Israeli scholar refuses to shut up despite university punishment for saying settlers exhibit ‘psychosis’

Here is more evidence of the limits on free speech inside Israel and of what renegade leaders have described as “fascistic” trends in that society.

Last week, in the wake of the murder of a settler girl by a Palestinian, Uri Weiss, a business instructor at an Israeli university, faulted settlers for risking their children’s lives in a “collective psychosis.” Students sought his termination by the university, which ultimately punished him by exempting students from his examination.

The brave scholar has continued to post messages critical of the occupation and rightwing leaders on his Facebook page!

Here is Weiss’s original statement on Facebook, as reported by I24:

“When parents, driven by ideological fanaticism, choose to reside in areas where their children are in mortal danger, we’re witnessing a case of collective psychosis,” Uri Weiss wrote to the consternation of many of his students, who are now petitioning to sack him.

This led to Weiss’s disciplining by Bar-Ilan University, as reported by Walla! News:

Students taking Dr. Uri Weiss’ course at Bar Ilan University will be able to receive a ‘passing’ grade, rather than take the course exam. Reason: Furore over his statements against Israeli settlers who put their children in harm’s way.

Bar-Ilan is said to be associated with more rightwing students. Walla egged those students on (as translated by an automated service): A graduate student, Eitan Meir, was quoted as saying that there had to be “practical consequences” for such statements. The university had to “create clear deterrence against all those who seek to harm Israeli citizens.”

The decision was also praised as a “a small victory” by Matan Peleg, the head of the rightwing group Im Tirzu. “We’ve seen that an intractable Israeli lecturer can hurt an entire university.”

Note that the intractable and courageous Uri Weiss continues to criticize the settlements and intolerance in Israel on his Facebook page. With this post on religious support for the occupation. Here he praises the Jewish heretic Baruch Spinoza.

The Times of Israel reports that Weiss had also praised Palestinian Member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi and said that the Israeli killings aboard the Turkish aid ship the Mavi Marmara in 2010 were a “war crime.”

It must be observed that the Democratic Party under Hillary Clinton is giving Uri Weiss no support at all, at a time when he needs it, by denying the existence of an occupation.

Thanks to Ofer Neiman. 

Source Article from http://mondoweiss.net/2016/07/university-punishment-psychosis/

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