Zionist Lobby Targets Another Tenured Professor

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Zionist Lobby Targets Another Tenured Professor

By Doug Henwood

May 05, 2009 "Counterpunch" -- Doug Henwood: We're now joined by William Robinson, who is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California in Santa Barbara, someone I met about six or seven years ago at a conference and, although I've disagreed with him on some issues, I though he's a serious and thoughtful guy. I was very distressed to learn, reading Insider Higher Ed, the website, today that he's being persecuted by the Zionist lobby for an e-mail that he sent around to some of his students. Welcome William Robinson, tell us the story of what you sent and what's been happening.

William Robinson: Yes, good afternoon to everyone. I included some material which was highly critical of the Israeli invasion of Gaza as part of the reading material for a course on globalization and global affairs, and this was in January. And I am now facing charges, here at the university, of anti-semitism and violating the faculty code of conduct because two students in the course - there were eighty students - these two submitted a formal letter of complaint that they found offensive the material condemning the invasion of Gaza. The students immediately withdrew from the course, I don't even know them personally. And what is particularly egregious about this case is not that the students submitted a complaint - any student is allowed to do that - but rather that the university took the complaint seriously and is actually prosecuting me...

DH: You have tenure right?

WR: Yes, I am tenured, I am a full time professor...

DH: So in theory you're protected against persecution for your beliefs.

WR: No, in theory, I have total, I and even if I don't have tenure, have academic freedom, and this is in total violation of my academic freedom and of all of the principles of academic freedom, and of the university's own charter on academic freedom, and the American Association of University Professors principles and procedures on academic freedom, so there is absolutely no basis for any of this. What's going on, and I want to explain, behind the scenes we have been able to find out - students on campus and faculty have formed a Committee to Defend Academic Freedom which is taking up this issue, and by the way, there is a blog that they put up with all of this information, which at some point I would like to give your listeners - but we have found out that the Anti-Defamation League, which, as you know, and your listeners probably know, is an organization which, at one time, did very good and very important work in denouncing anti-Semitism, but since then has become a, basically, a mouthpiece for the Israeli government, a defender of the policies and practices of the Israeli state, and goes after and attacks anyone that criticizes those policies. So these students did not even accuse me of doing anything which we would consider anti-Semitism - discrimination against Jews, against the Jewish religion and so forth - they said openly and outright that the professor introduces material which criticized the state of Israel and that equals anti-semitism.

DH: Now, I think some people found offensive that you had likened Israeli behavior to the Nazis. Is that an issue?

WR: Well I didn't do that. What I did was I forwarded several items from the world media, from the internet media. One item was an article written by a Jewish journalist in a Jewish newspaper here in the United States, and it was criticizing the invasion of Gaza...

DH: So you didn't endorse this position?

WR: I didn't endorse it but I did include, I said, in presenting this material, I said that Gaza is Israel's Warsaw and I explained the context. That's because in Warsaw the Nazi's surrounded Warsaw, concentrated Jews in Warsaw, wouldn't let anyone in, wouldn't let anyone out, wouldn't let supplies in, wouldn't let supplies out; as a result there was famine and disease and so forth...

DH: Which is exactly what's...

WR: ...exactly and precisely what the Israeli's are doing in Gaza. And that's been denounced by the Red Cross, the United Nations, the international human rights organizations, and moreover, academic freedom totally allows me to present such controversial material and that's part of what the university is all about. We academically debate these controversial issues. I want to explain though what happened. We got some inside information in the last week. The president of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Fox-...

DH: Foxman

WR: Foxman, he arrived here in Santa Barbara and he called a meeting with a select group of faculty, and he called the meeting for no other reason than to say that we want Professor Robinson prosecuted, and this is explosive. We have just learned about this; we're going to go public with it. And so there is this outside Israel lobby which has come on to campus, and which is accusing me of anti- Semitism and of doing all of these terrible things in order to create an atmosphere of complete intimidation. You know that anyone who criticizes the policies of the state of Israel is silenced, and is given that label of anti-smitism; that's a way of creating this atmosphere of intimidation, that no one can speak out about what's going on in Israel-Palestine, and so forth. That's the larger context.

DH: Ok, I'm sorry to make this so rushed, but this is a last minute addition and the rest of the show is full, just let me conclude...What can people do?

WR: [Go to] sb4af.wordpress.com. That's the blog that the Committee to Defend Academic Freedom has set up, and a lot of this information is on there, a lot of the documents are on there.

