I wrote a longish diary on recent developments in the Salaita affair. In the course of writing it, I managed to collect a lot of tweets that were interesting and I'm posting them here since that diary was long enough as is. I've also included snippets from the publicly released letters to UIUC officials when they referenced a particular tweet, to highlight the response that UIUC administrators were dealing with. In cases where letters quoted multiple tweets, I've just picked one. You can browse Salaita's entire Twitter timeline, I focused on the tweets that were referenced in the press, blogs or in e-mails/letters to UIUC.
A number of the responses reference student's concerns about safety. I'm not going to question the fears an individual might have and the reasons behind them. What I will point out, is that in considering these responses we should evaluate these fears in a more general context. A couple of hypotheticals may help.
If a group of Palestinian students were to say they felt "unsafe" in a class taught by a professor who had a child who was serving the IDF, how would you look at it? Or what if a group of students who routinely wear confederate flags complained about feeling unsafe around professors who called the confederacy a slaver's enterprise?
For UIUC, these are not hypothetical questions. Robert Weissberg, a Political Science professor has spoken at numerous white-supremacist conferences and UIUC did nothing. UIUC also chose to reinstate an adjunct professor who had sent a homophobic e-mail. Concerns about the safety of gay students and those of color did not prompt UIUC to fire either of them.
The tweets and selections from e-mails to UIUC are below the orange elbow patches...
I'll start with some tweets earlier in the year that commenters latched on to.
By repeatedly situating Israel as the embodiment of Jewish culture, Zionists are implicitly saying Jewishness is inherently violent. #BDS.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) April 17, 2014
One of the e-mails to UIUC Chancellor Phyllis Wise claims this tweet implies Salaita is saying "Jewishness is inherently violent". That's sort of stretching it I think...
I think of all the pain Israelis have caused, their smugness, their greed, their violence, and yet I smile, because it's all only temporary
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) April 25, 2014
#IsraeliIndependenceEquals sustenance of the European eugenic logic made famous by Hitler.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) May 6, 2014
The two tweets below are about the Huffington Post story:
Macklemore Denies He Was Mocking Jewish Stereotypes With Costume:
What's with this headline? #Macklemore wasn't mocking Jewish stereotypes. He was performing them. http://t.co/...
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) May 19, 2014
@talkingproud @TerrinaMajnoona That particular look has been used to dehumanize Jews for many centuries, to nefarious ends.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) May 19, 2014
On June 12th, three Israeli teenagers were abducted in the West Bank and a widespread manhunt was initiated by the Israeli authorities. Two of them were sixteen year old children, the third was nineteen. Israeli officials
suggested they had been kidnapped to bargain for the release of prisoners. In that context, Salaita tweeted:
You may be too refined to say it, but I'm not: I wish all the fucking West Bank settlers would go missing
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) June 19, 2014
On June 30th, the
bodies of the teens were found. A number of reports
suggested Netanyahu's government knew they were dead early on. A senior Hamas official
admitted weeks later it was an attempted kidnapping to exchange hostages for prisoners.
A few hours after the bodies were discovered, the homes of the suspected kidnappers were demolished and the Israeli air force struck 34 sites in Gaza and Hamas began to fire rockets into Israel.
The Pavlovian effect of Zionist whining is that my immediate reaction to claims of anti-Semitism is not horror, but bemused indifference.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) June 25, 2014
Israeli military forces began Operation Protective Edge on July 8th. Over the next 50 days, Israeli troops bombed and shelled the dense Palestinian enclave of Gaza causing over 2200 Palestinian deaths, including 551 children. Entire families were wiped out by
bombs intentionally targeting their homes, 142 families lost at three or more members.
The UN estimated at least 67% of the Palestinian fatalities were civilians. Hamas, which rules Gaza was also firing rockets into Israel and fighting IDF troops. 66 Israeli soldiers, 5 civilians including one child lost their lives in the conflict.
Israel was responsible for more civilian casualties from explosive weapons than any other state actor in 2014, over 40% of the total incidents and casualties were ascribed to the IDF. The Syrian government was next at 16% (though reporting was more patchy from Syria).
