Jewish Students Shocked by UCSB Professor's Demonizing Email

A University of California, Santa Barbara professor is under academic investigation and has been accused of being anti-Semitic for sending students an e-mail comparing Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip with the Holocaust.

Sociology professor William I. Robinson denied the claims on Thursday and portrayed the furor as a threat by Israel's supporters to academic freedom. Two prominent Jewish groups continued to demand that he apologize.

On Jan. 19 Robinson, who is Jewish, sent an e-mail to 80 students in his "Sociology of Globalization" class entitled: "parallel images of Nazis and Israelis."

"Gaza is Israel's Warsaw - a vast concentration camp that confined and blockaded Palestinians, subjecting them to the slow death of malnutrition, disease and despair, nearly two years before their subjection to the quick death of Israeli bombs," Robinson wrote. "We are witness to a slow-motion process of genocide...."

Robinson's e-mail included a forwarded e-mail featuring juxtaposed photos from the Nazi era and the Gaza offensive with similar subjects, including grisly photos of children's corpses.

The e-mail set off a furor on the campus. Two Jewish students dropped Robinson's class and filed grievance letters with the university, claiming they felt intimidated by his strong and unsolicited opinion and the graphic images.

The university's Academic Senate, comprised of faculty members, has created an ad hoc committee to review claims that Robinson violated university policy that bars professors from intimidating students and using campus resources for personal, political reasons unrelated to their classes.

That committee will decide whether the case should proceed to a standing Academic Senate committee, which in turn could make discipline recommendations to the school administration.

"There is a process and it does have history and integrity and I think faculty members should have some confidence in the judgment of their peers," UCSB spokesman Paul Desruisseaux said.

Robinson said he has hired an attorney and called the investigation a "violation of academic freedom."

"I expect to be totally vindicated," he added.

Some UCSB students have formed a support committee and outside academics, including famed philosopher-activist Noam Chomsky and other outside academics have publicly sided with Robinson. The student group plans a campus forum on the matter.

Jewish leaders on Thursday reiterated demands that Robinson apologize to the students he offended and to the Jewish community. They contended that Robinson crossed the line by using language from the Nazis' calculated genocide of Jews in relation to the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza as Israel was attempting to stop rocket attacks into its territory.

"It is anti-Semitism," Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.

"What you really have is a hate spam," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.

Both men also argued that Robinson delivered personal opinion without providing context, differing views or an equivalent chance for his students to counter his claims.

"This is not a question of academic freedom, it's a question of intimidation," Foxman said.

Rabbi Aron Hier, the Wiesenthal Center's director of campus outreach, said Robinson's e-mail "demonizes those things that those students care about" and said he should repudiate his remarks.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• anti-Semitism
• Israel
• UCSB
• Santa
• Barbara
• Professor
• Gaza
• Wiesenthal

[bassman5123]

It's 100% true, so what's the problem here? It sounds like a smart teacher slipped through the Zionist control grid, that's all.

[SiNaoia]

YES TO FREE SPEECH.... Zionism has racism & bigotry weaved in their government... Today they paid 1 million $ to create a commercial that discourages Judaic members not to marry Americans.

CLARIFICATION: Judaism is a Religion & NOT A RACE OR BLOOD LINE... Zionism is a Political Cult Regime created by the Rothschild & International Criminal Banksters who funded Herzl.

They replaced the word Ashkenaziam with the word Jewish... a total fallacy.

THERE ARE MANY GOOD HUMANE JUDAIC MEMBERS TODAY...!

[GreenmanTypeOneg]

Now we will hear the Main Stream Media announce that Rachel Corrie,& American/Jewish Girl my age,was ran over Twice by an Israeli BullDozer on the evening news?TWICE! Ran over twice_You look at her body crushed to death_& know I had to find out on the internet_You then give me the definition of Me,my brother, and my Sister-in-Law won't fight to defend Cowards_Like Rachel we serve to protect the innocent_Women & children killed with White Phosphrus Explosives against the Geneva Convention

[hemptime123]

exactly WHY martin luther king was shot..

[OrthodoxDarwinist]

This is an age of Talmudic ethnic supremacy.

If you're a professional that works within one of the fields with a Jewish hegemony (academia, media/news, medicine, etc), and you DARE to speak the truth about the ethnic cleansing occurring in Israel (ie: you refuse to accept that Jewish people are special and can NEVER do ANYTHING wrong) then you will lose your job for it and be slandered as an "anti-semite". You have to either agree that Jewish people are innately superior, or suffer.

[OrthodoxDarwinist]

@DrSoccerable

You think American media is 'funded' by Arabs? Are you fucking stupid or just a shameless propagandist?

Whoopie Golberg is not ethnically a Jew in any sense of the word, so why did she change her name to 'Goldberg'. Well... as Whoopie explains: "I knew it would help me to become famous."

Notice she didn't change her name to "Abdul", but to "Goldberg",.

Also the fact that Israel was caught BRIBING American stations with MILLIONS shows whose agenda is being served!

[Britz4Gaza]

One cannot even fart in the direction of Israel without being called anti-semitic, they play the same old tune, but people are waking up to their apartheid neo-nazi behaviour, and don't like what they see.

[SiNaoia]

Ashkenazim has no Semitic Blood in their vein... nor do they have Abraham or Israels blood in their veins...  That is why they call them selves Jewish so they can camouflage this truth.

THIS ANTI-SEMITIC ACCUSATION IS TOTAL BS... b/c Zionist Killed the True Semitics of Palestine & possibly true Blood line of Abraham & Israel.

ZIONIST MURDERED TRUE SEMITICS & Stole their land... Than Brainwashed their people with hate & calls anyone disputing their behavior Anti-Semitic...

oi vey!!!

[deathl0ck4]

@DrSoccerable wow its nice to see someone who is not in the "HATE ISRAEL BANDWAGON" and not bashing on Israel... and ya you are right, but its kinda funny how these people say that "JEWS" control the media and all the media is doing is just thrashing on Israel, while at the same time sympathizing with the Islamic jihadists....

[EdwardPlatt]

I am shocked that there are dumb, hateful, anti-semitic remarks in the YouTube comments section.