Israeli university rebukes professor who expressed sympathy for both Israeli, Gazan victims

[shaayecanaan]

'The matter will be handled with appropriate seriousness,’ says 'shocked’ Bar-Ilan University dean after students, parents complain.

Bar Ilan University students, faculty and administrators are up in arms over a law professor’s email to his students that opened with an expression of sympathy for all victims of the Israel-Gaza war, implicitly reminding them that the overwhelming majority of those victims are Gazans.

Professor Hanoch Sheinman wrote that he hoped his message ''finds you in a safe place, and that you, your families and those dear to you are not among the hundreds of people that were killed, the thousands wounded, or the tens of thousands whose homes were destroyed or were forced to leave their homes during, or as a direct result of, the violent confrontation in the Gaza Strip and its environs.” Some of the students complained to the faculty dean, Shahar Lifshitz, that the letter hurt their feelings. Following the complaint, the dean issued a statement, saying that he was ''shocked'' by Sheinman's letter, and that he apologizes for it ''in his name and the name of the faculty.'' He promised that the matter will be handled with ''the appropriate seriousness.” He stated that the letter stands in contrast with the university's values, and that it ''constitutes the inappropriate use of the power given to a lecturer to exploit his platform as a law teacher to convey messages reflecting his positions, in a way that, as noted, seriously offended the students and their families.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.607888

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/protective-edge-democracy-zoabi-idf-golan-levy.html

[Fred Sanders]

1. Dissent must be suppressed and demonized, it is standard procedure in a national propaganda push.

[shaayecanaan]

2. only 6% of Israelis now identify as left wing

I guess its working.

[kelliekat44]

6. They actually live as "liberals" in every way except about Palestinians...nt

[oberliner]

3. In an email about scheduling an exam

Last edited Tue Aug 5, 2014, 11:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Seems reasonable to ask teachers to keep their political views to themselves in emails to students of that nature.

I think if a teacher in the US included something similar in an email to students, they'd get rebuked as well (substituting Gaza with Baghdad let's say).

[shaayecanaan]

4. Complete nonsense

In fact, far more vicious and nasty comments can be made by academic staff in the US without even a slap on the wrist:-

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp

It would be extremely, extremely rare (unheard of) for a university professor to be reprimanded in the US for expressing a view as non-contentious as having sympathy for the victims of war.

[countryjake]

7. What's your opinion of the raging threats to Gideon Levy's life...

and the Likud's Yariv Levin's calls for placing Gideon under arrest and tried for treason?

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, shaayecanaan.

[Crunchy Frog]

8. "Hurt their feelings"?

What delicate little flowers they are.

I don't suppose it's possible that some of the students might have been Arabs with relatives in Gaza. It seems like a completely reasonable sentiment to express.