An American academic is to be prosecuted for drawing parallels between the plight of Gazans and that of the Jews who suffered under Nazi rule. Jewish Sociology and Global Studies Professor William Robinson of the University of Santa Barbara in California sent the electronic post entitled Parallel photos of Nazis and Israelis to 80 students in his class, Ynet reported on Thursday. The message, mailed during Operation Cast Lead, enclosed 25 photos of Nazi victims and equated their predicament with that of the war-battered Palestinians. The email also included an essay that stated, "Gaza in Israels Warsaw - one big concentration camp for Palestinian… What we are witnessing is the slow process of genocide." and filed a formal complaint against Robinson with the Academic Senate Charges Committee. The 50-year-old professor has hired an attorney and his hearing has been slated for May 14. Professor Robinson has explained in his own words that the issue at hand is that pro-Israel lobby groups have long been exploiting the term anti-Semitism to push forward the goals of political Zionism.
"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," he told Counterpunch in an interview. "They said openly and outright that the professor introduces material which criticized the state of Israel and that equals anti-Semitism," he continued. Various student and academic groups in the United States have come to Robinsons defense and have described the motion against the California academic as "a clear attempt to silence the criticism against Israel". Three weeks of Israeli airstrikes and a ground incursion resulted in the death of over 1,350 Palestinians and the injury of nearly 5,450 people -- most of them civilians. Thirteen Israelis also died in the operation.
The carnage also inflicted more than $1.6 billion in damages on the Gazan economy. Israeli war crimes include, but are not limited to, the use of deadly white phosphorus shells in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza. Tel Aviv initially denied using the controversial weapon, but mounting evidence later forced Israeli officials to admit to having employed the shells. Despite the international outcry caused by the military operation, Israel continues to enforce a 21-month blockade on the Palestinian territory with US support. According to Professor Robinson, the Anti-Defamation League -- which has come under severe criticism for its unswerving support for Israeli interests in the United States -- is behind the move to prosecute him. "We have just learned about this; were going to go public with it," he said. Renowned American author and political analyst Noam Chomsky, who is himself Jewish, exposed much about the Anti-Defamation League in his 1989 book titled Necessary Illusions.
"The ADL has virtually become one of the main pillars of Israeli propaganda in the US, as the Israeli press casually describes it, engaged in surveillance, blacklisting, compilation of FBI-style files circulated to adherents for the purpose of defamation, angry public responses to criticism of Israeli actions, and so on," he wrote. "These efforts, buttressed by insinuations of anti-Semitism or direct accusations, are intended to deflect or undermine opposition to Israeli policies, including Israels refusal, with US support, to move towards a general political settlement," he adds
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment