The professor showed anti-Jewish bias

The Faculty Executive Committee for Academic Freedom and Against Antisemitism (faafa.net) alerts readers to a display of anti-Jewish bias at the University of Illinois Faculty Senate meeting on October 14.

It offended members of the campus and community who believe in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Education professor Jon Hale, chairman of the Senate Executive Committee, opened the meeting by saying “In recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day, I want to remember the tens of thousands of people who have lost their lives in Gaza, Palestine and across the country. Middle East in the last year in basic struggles for humanity against settler colonialism where it still exists today.”

His reference to Israel was obvious. He ignored the rapes and mass murders committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023 against Israel, which triggered the war. Anti-Zionists say the Gaza war is a fight against settler colonialism, but that distorts history.

Israel re-established a Jewish state in the ancient Jewish homeland, reclaiming its own indigenous rights from a succession of colonial powers: Roman, Caliphate, Sultanate and British. Jews have always lived in Israel.

It was inappropriate for the head of the Senate Executive Committee, which represents the faculty on campus and in the state, to promote his personal political views while acting in his official capacity. We believe the offensive language he used violates the 2024 campus memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which promises to protect community members from harassment based on “Zionist aspects of their Jewish identity.”

CARY NELSON

Champagne