DH: All right, well thank you William Robinson and best of luck in your fight and we'll be back to look at this in the future.

WR: Thank-you, thank-you very much.

DH: I've been speaking with William Robinson, who is a professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, under persecution by the intellectual police at the Zionist lobby, the Anti-Defamation League.

Doug Henwood is the editor of the Left Business Observer and host of WBAI's Behind the News.

This is another outrageous attack by the Anti-Defamation League on Free Speech in America, and Academic Freedom.
Note that the Professor merely included some material for his class, to present a balanced view of the Gaza invasion, but committed the "sin" of calling Gaza Israel's Warsaw, a comment that many made here on ATS when discussing the Gaza invasion by Israel.

Isn't it about time that AIPAC, and it's henchmen stop trying to control every aspect of America? I think so.

Persecution? Don't make me laugh.

Academic freedom is one thing. Sending round hate-filled libellous emails to his students is another. Some of the recipients objected which is why he now finds himself in legal hot water.

And I presume that Mr Williams didn't fully research the Warsaw Ghetto when making his comparison. He must for instance have missed the daily briefings by SS Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop:

large numbers of Jews - entire families - already on fire, jumped from the windows. We made sure that these, as well as the other Jews, were liquidated immediately.

A year earlier in this place that was, according to Mr Williams, a ghetto in the same way as Gaza, the death rate from starvation and disease was more than 4,000 a month - the equivalent of 12,000 in the Gazan "ghetto".

Not to mention the fact that Jews were not armed with rockets or Qassams, did not having BILLIONS of dollars in aid being given to them.

There are good people in Gaza, a lot of them, who are suffering unnecessarily. People need to wake up to the fact that it is not Israel that is causing the suffering, it is the violent radical extremists that are in charge of them.

reply to post by mattpryor


You've made statements with no source to back them up. Your post is a violation of T &C by not supplying links and sources. Please supply links to your quotes and your contention concerning alleged emails. Also, please supply sources for your claim of billions of dollars in aid.
If you are going to post on ATS, you should first READ the T & Cs.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


I was not aware that I stated anything controversial - this whole issue was about an email he sent with imagery comparing the suffering in the Warsaw Ghetto and holocaust with what was going on in Gaza. Two Jewish students took offence. I thought you knew this already since you posted the story? Or did you just post this thread in righteous indignation without looking into it further? Shame on you! However, for your benefit, here is some more background into the affair:

Los Angeles Times article

In their letters, senior Rebecca Joseph and junior Tova Hausman accused Robinson of violating the campus' faculty code of conduct by disseminating personal, political material unrelated to his course.

Original email text

It seems blatant to me that Professor Williams has his own agenda in this issue - accusing Israel of genocide and comparing them to the Nazis is an opinion (quite an offensive and insensitive one to a lot of people), and it is questionable whether it is the place of academics to advocate for their own opinion on such a controversial subject. He also did not give his students the opportunity to contest this opinion. If I'd received that email I probably would have taken it further too, and I'm not Jewish.

Oh and:

2008-2009 Gaza Strip Aid

reply to post by mattpryor

It seems blatant to me that Professor Williams has his own agenda in this issue - accusing Israel of genocide and comparing them to the Nazis is an opinion (quite an offensive and insensitive one to a lot of people), and it is questionable whether it is the place of academics to advocate for their own opinion on such a controversial subject.

On the contrary, Williams, in the article you referenced said:

Robinson said he regularly sends his students voluntary reading material about current events for the global affairs course, and that no one raised questions when he subsequently discussed his e-mail. "The whole nature of academic freedom is to introduce students to controversial material, to provoke students to think and make students uncomfortable," said Robinson, a UC Santa Barbara professor for nine years.

It is common practice for a professor to put forth controversial theses for the students to debate. This is part of the Socratic method:
en.wikipedia.org...

The Socratic Method (or Method of Elenchus or Socratic Debate), named after the Classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate rational thinking and to illuminate ideas.[1] It is a dialectical method, often involving an oppositional discussion in which the defense of one point of view is pitted against another; one participant may lead another to contradict himself in some way, strengthening the inquirer's own point.

If I'd received that email I probably would have taken it further too, and I'm not Jewish.

