Steven Salaita hiring controversy

[1] The un-hiring sparked a debate about academic freedom in relation to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, social media, and the influence of pro-Israel lobby groups on American universities.

[4] Salaita had written two books about the Middle East; Israel's Dead Soul and The Uncultured Wars, Arabs, Muslims and the Poverty of Liberal Thought as well as contributed articles to left-leaning or pro-Palestinian sites such as Salon and The Electronic Intifada.

[citation needed] Michael Hiltzik in Los Angeles Times referred to him as a "respected scholar in American Indian studies and Israeli–Arab relations.

"[5] In 2012 the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (AIS) began the process of hiring a scholar to serve at the assistant or associate professor level at the department.

Robert Allen Warrior, AIS director, wrote that Salaita's "fresh and compelling contributions to the intellectual project of a critique of the concept of indigeneity, which is ... the core of what has made us an international leader in our field."

"[6] On October 3, 2013, the university conditionally offered Salaita a job as associate professor with indefinite tenure in the American Indian Studies Program scheduled to begin in January 2014.

"[12] The Daily Caller followed suit on July 21, writing that "[t]he University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has continued its bizarre quest to employ as many disgusting scumbags as possible by acquiring the services of Steven Salaita, a leading light in the movement among similarly obscure academics to boycott Israel.

[15] On July 31, Wise wrote that she feared the situation would lead to a court battle with Salaita: "It will be the beginning of a lawsuit, I am sure I will be deposed no matter who sends the letter."

The next day, she and vice president Christophe Pierre wrote to Salaita informing him that they had decided not to present his potential appointment to the board of trustees because it was "unlikely" to win their approval, effectively rescinding his job offer.

Several of the letters threatened to stop donating: "Having been a multiple 6 figure donor to Illinois over the years, I know our support is ending as we vehemently disagree with the approach this individual espouses."

[16] About 40 Jewish students, faculty, staff and alumni protested Salaita's non-hiring in another letter which alleged that he was the victim of "the Israeli attack on Palestine coming to our campus.

"[16] Salaita published an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune in late September, explaining his view of the controversy: A partisan political blog cherry-picked a few of those tweets from hundreds to create the false impression that I am anti-Semitic.

Publicly disclosed documents reveal that, within days, University of Illinois donors who disagreed with my criticism of Israeli policy threatened to withhold money if I wasn't fired.

[28][31] [32][33] Salaita, insisting that he should be reinstated, sued the university in November 2014 to force it to release all records relating to the hiring process, as required by the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

And second, that Salaita's right to free speech trumped the university's concerns over keeping a "safe" or "disruption-free" environment: The University’s attempt to draw a line between the profanity and incivility in Dr. Salaita’s tweets and the views those tweets presented is unavailing; the Supreme Court did not draw such a line when it found Cohen’s “Fuck the Draft” jacket protected by the First Amendment.

[17]The ruling also allowed a spoliation of evidence claim to proceed against the university,[40] which implicated Wise in hiding emails about the un-hiring of Salaita and she immediately resigned.

[43] On June 15, 2015, Kennedy was given the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Spirit of Courage award for opposing Salaita's tenure: In addition, the Center presented the Spirit of Courage Award to Christopher G. Kennedy, the immediate-past Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois who led the Board in their denial of final approval of the academic position offered to Steven Salaita, a professor who posted controversial and anti-Semitic rants on social media about Israel and her supporters.

"[46] Though he appeared in the news in February 2019 working as a school bus driver in suburban Washington, D.C.,[47] he has since returned to academia as a Professor in the English and Comparative Literature department at The American University in Cairo.