Robinson Cleared by UCSB Academic Senate

The ADL is either misinformed or mischaracterizing the situation. The e-mail was relevant course material distributed to students through the course distribution list, an electronic service associated with the class. The course was a sociology class covering global issues. The materials were distributed to the class in January, during Israel's invasion of Gaza, arguably the most significant global issue occurring that month.

The representative for Stand With Us is more interested in hyperbole than making rational statements. Students in Robinson's class are not the victims of indoctrination. On the contrary, criticism of Israeli behavior towards Palestinians in college classrooms is an important corrective to the standard pro-Israel posture of the US media and most university curricula distorting history and the current realities of that region.

This case was about the Israel lobby's attempt to censor and censure (maybe even worse) a professor who distributed materials critical of Israel to a class studying global issues. Fortunately, they lost.

I fully agree that this was an important case. the pro-Israeli story has dominated the discussion up to now. The pro-Israeli lobby is willing to shred free speech to prevent the American public from knowing the truth. Had Professor Robinson lost this case the attack of academic free speech would only have intensified.

It is important that Professor Robinson files a grievance over this matter, as apparently he will. The University acted badly in this case and appears to have violated their own policies in this matter. It is critical that Universities not knuckle under to the pro-Israeli lobby.

What is wrong with having a pro-Israel lobby? Many other nations lobby the U.S. on behalf of their citizen's interests. Prof. Robinson, who often writes supporting amnesty and continued large-scale immigration from Latin America can certainly be considered a lobbyist for Mexico. If the following conference listing Robinson as an attendee is not lobbying for Mexico I don't know what is

"National Conference to Organize the May 1st National March for a Humanitarian Immigration Reform, Legalization and a Stop to Raids and Deportations"

http://www.march25coalition2009nc.org/

He also lobbies for the FMLN party in El Salvador

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirobins...

The Saudi lobby defending that nation's religious and gender apartheid practices is far more powerful than the Israel lobby. Even a critic of Israel admits as much in

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/0...

"Somehow, though, I can't shake the idea that the Israel lobby, no matter how powerful, isn't all it is cracked up to be, particularly where it concerns the Bush administrations past and present. Indeed, when I think of pernicious foreign lobbies with disproportionate sway over American politics, I can't see past Saudi Arabia and its royal house, led by King Abdullah."

MacArthur, while downplaying the power of the Israel lobby, is right about the power of the Saudi lobby. Ironically, MacArthur's piece proves the point about why we should worry about the power of foreign lobbies over US foreign policy. Here "Justice" is attempting to argue that lobbies don't matter but winds up hoisting himself with his own petard. Sweet.

If people want to organize a group to get their message out, they are certainly free to do so. The problem is not the mere existence of a lobby, but the behavior of a particular lobby. By pressuring officials at institutions of higher learning into punishing intellectuals for criticizing Israel, the Israel lobby is assaulting the most cherished values of our democracy: academic freedom and free speech. For this, at least among those of us who still cherish these values, the Israel lobby should be condemned.

Like the Israel lobby, the Saudi lobby has too much influence in our foreign policy (public financing of the political process would go a long way towards robbing these lobbies of their power). However, would Robinson have been persecuted for his speech had he criticized Saudi Arabia? There is intense criticism of Saudi Arabia in academia for its treatment of women, its use of the decapitation as punishment, its control over world oil prices. Where is the intense pressure by the Saudi lobby to suppress such speech?

"Justice" is mixing apples and oranges. While the Israel and Saudi lobbies may have tremendous power and influence, it is the Israel lobby that goes after intellectuals critical of Israeli state behavior. Just because there are other lobbies doesn't free the Israel lobby from criticism of its actions harmful to the interests of American citizens.

I should stop criticizing the NRA because apple growers have a lobby? Please.

Thank goodness the case against Professor Robinson has been found to be without merit and dropped. I hope the University collectively learns from the many mistakes made in bringing charges against Robinson.

More importantly, those individuals on the charges committee who acted so improperly in denying Robinson the due process he deserved should be reprimanded for their witch hunt. Their actions were just plain unfair and have done harm to the reputations of both the University and Robinson. As an alumnus of UCSB, I hope that Chancellor Yang will take the honorable next step and issue an official and public apology to Robinson.

Well said EastBeach...

"Cyndi Silverman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that academic freedom was not an issue, because the email was sent outside of class and gave no recourse for discussion between students and their instructor."

The ADL marginalizes itself with such blatant lying and misrepresentation and by aligning itself with organizations like Stand With Us. Of course email is technically "outside of class" in the strictly physical sense that it isn't contained within the walls of the classroom, but that doesn't put course-related email outside the bounds of academic freedom. The material in the email was discussed in class, but not by the indoctrinated ideological "students" from Stand With Us who dropped out after attacking Professor Robinson as they had been trained to do by that militant propaganda organization.

For those interested, Prof. Robinson discusses the e-mail with the Indy's Sylvia Uribe here:

http://www.independent.com/news/2009/...

