A Virginia Tech professor recently compared Israel to the Sunni radical group ISIS. English professor Steven Salaita tweeted Tuesday:
#Israel and #ISIS are but two prongs of the same violent ethnonationalism.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 22, 2014
Zionists: give it a rest. My criticism of #ISIS comes from the same ethical context as my profound dislike of #Israel.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 22, 2014
Reminder: this is not a "conflict." It is a colonial power using disproportionate force to suppress an Indigenous insurrection.#Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 23, 2014
Now it's "Hamas." Before that, the PLO. Before that, Saddam. Before that, Nasser.
The common denominator here is #Israel.#Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 23, 2014
#ISupportGaza because I understand it is a byproduct of ethnic cleansing, not an accident of history.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 24, 2014
Truth Revolt noted the professor’s history of anti-Israel advocacy. He is a staunch supporter of the Boycott, Sanctions, and Divestment campaign against Israel, arguing in a blog post that the American Studies Association should boycott “the colonial project of Zionism” because of “the indisputable evidence of academic complicity in Israel’s brutalization of Palestinians.”
In his most recent book, Israel’s Dead Soul, Salaita explains how “endowing nation-states with souls is a dangerous phenomenon because it privileges institutions and corporations rather than human beings,” according to the book’s Amazon description.