Head of Oberlin college defends decision to not sack professor who claimed Jews are behind 9/11 attacks on grounds of free speech

  • Joy Karega is a professor of 'rhetoric and composition' at Oberlin College
  • She allegedly said Jews are responsible for the Charlie Hebdo massacre 
  • The president of Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov is defending Karega's free speech despite being Jewish and offended by her comments
  • Karega called ISIS a 'CIA and Mossad' operation, referring to Israel's national intelligence agency
  • However, the college said Karega has a right to express 'personal views' 

The president of Oberlin College in Ohio is standing up for a professor who spewed anti-Semitic hate on social media – including blaming Jews for 9/11 and the rise of ISIS.

In a letter to the Oberlin community, President Marvin Krislov said that he believes in protecting freedom of speech at all costs and will not fire associate professor Joy Karega.

'I believe, as the American Association of University Professors says, that academic freedom is "the indispensable quality of institutions of higher education" because it encourages free inquiry, promotes the expansion of knowledge, and creates an environment in which learning and research can flourish,' Krislov writes.

Joy Karega

Protecting free speech: Oberlin's President Marvin Krislov (pictured left) said that Joy Karega (pictured right), a professor at a prestigious Ohio college, will keep her job despite spewing anti-Semitic hate on social media

'Cultivating academic freedom can be difficult and at times painful for any college community. The principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech are not just principles to which we turn to face these challenges, but also the very practices that ensure we can develop meaningful responses to prejudice,' he added.

Krislov said that he is a practicing Jew who is hurt by anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Though, he also said that he strongly believes in academic freedom and in the protection of free speech, according to the Chronicle Telegram.

'I am a practicing Jew, grandson of an Orthodox rabbi. Members of our family were murdered in the Holocaust,” he wrote. 'As someone who has studied history, I cannot comprehend how any person could or would question its existence, its horrors and the evil which caused it. I feel the same way about anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Regardless of the reason for spreading these materials, they cause pain for many people — members of our community and beyond.'  

Joy Karega, an assistant professor of ‘rhetoric and composition’ at Oberlin College, claimed in a series of Facebook posts that Israel planned the September 11 attacks in 2001 and the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January last year.

She also posted conspiracy theories that alleged the Jewish state’s national intelligence agency formed the Islamic State terror group.

Krislov said that many have been calling for Karega's dismissal while others have been asking him to protect her freedoms.

She has since made her social media private but wrote in public post last Friday: 'Trust, when I come up out of my Unbothered state of being, I’ll have a lot to say (analysis, no doubt) about the kinds of intimidation and silencing tactics that are rhetorically enacted in digital spaces […] and how common it is for Black women, who are early in their career on the tenure track as part of the professoriate, to be prime targets for these kinds of activities and practices,' she wrote, according to the New York Post. 

Karega reportedly posted this graphic shortly after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, which shows an ISIS militant taking off a mask of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She alleges the murder of cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters in Paris was a ‘false flag’ aimed to stop France supporting Palestine

Karega reportedly posted this graphic shortly after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, which shows an ISIS militant taking off a mask of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She alleges the murder of cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters in Paris was a ‘false flag’ aimed to stop France supporting Palestine

In its response, Oberlin College did not condemn Karega’s posts and added that she has the right to express ‘her personal views’.

According to Karega’s profile on the private liberal arts college’s website, she received her PhD from the University of Louisville in 2014.

At Oberlin, she has recently taught courses entitled ‘Writing for Social Justice’ and ‘Negotiating Language, Culture and Power’.

She had also written a book which ‘draws upon archival research and oral history and historicizes the political literacy education of the Black Liberation Front International’ – a black student organization at Michigan State University from 1968 to 1975.

Now, she claims she is working on another book called ‘Conspiratorial Political Literacies: Rhetorical Practice, Contested Knowledge, and Subversive Politics' which will include her thoughts on the backlash she has faced since her Facebook posts were reported in The Tower this week.

She posted a graphic on January 13 last year – shortly after the Charlie Hebdo attacks – appearing to show an ISIS militant pulling off a mask of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the site reported.

The militant is seen with a Star of David tattoo and the acronym JSIL Israel – presumably a Jewish version of ISIL as the terror group are sometimes called.

The text superimposed on the image suggests the murder of cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters in Paris was a ‘false flag’ aimed to stop France supporting Palestine.

Along with the picture, Karega wrote: ‘This ain’t even hard [sic]. They unleased Mossad on France and it’s clear why.’

Later on the same day, Karega reportedly posted a claim that Netanyahu attended a rally for free speech in Paris ‘uninvited’.

‘Netanyahu wanted to bend Hollande and French government officials over one more time in public just in case the message wasn’t received.’

Netanyahu had actually visited Paris to honor four Jews killed in a kosher supermarket in a terror attack shortly after the murder of Charlie Hebdo’s staff.

Oberlin College (pictured, file photo) did not condemn Karega’s posts but said she has the right to express ‘her personal views’

Oberlin College (pictured, file photo) did not condemn Karega’s posts but said she has the right to express ‘her personal views’

Karega also said ISIS is a ‘CIA and Mossad’ operation and that ‘Israeli and Zionist Jews’ plotted the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

In a statement, the school said that although it does not endorse her comments, she is entitled to express her views.

'Oberlin College respects the rights of its faculty, students, staff, and alumni to express their personal views,' it said.

'Acknowledgement of this right does not signal institutional support for, or endorsement of, any specific position. 

'The statements posted on social media by Dr. Joy Karega, assistant professor of rhetoric and composition, are hers alone and do not represent the views of Oberlin College.'

But Karega's comments have stirred up controversy, including calls for her to lose her job.

Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz told The Tower: 'If Karega had expressed comparably bigoted views about Blacks, Muslims or gays, the President of Oberlin would not have posted the boilerplate he posted. 

'He would have condemned those views, even if he defended her right to express them.'

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, an Israeli-based civil rights organization, told Fox News: 'This is the worst kind of anti-Semitic rhetoric. 

'It is not acceptable for the dean to hide behind academic freedom and claim this is freedom of speech.' 

'She is not a tenured professor. She needs to be thrown off campus immediately.'

In recent months, however, students at the $50,000-a-year college have expressed concerns that anti-Semitism is becoming a problem at the school.

The student newspaper, the Oberlin Review, says Jews do not feel welcome, quoting one student, who said: ‘I quickly learned that, at Oberlin, love for my own nation (Israel) was not something I could express.’

The same student reportedly later transferred out of the school due to the ‘toxic climate’ regarding Israel.

Last month, hundreds of alumni and students published an open letter to Oberlin President Martin Krislov saying the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction Israel) movement has become considerably active on the college campus.

‘Several student organizations at Oberlin have assumed the role as the mouthpiece of the BDS movement, which claims to be a defender of Palestinian rights, but whose inflammatory language falsely portraying Israel as an illegitimate, colonialist and murderous regime demonstrates that its primary goal is to demonize the Jewish state,’ the letter said.

As Oberlin students and alumni representing a diversity of views on Israel, we accept criticism of its leadership and policies. However, we do not believe Israel should be singled out for condemnation and we object to questioning its right to exist. 

'We also abhor the tactics of Oberlin’s pro-BDS student organizations that intimidate, threaten, and coerce Jewish students, which we have seen and heard in numerous written and spoken reports. 

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