Although not central to Robinson's case, I found it interesting that he says the e-mail was a forward of content created by a Jewish-American journalist. For readers like myself who naively thought that the breadth of Jewish opinion worldwide regarding the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza was rather narrow, this has been a refreshing eye-opener.

Robinson wasn't "cleared." The university did not find enough reason to go forward with disciplinary action.

Despite the bleating of the tin foil hat crowd, it's clear that Robinson acted improperly here. His class was on globalization, and he used his email list for that class to distribute his juvenile views on Israel.

He's just a foot-stomping little brat who's playing the martyr. Ignore the fool and let him slide back into well-deserved obscurity.

Kratatoa:

1) If you are subject to "...an inquiry to determine a possible violation of the faculty code of conduct" (which Robinson was);

2) and "The committee did not find probable cause to undertake disciplinary action in this matter," (which it did not)

3) why would you not be CLEARED [to free from accusation or blame] of "a possible violation of the faculty code of conduct"? (which he was).

Other possible synonyms you which will also irritate you: exonerated, vindicated, rid of, disengaged, discharged, and disentangled.

I hope that clears the air.

Professors have misused their position to brainwash innocent students with their personal agendas for many years. That does not make it right. This was a very clear case of the misuse of power (and not a very smart one at that). This email was neither related to the class, nor discussed in class--until the complaint. The University should not only be investigating Robinson for violating academic standards, but he should be investigated for his lack of intelligence and integrity. He is a lying scumbag that should not be allowed anywhere near our children. Oh yeah, his biggest supporters are the Muslim students for justice in palestine. Hmmm I wonder what his agenda was? da!

The e-mail, which concerned a massacre in Gaza in January 2009, a massacre that was carried out by a military largely paid for by the US taxpayer, was entirely related to the class, which was a sociology class on global issues in a US university. Robinson strives to make his courses relevant by applying theory and concepts taught in class to real world events.

Robinson is neither a liar nor lacking in intelligence. He has published seven books, two with John Hopkins University and another with Cambridge University Press, as well as dozens of articles in peer reviewed journals. He is recognized as a world-class scholar in his field.

Calling the man a "scumbag" and claiming that associating with Muslims discredits him exposes the Zionist agenda in operation in the last comment. If this person really is the parent of a UCSB student then we have at least one parent who doesn't understand what a university education is supposed to look like.

By the way, associating with groups demanding justice in Palestine is the moral equivalent of associating with groups demanding justice for blacks in South Africa before the fall of white hegemony there.

the very phrase "massacre in Gaza" belies this professor's credentials and his (and oh how I love to bring this old chestnut back in use) running dog lackeys who use any excuse to denigrate Israel and it's supporters. What are the actual facts about what happened in Gaza? Will the professor offer up the resources for his students to use facts as the basis for analysis? Here's a good place to start -

http://www.ict.org.il/Portals/0/Artic...

I am both a UCSB parent and fully aware of what should be going on at a University. In that regard, I pay his salary through my taxes and tuition, and if more parents realized where and who their money was going to, they would be quite surprised. I was not criticizing Robinson's credentials--nor calling him a lacky in intelligence. The middle east is not his field, nor was it the subject of his class. I was questioning his intelligence and integrity in forwarding this email (which was clearly a propaganda email sent by arab students). He should apologize to the University, the students and the parents for his actions, and he should stick to his area of expertise and stay out of the rest. He should also stop furthering his own personal agenda under the guise of education. The University needs to take a long look at what they have done by dismissing this case, and more closely scrutinize the ethics of their employees.

That Ghetto was Warsaw's bricked up Jewish district. It contained about 400,000 people. The Germans began shipping additional Jews in from all over Poland. The population did not grow because there was a massive dying from starvation and disease, and in 1942 began the daily transporting of the population, by train, to the death camps. Finally, the dwindling remainder rebelled, and German artillery pounded the Ghetto to rubble. A handful escaped through the sewers. Everyone else died.

Robinson compares that atrocity to Gaza whose people have never suffered malnutrition, let alone mass starvation and typhus epidemics. They have not only their own hospitals but access to Israeli medical facilities. They have elected Hamas whose declared policy is the elimination of Israel and the rejection of a Palestinian homeland unless 4.5 million Palestinian have the right to make their homes in Israel.

Hamas supported that policy with daily mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli villages. After thousands of such rocket firings across years, the Israelis responded with an incursion that caused over 1,300 deaths. Hamas claimed, all but 52 were civilians. The Israelis however identified 800 as militants by name and organization. There is also the fact that the strips 1.5 million people generate around 400 deaths every month from natural causes.

In short, the Israeli action was a military response to a military threat, not the desire to harm Gaza's civilians, let alone exterminate the entire population. Civilian casualties were not sought, except by Hamas as a propaganda coup.

