Dr. Steven Salaita, a Palestinian- American professor of comparative literature and post-colonialism, lost an offer of employment at the University of Illinois in Champaign- Urbana because of blatantly antisemitic tweets he published during and after the Israeli-Gaza war last summer. So now he’s suing the university in federal court. And by “university, ” we mean a long list of trustees and board members, all of whom have conspired to destroy Salaita’s career.
The fact is, Chancellor Dr. Phyllis Wise was the official who withdrew the job offer. And she did it because she didn’t want to have on staff someone who tweets the kind of revolting stuff Salaita did. Which was her prerogative, one could argue: she chose to exercise her right to change her mind about hiring someone. She didn’t fire the man for his views, she just didn’t hire him.
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Of course, that’s for the court to decide. And the good professor’s appeal is a litany of complaints about his mistreatment at the hands of the cruel chancellor.
“Defendants’ actions set forth above were undertaken with intent or knowledge that there was a high probability that the conduct would inflict severe emotional distress and with reckless disregard of that probability, ” says the lawsuit.
“Defendants’ actions set forth above were undertaken with malice, willfulness, and reckless indifference to the rights of others, ” it continues.
And then, right there, near the bottom of the text—you’ll have to scroll all the way down for that one:
“As a direct and proximate result of this misconduct, Professor Salaita suffered injuries, including severe emotional distress and great conscious pain and suffering prior to his death.”
They killed him.
OK, he’s still alive, very much so, in fact, including appearances in many a lecture hall, where he repeats the same vile stuff against the horrible Jews and the Arab babies they eat. But on the record, in his lawsuit — they killed him.
We think his attorneys, Loevy & loevy, as well as the Center For Constitutional Rights, which probably pays for this silliness, should hire a proof reader. We also suggest you rush to read the funniest lawsuit typo in quite some time, before they get a chance to fix it.
Now to the evil tweets. We’re cooking with gas today…
