We've failed to cover the the University of California Santa Barbara's investigation of sociology professor William I. Robinson, who
during Gaza circulated the assemblage of photographs I'm sure many of you
have seen, of Israeli atrocities side by side with Nazi ones. UCSB says it began the investigation following a complaint by two students who were offended by the photos and Robinson's description of Gaza as a Palestinian Warsaw Ghetto. The university was not responding, it said, to pressure by the Anti-Defamation League, which called for an "anti-Semitism" investigation of the prof.
The whole thing is, of course, an attack on free speech and academic freedom, recalling the David Project's campaign at Columbia. Well, here is political scientist Alan Wolfe at the New Republic of all places, "Enough with the Campus Inquisitions!":
A Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB has been formed
and it includes a protest against Robinson's treatment from Noam
Chomsky. I almost never find myself in agreement with my fellow alum of
Philadelphia's Central High School. [maybe Central's Doug Feith is more to Wolfe's taste?] But I would be dismayed if only
those protesting the ADL's actions in the Robinson case were those who
shared his political views.There are all too many inquisitors out there in the world opposing
this or that speaker or campus, watching what professors are saying; in
my own neighborhood, Clark University considered cancelling a speech by
Norman Finkelstein while Boston College did cancel one by Bill Ayers.
This whole business is threatening to spin out of control. Those of us
who once opposed the smug political correctness of the academic left
ought to be just as opposed to the new version of political correctness
adopted by the ADL and its supporters.
And you thought Palestinian students were the only ones who spoke of "witchhunts" on campus. Says a friend in academia: "These guys are shameless and they actually engender anti-Semitism. I don’t worry about dissing Islamists, nationalists, but I worry that if I say something critical then some bully (kid at the college) will blog away and then hysteria sets in."