Robinson's Gaza/ Warsaw Ghetto comparison is a malicious and deliberate slander. Its logic would make the Holocaust the consequence of a Jewish effort to liquidate Germany. It brandishes that tragedy on behalf of an Arab effort to destroy the Jewish homeland. To protect that lie with academic freedom makes a mockery of that privilege. UCSB's unwillingness to discipline Professor Robinson makes the university his accomplice. It deserves to lose its accreditation

Perhaps nothing is more dishonest in this discussion than claiming that Israel's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are impoverished refugees after either personally or being born to parents who were driven from their homes by European colonists, is predicated on security matters.

The facts show that Israel, beginning in November 2008, violated the ceasefire numerous times and then used the retaliation by some Gazans to Israeli aggression as a pretext for carrying out their actual objectives: the destruction of Gaza's political infrastructure, collective punishment of Palestinians for their democratic practices, physical reminder of Israel's reserved right to invade Palestinian territory whenever it wishes, and the demonstration of Labor Party resolve to maintain Israel's brutal and racist policies towards Palestinians for purposes of holding onto seats in the then pending election.

It was a massacre. Israel launched a 22-day assault that left 1500 Palestinians dead, more than 300 of them children, destroyed 50,000 homes, 800 industrial properties, 200 schools, and 39 mosques and two churches. Numerous human rights and relief agencies have provided more than enough evidence to convict Israel in a court of law of war crimes and flagrant and systematic violation of human rights.

Amnesty International found in its recent investigation of the Gaza massacre that Israel surrounded its soldiers with captured Palestinians, often children, to make it effectively impossible for Palestinians to defend themselves against the Israeli onslaught. Israeli offensive forces used this tactic and its overwhelming military superiority to kill hundreds of civilians "in attacks carried out using high-precision weapons, air-delivered bombs and missiles, and tank shells." Amnesty found that children and women "were shot at short range when posing no threat to the lives of the Israeli soldiers." Many were shot fleeing their damaged homes in search of shelter. The Israeli offensive forces used white phosphorus and flechette rounds on civilian targets. These are hideous weapons. A virtually defenseless population was butchered by a vast modern military machine in the name of a goal that is fundamentally unjust and criminal under international law.

Taken entirely by themselves, the rocket attacks do not justify the actions Israel took. No nation has the right to massacre defenseless civilians and wantonly destroy property in order to control the violent behavior of a handful of individuals. It's bad enough under the apologist's interpretation. However, taken in context, the massacre of Palestinians is a clear example of war of aggression on Israel's part, and represents part of an ongoing ethnonationalist project to colonize Palestine and transform it into the greater Jewish state of Israel. To deny this is to not simply to deny the obvious, but to ignore the stated goals of Zionism.

Despite flagrant and systematic human rights violations, Israeli policymakers recognize they cannot carry out the conquest of Palestine in the same manner as Germany. (The current lament among Israeli historians is that Zionists didn't finish the job in 1948). The world today is different than the world of the 1940s. International law is more highly developed. The United Nations and an array of human rights organizations monitor this and other situations.

The new world order not withstanding, Israel, recognizing the UN's inability to act against the wishes of Israel's "stalwart ally," pursues much of the strategy Germans used in its conquest of Poland, specifically an eliminationist model of genocide involving ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

To be sure, Israel has stopped short of is an exterminationist model of genocide in which Palestinians are physically annihilated, the course pursued by Germany in its second phase of creating livingspace. (Under the cover of total war, the Germans were trying to accomplish their project their quickly.) However, stopping short of physical extermination does not render the comparison invalid. It only shows that every historical case has differences from every other. Genocide is the destruction of a people. Physical extermination is but one possible tactic in achieving this goal.

The goal of Zionists is to create conditions so inhospitable that most Palestinians will leave the occupied territories for neighboring Arab countries, countries that already have scores of Palestinian refugees. In the West Bank, Palestinians, already living in tiny cantons - bantustans - with Jewish-only roads snaking through the territories, hundreds of checkpoints, and fences and walls all around and through, will be slowly pushed to the borders to make way for the "natural growth" of "settlements," i.e. colonies. Internal to Israel, Jews are given preferences for all manner of things, including the purchase of land. It is a slow-motion process of genocide, as Robinson described it.

As to the conditions in Palestine, the UN Commissioner-General of the RWAPR, as have others, found that conditions are dreadful in Gaza because of Israel's policy. Israel's closure of Gaza has trapped 1.4 million people behind walls and razor-wired fencing. What is is allowed in covers the needs of less than two-thirds of the people. The blockade is responsible for a steady rise in chronic malnutrition and marked deficiencies in nutrients. The Palestinian diet is now almost entirely cereals and oils. Fruit, vegetables, and meat are scant. Palestinians are kept in a wretched physical state. Israel disallows shoes, washing powder, and shampoo to enter Gaza. Palestinian children must go around without shoes, wearing dirty clothes. Israel prevents the entry of construction supplies; Palestinians cannot rebuild the homes, buildings, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure destroyed by the Israel military.