University of California- Santa Barbara Sociology and Global Studies Professor, William Robinson, is under attack from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for having spoken out against Israeli military atrocities in Gaza. Their position is quite simple and is that he should either shut up or be fired. See The Robinson Case
A quick view of his defense site shows that this professor and his supporters are quite aware of the nature of this enemy of free speech they are up against. See Academic Freedom in the News The Anti-Defamation League perversely spends much of its time trying to shut people up and defame them, so to speak. As another example of how this works, see the recent Right Wing attacks against President Obama himself for having shook hands with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Below is a passage of a news report about Obama and Hugo Chavez’s meeting last week.
‘Obama returned to Washington early Sunday evening. But even before he got back, Obama was facing condemnation from some Republicans about how he dealt with Chavez. “I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.’
While the Anti-Defamation League itself is not trying directly to remove Obama from office (they love Obama’s selection of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff way too much!), they do have a campaign going full steam to falsely label Hugo Chavez as being antisemitic. See ADL’s report below…
“What is troubling about Venezuela is that anti-Semitism is being used as a political tool,” Mr. Foxman said. “Anti-Semitism is fostered by those at the highest levels of government, trickled down the government apparatus and left unchallenged by officials in the Chavez regime, the government-controlled media, and civic and religious leaders who support the regime in Venezuela.
“We are encouraged by the many expressions of support for the Venezuelan Jewish community coming from opposition politicians and independent media outlets, who we believe more accurately reflect the views and feelings of the vast majority of the Venezuelan people.”
That is an excerpt from their website’s ADL Report: Venezuelan Jewish Community Under Threat
Coming after the US coup attempt and kidnapping of Hugo Chavez, one rather imagines that the ADL has the whole situation backwards. It is not the Chavez government that is anti-Semitic at all, but rather that it is the Right Wing Zionist Movement that is anti-Chavez. They want him removed just like they want all radical Left antiwar professors removed from their academic posts inside the US. And the ADL campaign against Venezuela’s current government moves hand in hand with the Republican campaign against Obama for shaking hands and laughing alongside Hugo Chavez. Both the Republican Right and the ADL simply want to stifle all views critical of US foreign policy and Israeli government policy.
This Israeli-made campaign to silence and trash all critics of the Jewish State hegemony in the Middle East promoted in US foreign policy even has been seen down to the level of covert attacks on American blogs like this one. That is why we now express our own solidarity with UCSB professor William Robinson. We will not, and should not, let them silence us all. They have many tools of intimidation and censorship and we need to bring to the light of day all of them.
Yes, they may succeed at silencing an individual critic of Israel here and there but our Movement to expose the reactionary nature of US foreign policy use of Israeli Zionist Jewish State propaganda grows stronger over time. People around the globe are simply getting fed up with the racism and imperialism that are political cornerstones of the Israeli and US governments. The truth will continue to rise up through the blankets of neo-con and Zionist propaganda for having yet more of their bloodshed and pillage.
Visit Professor Robinson’s website
A rather odd and inaccurate reference to the “Jewish State hegemony” when Israel represents merely one-tenth of one percent of the total land mass in the Middle East, approximating the tiny state of Vermont in size, and when its 5 million Jewish population is overshadowed by the 350 million Arabs comprising the region. A particularly ironic twist given that 98% of the Middle East is Muslim and that Islamic extremists vow world hegemony, er, domination.
Last I heard, ‘Dan’, your Jewish State was armed to the teeth and had the only regional nuclear weapons on hand, plus was good pals with The US Empire? Correct me if I’m wrong though?
You don’t know for sure Israel has nuclear weaponry and the reason is Israel has never postured over nuclear capabilities, unlike N. Korea and Iran. You know, those hegemonies. Israel has never threatened its neighbors with nuclear responses nor has uttered a word about its nuclear armament, so, your new attempt to characterize Israel as a hegemony in the context of nuclear weaponry is futile.
Yeah, right…
What happened, Mr Political Spam Guy? It took you all of 14 minutes to get your ‘reply’ in? Were you on a smoke break or potty run? Or busy praying in the direction of Tel Aviv?
Lunch break. Ironically, I did not have Spam for lunch. LOL.
