------------------------------------------
 American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
 San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
 522 Valencia St  San Francisco, CA 94110
 (415) 861-7444  adcsf@hotmail.com
 www.adcsf.org
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  PLEASE ACT AND FORWARD!:
 
 Professor Under Attack at Foothill College!
 
 Take action to defend free speech!
 
 Adjunct Political Science Professor Leighton Armitage of Foothill
 College is being targeted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other
 pro-Israel groups for comments he made in an interview in the student
 newspaper The Sentinel.  According to the San Jose Mercury News article
 below, Armitage said the following:
 
 "Armitage said, of Israeli treatment of Palestinians: 'And what are
 they doing with Palestinians, every day? They're killing them. They're
 walling them in, they're essentially doing the same thing that was done
 to them. . . . It's exactly what Hitler did to the Jews.'"
 
 This valid critique of Israeli government policy is being labeled by
 the ADL as "anti-Semitic" and Armitage could be subject to disciplinary
 action, or possibly termination.
 
 Foothill College and Professor Armitage have been receiving hundreds of
 phone calls and emails condemning Armitage and demanding Foothill to
 take action against him.  They are under tremendous pressure and need
 to be urged to uphold the values of the freedom of speech and the right
 of academics, and everyone else, to present criticism of any
 government's policies.  This is just one instance in a string of
 attacks on college professors by groups such as the ADL and Daniel
 Pipes' CampusWatch.
 
 Please contact the President and Vice President of Foothill College,
 supporting Armitage's right to freedom of speech and urging them not to
 cave in to those who wish to silence academic debate about the
 Israel/Palestine conflict.
 
 President Bernadine Fong:
 fongbernadine@foothill.edu
 650-949-7425

 Vice President of Technology and Instruction Penny Patz:
 patzpenny@foothill.edu
 650-949-7070

 Please also send letters to the editor of the Mercury News regarding
 this issue:

 letters@mercurynews.com

 http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/7917724.htm

 News
 
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 Posted on Tue, Feb. 10, 2004
 Remarks spur college probe
 ANTI-ISRAEL: FOOTHILL INVESTIGATES PUBLICATION OF PROFESSOR'S COMMENTS
 By S.L. Wykes and Thaai Walker
 Mercury News
 
 Two weeks after a newspaper interview with a professor prompted a furor
 over what some on campus believed were anti-Semitic comments, Foothill
 College administrators are investigating how the story came to be
 published and are scheduling a meeting with the Anti-Defamation League.
 
 In a letter about the situation, college President Bernadine Chuck Fong
 called the interview with adjunct political science Professor Leighton
 Armitage ``regrettable.'' Neither she nor other administration
 officials could be reached for comment beyond her letter, and it was
 unclear whether Armitage would be subject to disciplinary action.
 
 In the question-and-answer style interview, published Jan. 28 in the
 student-funded paper The Sentinel, Armitage said, of Israeli treatment
 of Palestinians: ``And what are they doing with Palestinians, every
 day? They're killing them. They're walling them in, they're essentially
 doing the same thing that was done to them. . . . It's exactly what
 Hitler did to the Jews.''
 
 Fong's letter apologized to those offended by the article and said it
 ``includes various allegations regarding the Israeli people and the
 state of Israel that are of serious concern to me and many members of
 the Foothill community.''
 
 She continues, ``Our goal as a higher education institution is to
 ensure proper dialogue takes place.''
 
 Faculty newspaper adviser Paul Starer could not be reached for comment.
 
 Fong has agreed to meet with the Anti-Defamation League's Central
 Pacific regional director Jonathan Bernstein in about two weeks,
 something she would not do in October 2002 when the ADL wrote her a
 letter with another complaint. A student had dropped out of a class
 after the teacher opened the semester with remarks that Israel was
 engaging in ethnic cleansing, adding, something it had probably learned
 from the Nazis.
 
 After the first incident, Fong sent an e-mail to the ADL saying
 Foothill had ``policies in place that protect everyone, not just
 students, of their First Amendment rights.''
 
 Bernstein said the ADL had recently conducted a workshop on hate speech
 for students and faculty members at De Anza College in Cupertino. ``We
 were asked to do that because there'd been a problem.'' he said. But,
 he added, ``these same issues exist at most schools, and what ends up
 happening is that generally administrators don't want to acknowledge
 the problems. . . . As a result the problem festers and you have
 this.''
 
 Foothill student Tatyana Povolotsky, president of Foothill's Jewish
 Student Union, was very upset by the Sentinel piece. ``It wasn't just
 him attacking the political issue of the Israeli government. Instead he
 was attacking the Jewish people in general,'' she said. ``I think this
 is a hate thing.''
 
 Armitage would not comment beyond saying, ``I'm so disgusted with the
 whole thing.'' He also said that none of the people ``giving me flack''
 have been his students.
 
 He teaches an introductory political science course at Foothill and
 also teaches at the College of San Mateo.
 
 Bernstein said that the ADL was very concerned about the atmosphere
 Armitage might be creating in his classes. ``Every instructor has
 opinions, and we all have our own biases,'' he said. ``The key is to be
 open to differing viewpoints in the classroom so you don't shut people
 down.''

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