Let's cut to the chase: If you're defending #Israel right now you're an awful human being.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 9, 2014
He degrades anyone defending Israel in this current conflict, what if he learns students in his class are of Jewish decent[sic]? If you keep him on your staff at the University I think it will cause more trouble than good. One of his recent tweets reads “Let’s cut to the chase: If you’re defending #Israel right now you’re an awful human being”. I think it is safe to say that when someone makes generalized hateful statements about others, it is pretty likely that he will not treat all of their students fairly. As a Jewish student I would NOT feel safe in his classroom.
-- Letter to Chancellor Wise titled "Thoughts on Steven Salaita", July 29, 2014
I feel ashamed to attend a university that would even consider hiring this man. His twitter page is one of an absolute extremist. Anyone who questions his extreme beliefs, he belittles. What kind of educator reacts this way to questions about his beliefs? It is not only unprofessional, but embarrassing that he finds the need to react in that way. In one of his tweets, he calls anyone who defends Israel "an awful human being". I am a huge Israel supporter and am a part of organizations on our campus that support Israel. As a student of your university, I shouldn't have to be worried about this extremist who considers me an awful human being. With anti-Semitism growing around the world with the current situation of Gaza, I am genuinely worried that with the help of this professor, it could grow on our campus. Do you want to run a university where your students don't feel safe? I ask you and the university to please reconsider the hiring of this man.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Professor Salaita", July 30, 2014
The @IDFSpokesperson is a lying motherfucker.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 15, 2014
These are a few among other disgusting and offensive Tweets. How can those with differing opinions ever feel comfortable or safe in the presence of Mr. Salaita whose zealousness clearly demonstrates his hate for another racial and religious group? It is without a doubt that Mr. Salaita's presence on campus would not only intimidate others, but would contribute to the spread of hate messages and anti-antisemitism.
I ask the Chancellor and the rest of the UIUC administration to refrain from hiring Mr. Salaita or to immediately terminate his contract if he has already been hired. His working for UIUC would be a disgrace to the university, the education it provides, and the safety and comfort that students and parents alike expect to feel there.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise, titled "Urgent Request to Review Hiring of Steven Salaita", July 29, 2014
For some strange reason, this tweet is quoted in a lot of letters. It can't be because he's causing the spokesman a liar, I mean that's their job description. So it must be the use of "motherfucker", but I'll go out on a limb and say every UIUC college student has heard that word and most have used it. The next one is more offensive, but none of the e-mails referenced it directly:
The @IDFSpokesperson receives money to justify, conceal, and glamorize genocidal violence. Goebbels much? #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 16, 2014
This is not a conflict between #Israel and "Hamas." It's a struggle by an Indigenous people against a colonial power. #Gaza #FreePalestine
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 17, 2014
The logic of "antisemitism" deployed by Zionists, if applied in principle, would make pretty much everybody not a sociopath "antisemitic."
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 17, 2014
@keefrmadness Hard to say in short space, but I'd like Israel/Palestine to move away from theocratic regimes (Jewish and Muslim) and into some strong union predicated on secular democracy. Whether that's even possible is a different question, but it's what I support in principle.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 18, 2014 [2/3] [3/3]
By eagerly conflating Jewishness and Israel, Zionists are partly responsible when people say antisemitic shit in response to Israeli terror.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 18, 2014
This vitriol and hatred towards Israel and Jewish community shows an intolerance and bigotry that does not reflect the open-mindedness and diversity of such a prestigious university as the University of Illinois. Anti-Semitism has shown a sharp rise recently. Synagogues in France and Germany are being attacked (The Independent). The British Newspaper The Daily Mail has reported a rise in anti-Semitism in Britain (Daily Mail). Similar stories have occurred in Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the U.S, including places like Clarksville, Tennessee, Miami Beach, and other locations in Miami-Dade County, where I currently attend college. With media outlets presenting information that is not always 100% true, information that is skewed towards a political bias, or information that leaves out other essential facts, having a professor on campus that spreads misinformation in an attempt to garner support for his antiIsrael agenda only worsens the epidemic that is intolerance, bigotry, and anti-Semitism.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "University of Illinois"s decision to higher Prof. Steven Salaita", July 30, 2014
It's a beautiful thing to see our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world deploring #Israel's brutality in #Gaza. #FreePalestine
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 18, 2014
Even if "Hamas" uses human shields--a hypothetical without evidence--Israel still chooses to fire the missiles that kill children. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 19, 2014
And this tweet, three days after the Israeli navy had fired missiles on a beach in Gaza,
killing four young children playing soccer.
