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Uproar over University of Illinois Blocking Appointment of Israel Critic

A look on the pressures brought by Jews to block Steven Salaita's hiring. University of Illinois chancellor Phyllis Wise, daughter of Chinese immigrants whose husband (or former husband) and children appear to be likely Jewish, personally blocks Salaita's appointment. Salaita, who was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, has a Palestinian-Arab ethnic background.

Inside Higher Ed

The Emails on Salaita

August 25, 2014

By Scott Jaschik

On Friday, officials of the University of Illinois offered their first public explanations of the decision to block the hiring of Steven Salaita. They denied that his criticism of Israel was the reason, and said that they were committed to promoting an atmosphere in which people and ideas are not demeaned.

"What we cannot and will not tolerate at the University of Illinois are personal and disrespectful words or actions that demean and abuse either viewpoints themselves or those who express them. We have a particular duty to our students to ensure that they live in a community of scholarship that challenges their assumptions about the world but that also respects their rights as individuals," said an email from Phyllis M. Wise (below right), chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus where the American Indian studies program offered Salaita a tenured position that he and the department believe he accepted.

Since news emerged three weeks ago that Wise told Salaita that the job would not be his because she would not submit it to the Illinois board for approval, the decision has been the subject of intense national debate in academic circles and beyond.

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