Steven Salaita: BDS’s Favorite Martyr

Steven Salaita

Steven Salaita loves attention, especially from fawning admirers who see him as a martyr to Zionism, American imperialism, and other conspiratorial charges used to hide or excuse his anti-Semitic behavior that cost him a position at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne. In the latest Campus Watch Research, appearing today at Ynetnews, Asaf Romirowsky reports on a recent talk Salaita delivered at an anarchist bookstore in Philadelphia.

Steven Salaita, whose anti-Zionist/Semitic tweets and uncivil rants cost him a position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), used a recent appearance in Philadelphia to portray himself as a victim of the Zionist lobby. The lecture was co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, which the Anti-Defamation League calls “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group” in the U.S.

An audience of about forty attended the rambling lecture at the Wooden Shoe, a dingy, dirty anarchist bookstore that sported pro-Boycott/Divestment/Sanction (BDS) and other far left propaganda, including a poster of the brutal Marxist killer Che Guevara. Salaita’s claim to fame rests on UIUC’s 2014 decision not to install him as a professor of Native American studies. He and UIUC announced a settlement on November 12 that awards him $600,000 and legal costs; he will not seek or accept employment at the university.

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Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.
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