According to #Israel, bombing hospitals and murdering kids on a beach are the epitome of civilized behavior. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 19, 2014
@mikehesselmial My stand is fundamentally one of acknowledging and countering the horror of antisemitism.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 19, 2014
#Israel has often tested weapons in #Gaza. That's what most colonizers do to entrapped native populations. They like to call it "progress."
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 19, 2014
#Israel loves being exceptional. Its officials probably discuss how awesome it would be to break the world record for war crimes. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 19, 2014
In the United States, academic, corporate, or political respectability is available merely by ignoring Israeli ethnic cleansing.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 19, 2014
It is a sad fact that in the present-day, Jewish students on college campuses all over the United States are subjected to criticism and often times harassment and taunting by Arab students and supporters of "Palestinian causes". The atmosphere for many of these students is a tense one and nothing that any student, of any ethnic or minority status should have to be exposed to on a college campus. The views espoused by Mr. Salaita are inappropriate for an academic and are not intended to foster an open dialogue or discussion on the issues. Rather, the use of this type of language and demeanor will only serve to further exacerbate that tension and to polarize people in the University setting. By allowing this man to join the faculty of the University, the University sanctions and condones this conduct which further exacerbates the already tense environment faced by many Jewish student on campus and damages the reputation of the University.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Steven Salaita", July 25, 2014
Listen to the vile racism from the mouths of Israeli politicians and then tell me they derive no pleasure from killing Palestinians. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
Zionists, take responsibility: if your dream of an ethnocratic Israel is worth the murder of children, just fucking own it already. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 19, 2014
Zionists: transforming "antisemitism" from something horrible into something honorable since 1948. #Gaza #FreePalestine
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
At this point, if Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestinian children, would anybody be surprised? #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
Professors are using their academic influence to teach students their views regardless of how much hatred that may cause. This type of propaganda is not preaching the peace that is needed to solve the conflicts in the Middle East it is simply engraining entire generations with the hate of Jews and the State of Israel. Anti Israel protests are currently being used to spread massive amounts of anti semitism in countries and cities across the world right now. They are not preaching for a Palestinian State they are preaching for destruction of Israel and the death of all Jews. Supporters of Hamas targeting innocent Israelis and Jews should not be teaching in a university at the caliber of the University of Illinois. The first line of the Hamas Charter specifically calls for the destruction of Israel and Jews across the world. This will only deepen the hatred and conflict between both sides and is a grave mistake by the university.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Professor Steven Salaita", July 29, 2014
If it's "antisemitic" to deplore colonization, land theft, and child murder, then what choice does any person of conscience have? #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
I repeat: if you're defending #Israel right now, then "hopelessly brainwashed" is your best prognosis. #Gaza #FreePalestine
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
@johnellsmar Equal rights for everybody, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, etc.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
“Ever wonder what it would look like if the KKK had F-16s and access to a surplus population of entrapped minorities? See #Israel and #Gaza”
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
In my college days, I recall vividly the swastika that was painted with shaving cream on the door of my dorm room in 1979. This unearned, but learned, hatred continues today under the guise of “Palestinian causes”. Present-day Jewish students on college campuses all over the United States are subjected to criticism, harassment, and taunting by Arab students. The atmosphere for many of these students is tense and nothing that any student, of any ethnic or minority status should be subjected to on any college campus.