What does being Jewish or not being Jewish have to do with this issue? The issue is the comparison of Israel's actions to Nazi Germany in the 1930's.
In addition, if you were a student of his, he would have expected you to react to the email by discussing it with him in class. That was the purpose of the emails.
The University education is supposed to teach students to think. That involves exposing them to ideas that are not always comfortable, since that is what they would be exposed to in the outside world. The information that they received is available in many media outlets, including many threads here on ATS.
That is what ATS attempts to do, expose people to ideas not necessarily popular, and have people debate and react to them.

In addition, your claim that the material was not related to his class is ludicrous. The course was on Globalization and global affairs, and Israel's actions certainly have global consequences.

Anyone that does not believe that the residents of Gaza are essentially prisoners in their own ghetto, simply refuses to accept the fact that the Palestinians are land-locked there by the Israelis and Egypt.
Egypt refused to open the borders to Gaza, in case you were not aware:

Hundreds Protest Closed Egypt-Gaza Border By Jessica Desvarieux Cairo 03 January 2009 Egyptian security face protestors, who attempted to take to the streets after Friday prayers in Cairo, 2 Jan. 2009 Egyptian security face protestors, who attempted to take to the streets after Friday prayers in Cairo, 2 Jan. 2009 Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood opposition group called for mass protests against the government's response to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza but police moved to quell street protests over the issue. Fights between police officers and protesters broke out in Cairo, Friday, and dozens of arrests were reported. In Egypt, about 400 people gathered near the Al Fatah Mosque in Cairo to protest the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza and to get the Egyptian government to open the border between Gaza and Egypt.

www.voanews.com...

Furthermore, Zionist groups should have no say in what happens in an American University.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


He didn't just say Gaza was a ghetto. He said it was "Israel's Warsaw". Do you not understand how offensive this is to someone who is Jewish and the memories of the atrocities committed by the Nazis are still fresh in their cultural conscience? Are you really that lacking in empathy?

If you'd read my post you would have seen that it was the students that claimed it was unrelated to their course, not me. I would think they are a better judge of that than you or me, since they were taking the course. But since you spend so much time on ICH and that dodgy Iranian propaganda site I expect you consider yourself an authority on what course they were taking. Interesting that you didn't even know that the controversy was over a forwarded email until I pointed it out?

And yes I am perfectly well aware that Egypt has closed the Philadelphi Route. The difference is that Israel sends aid through its secured borders, Egypt does not. (PS don't bother clicking the link, it's just Zionist propaganda after all right?)

At the end of the day, he sent an email which was offensive to some people. They made a complaint (which is their right) and it's being upheld. If he did nothing wrong he'll be exonerated. Sorry but I don't have any sympathy for him.

He didn't just say Gaza was a ghetto. He said it was "Israel's Warsaw". Do you not understand how offensive this is to someone who is Jewish and the memories of the atrocities committed by the Nazis are still fresh in their cultural conscience? Are you really that lacking in empathy?

The irony of your comment orients around the word 'offensive'. While Jews find themselves easily offended, Israel conducts offensives against the Palestinian people.

The similarities between the Warsaw Ghetto and the Israel Ghetto are staggering. Like the Jews of Poland were rounded up and concentrated in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Palestinians of Gaza were forced out of their homes in Ashkelon, Sderot and other towns and concentrated in Gaza refugee camps.

The Nazis built a wall around Warsaw and imposed a blockade and now the zionists have built a wall around Gaza and have imposed a blockade. There was a Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the Nazis smeared the streets with blood. The Palestinians resist the subjugation and Israel routinely crucifies them.

The Nazi did not distinguish between civilians and those that resisted and the same is true of the Israelis that conducts collective punishment.

The people of the Warsaw Ghetto used the sewage system to smuggle in food and the Nazis bombed the tunnels. The people of Gaza smuggle food and medicine through tunnels and the Israelis bomb the tunnels.

There are more similarities but you get the gist.

And yes I am perfectly well aware that Egypt has closed the Philadelphi Route. The difference is that Israel sends aid through its secured borders, Egypt does not. (PS don't bother clicking the link, it's just Zionist propaganda after all right?)

Egypt is a recipient of billions of dollars, courtesy of the US taxpayer, according to the Camp David Treaty and is contingent that it seals its borders. The subjugation of the Palestinians is within Israel's borders and not Egypt's.

By suggesting that Egypt is equally culpable as Israel for the blockade on the Palestinian people suggests two things; you are deliberately being obtuse and you recognise that it is unjustifiable. If Israel tells Egypt it is willing to withdraw its Camp David Treaty terms, I am sure the Egyptians would fill Gaza with food, medicines and doctors.

