoctrinating young students with impunity.

It's also bad enough to hear their propaganda in the classroom, but to receive it by e-mail? That's over the line.

I'm sure we will hear alot about free speech. Mainly in the form of defending this Professor, but what about the free speech rights of the "Pro-Israeli forces"?

Also the Government cannot restrict free speech, but if your speech ticks off your employer, you don't have that protection.

Absolutely horrible!

As opposed to some liberal colleges in the US and UK where Professors have decided to boycott fellow Professors who happen to work in Israel simply because they disagree with the Israeli government.

Yes, blanket academic boycotts are fine! It doesn't matter that the Israeli professors don't work for the government, the fact that they are Israeli makes it ok to boycott them.

But goodness me, don't want to criticize an Anti-Israel professor or people will claim you're a pro-Israel force harassing the poor guy.

Originally posted by and14263
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

I wonder if this stuff keeps on happening because they know there will never be a big enough back lash to make a change? You could say this for every part of a disfunctioning democracy. I hear you and echo your motivation but I worry it will never happen.

Sooner or later it's going to reach a level where it triggers a reaction that no one anticipated.

We all no the Israel's intentions are not pure. We all know that they have too much and a growing influence within our own government.

Sooner or later they are going to rub the wrong politician, or the wrong citizen the wrong way, or some very damning piece of evidence is going to come out that there is no way to supress.

History repeats itself over and over again.

The Jews had the highest level of prosperity in the world of Jews in Diaspora in Germany in 1916.

In fact Wall Street and the prominent Jewish Bankers were heavily backing the Hindenberg Government until the British issued the Balfour Decleration.

Over night every thing changed when the Jews in the United States and the Jews in Germany realized the only way the British could make good on delivering Palistine is to make sure Germany lost the war.

A lot of what went on then is obscured by history through the very same tactics that you see right here being used to pressure people and institutions away from telling it acurately, but I defy anyone who really cares to know what happens to go back and read the News Paper articles from the time.

The German Jews made international appeals to the Jewish Communities in Countries that were German Allies. The German Jews used their own position in Government to basically wind the German war effort to a halt.
The German Jews conspired with the British and American Jews at the Treaty of Versailles conference to basically keep Germany in a perpetual state of Bankruptcy so it couldn't mount a backlash against the treason. The German Jews were then instrumental in trying to bring Communisim into Germany.

Eventually the German Government and the German people had enough.

Historical fact Jews in Germany in Diaspora right up to 1916 and even a couple years beyond had the most influential positions in any government of any nation Jews in Diaspora had migrated too, the highest standard of living and the most economic and social opportunities.

This is what they are always trying to hide, why they get kicked out of countries, why they end up being persecuted.

This whole thing is not about being American which is based on Seperation of Church and State and free speech. This whole thing is about the Jews as a whole, a supposed seperate but equal people who are Jewish first and American second and sometimes even third if they also hold Israeli citizenship or Israeli near and dear, trying to run roughshod over a nation that once again has been very good to them. It's unbridled greed and arrogance, and sooner or later it backfires on them.

Historically when it backfires on them is when their economic strangle hold no longer means anything to the majority of the population because the majority of the population is broke, poverty stricken and nothing left to loose or gain by cowtowing to them.

Then it hits them in the ass. I can understand why propoganda saturated America has yet to learn, but I sure can't understand why the Jews of the world have yet to learn when this kind of behavior has stuck them in the ass again and again and again.

That's why there is an Anti Defamation League, they can't risk even a hint that they aren't above reproach morally. They can't risk people speaking their minds or to the truth, because they are so complicit in so many self serving crimes and lies that once the flood gate opens...

Well you get the picture.

You know, as much as I want to agree that it's a violation of free speech, the professor violated his boundries by having his opinion within teaching material.

I don't have a problem with anybody expressing their views in the classroom, but the course material, the actual work, should be based on the facts at hand, not pro one side or another.

I am critical of Israel as much as the next person, I don't agree with what they have done, but I also don't agree with what the other side has done either. Simply pointing a finger doesn't help.

That professor should be teaching his class from both perspectives, so people can make up their own minds based on the facts.

~Keeper

You know, as much as I want to agree that it's a violation of free speech, the professor violated his boundries by having his opinion within teaching material.

I don't have a problem with anybody expressing their views in the classroom, but the course material, the actual work, should be based on the facts at hand, not pro one side or another.

I am critical of Israel as much as the next person, I don't agree with what they have done, but I also don't agree with what the other side has done either. Simply pointing a finger doesn't help.

That professor should be teaching his class from both perspectives, so people can make up their own minds based on the facts.

~Keeper

I should make up a name for somone who disagrees with me. Any of you anti-candyites got a problem with what i do or say your an anti-candyite racists.

your all anti-candyite scum lol

[edit on 25-5-2009 by candy coated clown]

reply to post by candy coated clown

Hey candy, does that mean we have to kiss you candy ---?
Bite me first friend......you anti-agent!

reply to post by and14263

I was a bit older in those classes, and the professors were absolutely stunned when someone called them on their assessment.