-- E-mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Addition of Steven Salaita to University of Illinois Faculty" -- July 28, 2014
Fuck you, #Israel. And while I'm at it, fuck you, too, PA, Sisi, Arab monarchs, Obama, UK, EU, Canada, US Senate, corporate media, and ISIS.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
#Israel's bombardment of #Gaza provides a necessary impetus to reflect on the genocides that accompanied the formation of the United States.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
According to him, support for Israel justifies anti-Semitism. His writing are extensive and appear to overwhelm his work in American Indian Studies. He essential mourns the creation of the only Jewish state in the world. Nothing is said about the 57 Islamic nations. It is not possible to separate his antiZionism from anti-Semitism as for most Jews, Israel is a cornerstone of who we are. I implore you to review all the material available and think about the campus and bringing such a man to Champaign.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Steven Salaita", July 23, 2014
#ISupportGaza because I believe that Jewish and Arab children are equal in the eyes of God.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 20, 2014
The US is knee-deep into both #Israel and #ISIS, along with every other armed outfit in the Arab World. This sectarianism isn't spontaneous.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 22, 2014
#Israel and #ISIS are but two prongs of the same violent ethnonationalism.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 23, 2014
To give you a sense of the responses Salaita was seeing on Twitter itself, Ed Shahzade
retweeted the above with the prefix: "This @Virginia_Tech Professor is BDS Scum: RT @stevesalaita:"
Meanwhile in e-mail:
In addition, in his writings: "Palestine. Native America. BDS. Decolonization. Indigenous Studies ", Salaita says that Palestinian terrorists are involved in a "colonial war" against Israel. Salaita has written that "Indian attacks on white settlements were a natural reaction to a European colonial invasion, so too Palestinian attacks on the highways and suicide bombings in towns are a consequence to Jewish proliferation in the land." It is shocking that your university, much less VirginiaTech, would knowingly hire such a person to teach!
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Steven Salaita Hate Speech", July 27, 2014
It's useful to connect underdevelopment in American minority communities to the overdevelopment of #Israel's economy w/US tax money.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 23, 2014
Violence is not limited to weapons of war. Economic strangulation, confinement, and withholding medical supplies are all violent acts. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 23, 2014
#ISIS and #Gaza make me pessimistic. Seeing so many Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Hindus join to oppose sectarianism gives me great hope.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 23, 2014
While Israel bombs children in #Gaza, Zionists are busy trying to get #BDS activists fired,"
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 23, 2014
The mass suicide "Hamas" is curating in #Gaza will soon surpass the death toll at Jonestown.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 23, 2014
Some Zionist groups scream antisemitism at Jewish critics of #Israel, but work with non-Jewish fundamentalists who are actually antisemitic.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 24, 2014
Keep paying for (shitty) Hasbara, #Israel. It won't make a difference. Most people detest child murder. #Gaza #ThirdIntifada
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 25, 2014
I am a student of the University of Illinois. I am the 4th generation to attend this university and up until today I was extremely proud of that. I recently received news that the university is hiring an extremely anti-semtic teacher by the name of Steven Salaita. His Twitter feed is absolutely appalling. Here is an example of one of his posts [...]
Chancellor, you have condoned hiring a teacher that is openly anti-semtic. Chancellor, you are hiring a teacher that is giving his political views in an immature fashion. Chancellor, history has taught us that standing idly by while others act makes you just as guilty as those who act. Chancellor, persecution like this has resulted in genocides.
-- E-mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Please Read", July 25, 2014
Solutions to #Israel/#Palestine are complicated? How about, "Everybody gets treated equally under the law"? Doesn't get simpler than that.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 26, 2014
I refuse to conceptualize #Israel/#Palestine as Jewish-Arab acrimony. I am in solidarity with many Jews and in disagreement with many Arabs.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 27, 2014
My little boy covers his teddy bear with a blanket. All toddlers do such lovely things. Yet #Israel sees them as fit to kill. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 29, 2014
If Adam Lanza joined IDF he would be considered a hero by the US.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 29, 2014
Don't be afraid to condemn #Israel. Staying silent will satisfy only those with power, who will find another way to do you dirty. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 29, 2014
There is anti semitism all around the campus of Illinois, and your and the universities recent hire of Steven Salaita is shameful and really disrespectful. The Jewish minority at the Univeristy is so strong. We don’t let the Wall that is bound on the quad for a week bother us. WE don’t let people saying hatred comments bother us. We don’t let some peers comments bother us. What will bother me is the safety of students in Steven Salaitas classroom. He HATES Jewish people. He believes in the Bombings of Israel. Why would my home, my university hire such a man with so much hatred. This is so disrespectful to myself, all the jewish fraternities, Rabbi Dovid, Chabad, Hillel, and all the other Jewish students on campus. With so much pride, why hire such a irritant, fearful, hatred man.Chancellor, this can’t be acceptable.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Anti Semitic and Anti Israel PRofessor", July 29, 2014