The Nazis allowed basic rations of bread and soup totalling 600 calories per person into the Warsaw Ghetto. Israel allows a few trucks of uncooked food stuffs in to Gaza every few weeks for 1.5 million people and is announced in the media. In the meantime, Israel shells and bombs Palestinian food warehouses, sinks fishing boats and bans bottled water as unnecessary.

www.un.org...

news.bbc.co.uk...

[edit on 073131p://pm3110 by masonwatcher]

reply to post by masonwatcher

Thank you for bringing some sanity to the debate. As you stated, the similarities between Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto are staggering.

As for Mattpryors statement:

Do you not understand how offensive this is to someone who is Jewish and the memories of the atrocities committed by the Nazis are still fresh in their cultural conscience? Are you really that lacking in empathy?

I have plenty of empathy- for the Palestinians in Gaza that are being starved, and used as target practice by the storm troupers of Israel.

Furthermore, it is hard to have "empathy" for a nuclear-armed nation that routinely bombs civilians with white phosphorus.

In addition, how long will Israel continue to use the holocaust as an excuse for people to feel "sorry" for them? 72,000,000 people were killed during WWII, and I don't hear anyone else still using this. Poles, Gypsies, Catholics, Clerics, Russians and other ethnics were also killed in concentration camps.
The holocaust doesn't give Israel a free hand to attack others, just because they were also killed in work camps.
Israel and the Zionists have too much say in the United States internal affairs. Many people are fed up with the influence that they have in this country.
Mattpryer should live here and perhaps then his views would change.


[edit on 12-5-2009 by ProfEmeritus]

reply to post by mattpryor

He didn't just say Gaza was a ghetto. He said it was "Israel's Warsaw". Do you not understand how offensive this is to someone who is Jewish

By the way, Robinson himself IS JEWISH, so your argument also falls by the wayside with that fact.

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
reply to post by masonwatcher
In addition, how long will Israel continue to use the holocaust as an excuse for people to feel "sorry" for them?

I never said that the holocaust is an excuse for violence. Neither has anyone else. What I did say is that Prof. Robinson should have been aware that the contents of his email would be upsetting and inflammatory to some, and should not be surprised by the reaction.

Ranting about how Zionists (read pesky Joos) control America does nothing for your argument, it just makes you sound irrational and paranoid.

By the way, Robinson himself IS JEWISH, so your argument also falls by the wayside with that fact

Congrats, I presume you just found this out otherwise you'd have mentioned it sooner? You did research this well! His religion does not give him the automatic right to impose his own views on his students without being held accountable for them, nor does it make his views any less offensive to them.

reply to post by mattpryor


It seems to me that the only people that rant are Zionists particularly in Western democracies. These Zionists activists do not engage in a discourse and strictly forbid any commentary that may be critical of Israel. They rant and rave when anyone of note gives a hint of criticism. Persistent opponents of Zionism, in the democratic sense, are subject to a comprehensive slander campaigns, relentless harassment and downright criminal organised stalking.

Ranting about how Zionists (read pesky Joos) control America does nothing for your argument, it just makes you sound irrational and paranoid.

The terms you use are strictly your contributions and wholly ignores the reason people criticise Israel. The tactic you are using is a strawman argument; rather than you expending your energies condemning your own contributions why don’t you condemn the anti-Semitism of Zionists since they fully support the mass killing of Semites, the Palestinians.

reply to post by mattpryor

Ranting about how Zionists (read pesky Joos)

You are the only one making that connection.

Congrats, I presume you just found this out otherwise you'd have mentioned it sooner?

Of course, I knew that. YOU, however, made THIS statement:

Do you not understand how offensive this is to someone who is Jewish

I countered with this statement:

By the way, Robinson himself IS JEWISH, so your argument also falls by the wayside with that fact.

to indicate how LAME your remark was, since Robinson is Jewish, and you are not, and Robinson would not have made the comparison he made, if he thought Jews would be offended.

Why don't you take a course in Logic 101, and come back in a year, when you can put two and two together? You obviously just want to rant, with no logic or reason behind your rants. Your comments only contradict yourself. Have a nice life. You're not worth wasting any more time over. You've made my short ignore list.

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
You're not worth wasting any more time over. You've made my short ignore list.

I'm sorry to say that from the outset of this post it seems that you didn't want any dissent. My first post was met with hostility and derision, demanding that I provide proof for what was essentially common knowledge to anyone that had read about this prior to your post (it was weeks ago).

