------------------------------------------ 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 ------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.'' ------------------------------------------------------------------------