UC faculty who defended Hamas’ terrorism against Israel push back on UC president

According to a recent CNN news story republished by this newspaper, about 150 University of California professors signed a letter complaining about “the UC president’s efforts to develop what he described earlier this month as a ‘viewpoint-neutral history of the Middle East,’ saying it violates their academic freedom.”

What CNN neglected to mention is that some of the signatories of that letter also signed a letter blaming Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israeli civilians on Israel.

Last month, this editorial board called attention to a letter signed by UC faculty and students which argued, “To blame anyone other than the Zionist Israeli government and its settlers mischaracterizes this struggle and fuels the ongoing violence...Although international law states that Palestians’ (sic) have the right to defend themselves in their ancestral homelands, it is evident these rights only apply to some.”

The letter continued, “To police Palestinian means of resistance and demand that they be perfect victims and resistant subjects is part of the genocidal campaign against Palestinians.”

And, most disturbingly, it declared, “At this time, we refuse any calls for ‘peace’ which are just calls for the quiet submission of Palestinians to an early grave.”

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Among the signers of that letter were Sophia Azeb, an assistant professor of Critical Race & Ethnic Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as Kevan Antonio Aguilar, an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, Claudio Fogu, a professor of Italian Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara and Christine Hong, a professor of Critical Race & Ethnic Studies & Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

They are among those who signed the recent letter reported on by CNN.

Whatever the merits of their opposition to the UC president’s actions, it’s clear that many radicals in academia hide behind academic freedom. The disturbing fact is that many academics in the University of California, and beyond, are peddlers of extremist thought. Hence, we have seen students at prestigious schools like the University of California, Los Angeles shout terrorist slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “There is only one solution, intifada revolution.”

But because they are on the far-left, they get a pass.