Perhaps you'll allow me to summarize your arguments on your behalf:

- Comparing Israel to Nazis is in no way offensive to anyone
- Comparing the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto to Gaza is in no way offensive to anyone
- If anyone should find these opinions objectionable they have no right to complain about it
- Zionists control America
- Prof. Robinson should be completely immune to any challenges or legal recourse because he's Jewish

Well I'm glad we cleared that up!

reply to post by mattpryor

Perhaps you'll allow me to summarize your arguments on your behalf

Why?! Why do you have the compulsion to attempt to summarize his argument? The Prof adequately stated his points.

Originally posted by masonwatcher
reply to post by mattpryor

 

Perhaps you'll allow me to summarize your arguments on your behalf

Why?! Why do you have the compulsion to attempt to summarize his argument? The Prof adequately stated his points.

I must say I find it somewhat endearing to see you leap to the "Prof"'s defence.

This thread was never meant to stimulate debate - it was meant to make a point about the evils of the Zionist lobby in America, picking on a poor defenceless academic, who of course had not said or done anything that could be offensive to anyone.

The punishment for daring to disagree with the underlying subtext of this thread (you cannot criticise Israel without being persecuted by the evil all-powerful Zionist movement) was first to get shouted down for allegedly violating the T&Cs, and then to add me to his ignore list. Doesn't seem like a very mature way to engage in a debate to me - and quite ironic really given the subject matter!

Well, I won't lose any sleep over it, and it won't stop me disagreeing with him in future - he just won't be able to argue back. Sounds like a win-win situation for me!

Maybe if I continue to disagree and protest these Jew-bashing threads I might make it onto Masonwatcher's ignore list too

reply to post by mattpryor

Maybe if I continue to disagree and protest these Jew-bashing threads I might make it onto Masonwatcher's ignore list too

I merely asked why you regurgitated the Prof's argument as you understood it and you haven't clarified that.

I have only seen Israeli and zionist bashing on ATS, rarely Jew bashing. Insulting or criticizing the Jewish faith results in instant sanctions from the moderators and rightly so.

You know this but you are a zionist that endeavours to include the Jewish religion in any discourse concerning Israel in order to degrade matters and throw around the allegations of racism and antiSemitism.

You see, it is nearly impossible to justify the subjugation of the Palestinians in any ethical or moral way to those witnessing it and commenting on the subject so the last recourse of Israeli apologists is to rail-road debate into a dead-end.

[edit on 013131p://pm3123 by masonwatcher]

Originally posted by mattpryor

It seems blatant to me that Professor Williams has his own agenda in this issue - accusing Israel of genocide and comparing them to the Nazis is an opinion (quite an offensive and insensitive one to a lot of people), and it is questionable whether it is the place of academics to advocate for their own opinion on such a controversial subject. He also did not give his students the opportunity to contest this opinion. If I'd received that email I probably would have taken it further too, and I'm not Jewish.

I'm sure Professor Williams has an agenda - an agenda of honest inquiry into the truth. As such it it only right that the ADL find a way to shut him up, as Israel has put itself into a position where the truth is dangerous to it. Just like a photophobic bug under a rock, it must avoid all exposure to the light.

I'm sure Israel's leaders, making the racist statements they made early on about Palestinians, and following that up with murders, eviction and terrorism, had good reason, and shouldn't be criticised, because, after all, they had been through the holocaust, and that made saints of them all and excuses all their attacks on their neighbours.

- Just as it excused their attacks on the King David Hotel to kill get rid of observers, and their later attack on the USS Liberty, which nearly caused America to start a worldwide nuclear holocaust by nuking Egypt.

You are quite right that academics should never speak on controversial subjects. Before any course is approved, there should be a nation-wide survey to make sure everyone agrees on the content. If anyone says any part of it is wrong or offensive, the topic must be banned.

Ornithology might get approved, and perhaps the physics of the spinning top.

In fact all controversy should be stopped. How many patients are offended when their doctors classify them as obese, or point out that a lifestyle choice is causing health problems? We have a law in Australia against offensive speech. It's time the foolhardy experiment of freedom of speech was ceased, and this law against offensive speech introduced world-wide.

It's surprising that, despite having to submit essays which could agree or disagree with him, these students could still say they did not get a chance to contest his opinion. But perhaps writing an essay to refute what he was saying was just too difficult for the poor students.