( Democracy Now!) A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Steven Salaita, the American Studies Association—or ASA—and other defendants who were sued after endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions—or BDS—movement. Professor Salaita joined the board of the ASA two years after the organization passed a boycott resolution, but was still named as a defendant.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented Salaita, said in a statement, “These desperate lawsuits brought to silence advocates of Palestinian rights are not only losers—they’re helping to grow the movement by making even clearer who’s on the wrong side of history, who is the aggressor, who is unreasonable, and who wants to silence debate.”
The lawsuit is not the first time Salaita has been targeted in a case related to Israel and Palestine. In 2014, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign withdrew a job offer for a tenured position for Salaita after he posted tweets critical of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza.
Via democracynow.org
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Bonus Video added by Informed Comment:
the MPhil in Race, Ethnicity, Conflict – Trinity College Dublin: “Steven Salaita – ‘BDS and the Modern University'” . “Steven Salaita addresses a public audience invited by the MPhil in Race, Ethnicity, Conflict – Trinity College Dublin – during the conference “Freedom of Speech and Higher Education: The case of the academic boycott of Israel”. Steven Salaita (Author of Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom, Steven was denied a Professorship in University of Illinois due to his views on Israel/Palestine).”
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