I would not only correct them, I would point out the errors of their logic with facts. And were their faces red.

They can blow smoke past young kids just out of high school because they are "assumed" to know more than their students.

And they are often as twisted in their opinions as twisted can be.

We see some of those results in opinions here on ATS. Facts don't mean diddly squat. History means diddly squat. Only by a forceful twisting of historical fact can some of these assumptions be made.

Of course, if you're anti-Israeli, you're in a majority.

But then again stupidity is in a majority today as well.

Look at what the majority elected here in the US.

Factually, Israel is anti-Semitic. They are against other Semites, such as Arabs and Palestinians. Of course, those Semites are also anti-Semitic, being against Israel.

As for professors expressing their opinion, I don't see a problem as long as they note that it is their opinion, not curriculum. I would hope that they get an exciting and interesting discussion to get their students involved. That's good education, and teaching those ex-highschoolers how to think for themselves.

This is NOT a Free Speech, 1st Amendment issue.. Sorry to burst anyones bubble...

The Professor, "while on the clock" does not enjoy Free Speech any more than I do.

He is PAID to teach a subject that is clearly laid out by whatever higher learning facility he is an employee of. His personal views should not be tolerated in that venue.

I do not pay the tuition for my daughters to listen to any one persons view; period.

I can not go out in uniform and support any candidate, any cause or be anti-anything. I don't enjoy the freedom of speech inherent in the Constitution until I clock out. Neither does he.

Semper

Originally posted by dooper
I've seen arrogant, skewered professors who are so impressed with their own credentials, they assume that whatever position they assume must be correct just because it's theirs.

I locked up with a few, and this was after my combat tour.

I'd tell them, just teach the course, stick to the facts, and if you won't state your opinion, I won't correct you in class.

Didn't do too well in those courses, but it seemed to be worth it.

So are you Jewish, a zionist, or a simple comformist? The whole idea is "I believe this, because of this." If your views are so great, then why go to see any professors? Every professor I have had was open to debate. Cite your texts, consider your sources (school books in the U.S. is so biased and off it is pathetic). I have LOTS of friends who served in Iraq, and ironically, none of them support the reasons for war, the news bias here, or that our nation has become a puppet nation for zionist agenda. If THIS is what you support, then so be it. Zionists care about themselves, not you, not me, or those they put in harms way. The professor had an opinion.

1.) SO IT IS okay to preach nothing but PRO-ZIONISM perspectives and we must memorize and accept them as facts? If Hitler wrote his history books, should we believe only HIS view? The truth gets diluted by the "victors" and revisionists. Can't question ANYTHING about certain things or you are "anti-semitic" but if you read all bibles and the oldest books available, you'd know Palestinians ARE SEMITIC. I'd compare Palestinians to "NATIVE AMERICANS." Put onto "reservations", starved, abused, raped, young children shot. BUT DON'T SEE BOTH SIDES.

2.) I like MATH, LOGIC, PHYSICS. I don't like being told "X and Y and Z are what WE SAY, don't solve the equation for anything else, don't question anything, or you are anti-semitic." I can ONLY go on what I see today, then maps over history. Pay goes down, stalked on the internet, hated on, and if you annoy "them" then they destroy you. Does this seem compassionate, or LOGICAL? MOST would lay their argumetns out there, accept rebuttal, then arrive at the mutually accepted truth. HOWEVER, to some you cannot even question anything. "Have freedom, so long as you don't question what WE do with that freedom." Murder, torture, rape, shoot the disabled, then call it HONROABLE. TRUE honor was two people, no rules, Roman Colliseum. Not one guy having a knife and the other having nuclear bombs. Which is another thing--one place is not part ot the "Nuclear non-proliferation act." EVERYONE must be accept them. Some were abused, molested, spit on, # on, and it does not give them the RIGHT to rob banks. Basically, THEY have, it is just OFFICIAL when they do it.

Government is a joke, a puppet for lobbyists and zionists. Thats all it is. The rest is to gain control, KEEP control (through media control). Then manipulation (911, probably allowing Pearl Harbor, financing Nazis, financing both sides in most wars etc). IF you are a zionist, go love the neo-con agenda on some other site. I have friends who watched a LOT of things, some are traumatized for life by what they saw. So I know what I have seen, read, inside perspectives, history books (BOTH sides of every war), and by seeing how people lie today (MSM for instance), the truth becomes pretty predictable to me. Iran? Iran opposes zionism and their president IS a radical in a lot of ways but they oppose zionism. IF your neighborhoods were being bulldozed, you'd cry like a little baby, except these same people are putting bullets into the heads of babies. Or taking shots are medics, or using so called "illegal weapons." TRUE morality is NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW. Unfortunately few are informed, and nothing will change.

At least when I die, I will be free from being forced to know these things. THE CONSTITUTION is our damned rules, our laws. BILL OF RIGHTS? Zionism=rest.

A critical evaluation of the similarities between two events is not an opinion.

It's not like the guy is saying "I don't like Israel"