I bet you you didn’t have any knish either, ‘Dan’.
The Adl isn’t trying to fire Prof. Robinson. They merely asked him to repudiate his anti-semitic tirade. They are giving him a way out.
On the other hand- William Robinson violated how many provisions of the UC santa Barbara code of faculty conduct with his little email tirade???? That might very well be grounds for his dismissal.
http://www.bluetruth.net/2009/04/hate-speech-is-not-free-speech.html
“Their position is quite simple and is that he should either shut up or be fired”
Wrong. The position of the ADL as stated in their letter is as follows:
“While your writings are protected by the First amendment and academic freedom, we rely on our own rights to say that your comparisons of Nazis and Israelis are offensive… and have crossed the line well beyond legitimate criticism of Israel…. the tone and the extreme views presented in your email were intimidating to students and likely chilled thoughtful discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian issue”
Read more at
http://www.bluetruth.net/2009/04/hate-speech-is-not-free-speech.html
Professor Robonson proves once more that even educated people can be religious bigots who would love to see the few remaing Jews murdered. I recognized that years ago when several concentration camp killers I had the misfortune of meeting held advanced degrees from German universities.
Are you kidding me? Professor Robinson is being attacked for circulating the ADBUSTERS photo essay juxtaposition of Holocaust images matched with identical scenarios showing Palestinian victims of the IDF?! He’s supposed to repudiate that comparison?!
If Israelis don’t want to be compared to the Nazis, they should stop exterminating Palestinians. It doesn’t take an anti-Semite to point that out.
“If Israelis don’t want to be compared to the Nazis, they should stop exterminating Palestinians. It doesn’t take an anti-Semite to point that out.”
The comparison is vile and ignores the historical facts and current events, intended to demonize Israel. Those who make such comparisons merely highlight their own lack of information. The comparison is made more reprehensible given the historical connection between actual Nazis and Palestinians, when the Palestinian Grand Mufti religious leader collaborated with the Nazis both in Germany and in Palestine in exterminating Jews in Europe and on a plan to have a similar Final Solution in the Middle East. The Mufti worked closely with Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler and Eichmann. Today’s Hamas is descended from the Muslim Brotherhood, who worked with the Nazis. Let’s look at the facts to see if “exterminating” of Palestinians is happening at the hands of Israelis. The Palestinian population in Israel has increased 10-fold since Israel’s founding in 1948, from about 150,000 to around 1.5 million. The Palestinian birthrate is about twice that of the Jewish birthrate. No signs of “exterminating” going on inside Israel. The Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank has increased by about 6-fold, from 700,000 in 1948 to around 4 million today. No “exterminating” happening outside of Israel, either. Considering Palestinians are Arabs, let’s look at the Arab population of the region as a whole: Currently, the population of the 22 Arab states comprising the Arab League is about 350 million and is expected to reach 500 million in the coming years. No signs of “extermination” in the entire Middle East. Until the second intifada, when Palestinian “exterminators” in the form of suicide bombers and car bombers murdered several hundred Israelis, Israel was the single largest employer of Palestinians. Israel was the largest trading partner with Palestinian businesses. Any Jewish exterminating happening by helping Palestinians feed their families? During the Gaza war, the IDF halted
fighting–unilaterally–for 3 hours a day to allow for humanitarian efforts with the Palestinian civilian population, while Hamas continued to fight. Israel continues to open its hospitals to Palestinians seeking advanced medical care not available in Gaza or the West Bank–the same Palestinians who elected governments sworn to Israel’s “extermination” Both Hamas and the PLO have charters calling for the annihilation of Jews around the world. Israel, on the other hand, has offered numerous proposals to the Palestinians for peace and for Palestinian independence and statehood. Let’s not demagogue and degrade a serious and complicated situation in the Middle East with irrational accusations.
The ADL is giving Robinson a way out? No, they’re trying to lynch him. If he repudiated his e-mail he would be confirming for the ADL that what he said was anti-Semitic. In fact the e-mail is not anti-Semitic and neither is Robinson. Moreover, the e-mail presents an accurate historical comparison and its relevance in a sociology class on global issues is self-evident. He cannot repudiate the e-mail without betraying himself and everybody who holds academic freedom as a value to be actually practiced.