Current Events > Stanford instructor removed for targeting Jewish students as 'colonizers'

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Stanford instructor removed for targeting Jewish students as colonizers after Hamas attack on Israel

Stanford officials were also criticized for neutral language in initially failing to unambiguously condemn Hamas

https://forward.com/news/564587/stanford-university-jewish-students-instructor-hamas/?amp=1

Rabbi Dov Greenberg, director of the Chabad Stanford Jewish Center, said he was told by three students who were in the room that the instructor asked Jewish and Israeli students to identify themselves during a session for a required undergraduate course called Civil, Liberal and Global Education.

The teacher told the Jewish students to take their belongings, stand in a corner, and said, This is what Israel does to the Palestinians, Greenberg said, citing the student accounts. The instructor then asked, How many people died in the Holocaust? When a student answered, Six million, the lecturer said, Colonizers killed more than 6 million. Israel is a colonizer.

Stanford President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez sent a letter to the university community on Wednesday that mentioned the removal of the instructor from teaching duties but did not provide the details of the incident.

The instructor addressed the Middle East conflict in a manner that called out individual students in class based on their backgrounds and identities, the statement said.

That statement followed an earlier letter from Stanford officials that faculty from Stanford and Hebrew University had criticized as being too neutral on the situation in Israel.

The second statement from the president and provost specifically condemned the Hamas attacks as a moral matter.

The statement from Saller and Martinez said the incident with the instructor was under investigation. The universitys media relations office declined to confirm or provide more details, citing it as a personnel matter. The instructor was a teaching assistant, not a faculty member.

The instructor did not immediately respond to an email inquiry from the Forward sent Thursday.

Students were afraid to speak up

Greenberg, the Chabad rabbi, said the students hed spoken to were afraid to speak up in class out of fear that they would be penalized grade-wise. What are they going to do get in a fight with their teacher at Stanford? he asked. But he said all three were traumatized by the experience. The teacher didnt say anything that happened to the Israelis, Greenberg said. He ignored that. He said, Hamas is a legitimate representation of the Palestinian people. They are not a terrorist group. They are freedom fighters. Their actions are legitimate.

The rabbi added: Hes saying Israel is worse than the Nazis and Hamas is innocent. This is what Jewish students face at Stanford and other places. Theyre feeling isolated, under attack and threatened.

The Stanford Daily reported Tuesday that pro-Palestinian banners went up on campus over the weekend, with one reading, The Illusion of Israel is Burning, and another showing a Palestinian flag and the words, The Land Remembers Her People. The Daily said the banners were taken down by Monday. Students reported seeing chalked anti-Israel slogans around campus.

An op-ed in the Daily by Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine described Saturdays attacks in Israel as part of the protracted struggle against settler-colonial oppression, adding that no conversation about Palestine can be conducted without the context of the decades of systematic oppression, discrimination and violence the Palestinian people have faced.

The group condemned Israels attacks on Gaza as illegal collective punishment under the Geneva Convention.

Saller and Martinezs initial statement, dated Monday, noted that many on campus have been affected by the devastating events in Israel and Gaza, especially those who have family and friends in the region.

In that statement, the officials expressed hope that the universitys mission would include thoughtful opportunities for sharing knowledge rooted in care for one another as members of a common intellectual community.

Demanding an unambiguous condemnation of Hamas

In response, dozens of faculty signed a letter asking for an unambiguous condemnation of the Hamas attacks. Hebrew University President Asher Cohen sent a letter to his Stanford counterpart criticizing the initial Stanford statement as taking a morally relativist approach regarding the massacre committed by Hamas and failing to meet the most minimal standards of moral leadership, courage, and commitment to truth.

The follow-up statement from Saller and Martinez, dated Wednesday, included a more straightforward condemnation of all terrorism and atrocities as a moral matter, including the deliberate attack on civilians this weekend by Hamas.