If you haven't recently been called a terror-loving anti-Semite, then I'm sorry to say that your critique of #Israel is totally weak. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 29, 2014
#Israel considers itself a state for Jews, not a state for its actual residents. That's why we hear about foreign fighters dying in #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 29, 2014
Only #Israel can murder around 300 children in the span of a few weeks and insist that it is the victim.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 31, 2014
300 children. Think about that number for a second, but not merely as a number. Think about it as two entire elementary schools. #Gaza.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 31, 2014
Even after Zionism, #Israel will be remembered for having given us the timeless phrases "terror tunnels" and "terrorist rocketing." #Gaza.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 1, 2014
Many younger Jewish students that I know from my community are no longer planning on applying to the University of Illinois because of the offensive and disgusting rhetoric of Professor Salaita. Hiring this man will poison the minds of hundreds of students at the University of Illinois. Please do not make such a grave mistake. Hamas calls for the death and destruction of Jews in the first line of their Charter in Israel and across the world. Professor Salaita agrees with them.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Re: Anti Semitism in Champaign Urbana", August 3, 2014
I just got an email condemning my "slander of holy Israel." I reckon I can accept "slander," but "holy" seems a bit out of place.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 1, 2014
I'm absolutely shocked that #Israel broke the ceasefire, said not a single person in the entire world.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 1, 2014
When will the attack on #Gaza end? What is left for #Israel to prove? Who is left for Israel to kill? This is the logic of genocide.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 2, 2014
#Israel is rounding up people and murdering them at point-blank range. The word "genocide" is more germane the more news we hear.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 2, 2014
Around this time, Salaita stopped tweeting for a while. Presumably, UIUC's letter withdrawing their offer reached him.
Based on the hiring of Mr. Salaita, I have decided to reconsider any future commitment of time and money to the University of Illinois. I have tremendous respect for Dean Debrock, Tim Durst and the Business School development office, and I am deeply conflicted by my decision to reconsider any support for the Business School. However, as a Jew and lover of Israel, I see no other way to make my voice heard then to take this action.
-- E-mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Steven Salaita", July 24, 2014
Although I welcome professors of diverse backgrounds and knowledge, I strongly believe that Professor Salaita has no place at our fine institution, or any American institution for that matter. Professor Salaita has posted hideous anti-Israel and anti-Semetic remarks on twitter that seriously question his character.
-- E-mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Professor Salaita", July 24, 2014
The new professor hired Mr. Salaita is an embarrassment to the university and does not deserve to be at our premier state university. His rhetoric concerning the current situation in Israel reflects his lack of intelligence and understanding. I strongly object to his hiring along with countless others. I am speaking as a former alumni who has sent two children to U of I and who has made countless donations and was planning to support the university in the future.
-- E-mail to Chancellor Wise titled "New Professor", July 25, 2014
Amid all the e-mails denouncing Salaita there were a handful in support of him:
I was alerted to the controversy regarding Professor Salaita via a friends facebook post and would like to offer my support in his hiring, or at least ignoring the twitter posts from your decision. He offers what may be an inconvenient and unpopular viewpoint to many; however as a teacher, I have come to fully believe that is what makes for the richest of educational experiences.
I will admit to not knowing a whole lot about the current or historical situation between Israel and the Palestinians. However, Israel has more than enough spokespeople within our country, their opponents do not need to be further silenced.
-- E-Mail to Chancellor Wise titled "Professor Salaita", July 30, 2014
A closing note on the Gaza conflict
Israeli forces fired 14,500 tank shells and 35,000 other unguided artillery shells into Gaza. The UN reported Israeli forces had also fired 5,830 missiles from aircraft. Hamas fired roughly 5,000 rockets and 2,000 mortar rounds at Israel, statistical estimates suggest Israel's "Iron Dome" destroyed about 5% of the rockets many of the rest were partially intercepted but likely went on to explode on impact.
Low Israeli casualties were the result of an early warning system which prompted timely evacuation to shelters or interior spaces, coupled with the small size of Hamas rocket warheads (most are 10-20 lbs). In contrast, Israeli missiles often carry 1,000 or 2,000 lb warheads which are capable of damaging most shelters and often destroy entire buildings. The IDF's standard artillery shell has a 15 lbs explosive charge and is designed to detonate into 2,000 fragments on impact.
It's important to note that many of the missiles and shells the IDF used are made and supplied by the US, as part of an annual $3Bn package of military aid.