But the president and provost also emphasized the universitys commitment to academic freedom permitting expression of controversial and even offensive views in order to avoid chilling freedom of thought and ideas. The universitys policy is to refrain from taking institutional positions on complex political or global matters, they wrote, noting: Maintaining university neutrality allows for our individual scholars to explore them freely.

The second letter from Saller and Martinez also noted that there had been complaints about signs on campus expressing views that many find offensive, but they said that controversial and even offensive speech is allowed except when it crosses the line into certain illegal categories such as threats or harassment.

Marc Levine, regional director of the Anti-Defamation Leagues Central Pacific office, said Stanford did the right thing by removing the instructor. The reported identity-based targeting of Jewish and Israeli students in a class was unacceptable, he said. At a time when Jews are fearing for their safety worldwide, its critical we boldly call out anti-Jewish hate. Students including Jewish students deserve to feel safe and respected on university campuses.

The instructor was a teaching assistant, not a faculty member.

targeting Jewish students as 'colonizers'

Colonizers killed more than 6 million. Israel is a colonizer.

No he didn't.

He did not say Jewish students or Jews in general were colonizers, he used Jewish students to illustrate a point about Israel. Its still wrong, but the topic title is a complete lie.

Been a surprising/worrying amount of young American leftists using this event as an opportunity to say how they truly feel about Jewish people.

Don't really understand how you all seem to miss that point.

it's a little weird to make Jewish people the face of the "colonizer" in your class.

It's literally fascism 101 to paint Jewish people as the secret group behind "what's wrong" with your country in order to drum up nationalistic pride to use against them later.

Been a surprising/worrying amount of young American leftists using this event as an opportunity to say how they truly feel about Jewish people.

Feels like some weird bizarro world tbh. I've also seen quite a bit of white privilege coming out of this whole discussion as well, but not really that surprising from Americans at this point.

I don't understand it at all. I was under the impression the right was the evil destroyer.

But now people are accusing the LEFT of being antisemitic. Bizarro world yeah.

Anti-Semitism truly is a both sides phenomenon. Which would account for it's longevity, having survived for millennium.

It really shatters my world view. Who can I root for? (the first person who tried to tell me this, was such an asshole I brushed it off)

The only party you should be rooting for are the civilians caught up in both the IDFs indiscriminate bombing and Hamass indiscriminate kidnapping and murder.

That makes sense. Having no ties to the involved cultures or faiths, the region holds no particular significance to me.

When Jewish people have been historically been used by fascists as the target group for hate and bigotry, it's a little weird to make Jewish people the face of the "colonizer" in your class. It's literally fascism 101 to paint Jewish people as the secret group behind "what's wrong" with your country in order to drum up nationalistic pride to use against them later.

Been a surprising/worrying amount of young American leftists using this event as an opportunity to say how they truly feel about Jewish people.

Feels like some weird bizarro world tbh. I've also seen quite a bit of white privilege coming out of this whole discussion as well, but not really that surprising from Americans at this point.

Been a surprising/worrying amount of young American leftists using this event as an opportunity to say how they truly feel about Jewish people.

Feels like some weird bizarro world tbh. I've also seen quite a bit of white privilege coming out of this whole discussion as well, but not really that surprising from Americans at this point.

Looks like a lot of people think Israel equates to all Jews.

And in the same breath, say criticism of Israel (which they see as equalling all Jews) is not anti-Semitic.

No he didn't.

He did not say Jewish students or Jews in general were colonizers, he used Jewish students to illustrate a point about Israel. Its still wrong, but the topic title is a complete lie.

Anti-Semitism truly is a both sides phenomenon. Which would account for it's longevity, having survived for millennium.

Open Anti-Senitism is okay if youre proving a point, gotcha.

For the example, the instructor should've just used a few random students.

Anti-Semitism truly is a both sides phenomenon. Which would account for it's longevity, having survived for millennium.

Cruelty is cruelty. Hamas may well want to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, but that doesn't make them not terrorists.

There is certainly a lot of other things that do tho

A LOT of people on both sides of the conflict have gone mask off. The thing is I expect the Right to be human garbage. The Left is supposed to be the morally superior side.