Cornel West, a well known socialist academic, political activist and commentator who supports the anti-Semitic BDS movement, is doubling down on a claim made in February that his critical views on Israel were the reason for his not being given tenure at Harvard.
"This is my hypothesis, because given the possibilities of why they would not be even interested in initiating a tenure process, what else it could be? And I asked them. And I didn't receive a reply," he said at the time.
West's hypothesis fails to take into account that academics, both pro and anti- Israel, have been given tenure in recent years at Harvard.
An anti-Semitic petition is now circulating in support of West that echoes his false claims. Signed by more than 1,800 people and endorsed by nearly 100 campus organizations, the letter trumpets West's allegations that he was denied tenure at the university due to his anti-Zionist statements. It listed Zionism alongside white supremacy and "racial capitalism" as wrongs that West condemned in his work.
According to the Harvard Crimson university newspaper, Rabbi Jonah C. Steinberg, executive director of Harvard Hillel, described the petition in an email to Hillel chapters as "an anti-Jewish conspiracy theory." He stated that West had "egged students on" to sign and distribute the petition which promulgates "anti-Jewish libels."
West said in an interview with the Harvard Crimson that his somewhat controversial support for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign and his support for Black Lives Matter were not the reasons for his not receiving tenure. Instead solely blaming his views on the Jewish state.
Steinberg wrote in the email, “Student leaders who have signed the petition likely do not realize how the words ‘Israel’s occupation of Palestine’ are used to suggest that the entire country of Israel is illegitimate, and perhaps they are not sensible of how eliding ‘white supremacy, racial capitalism, Zionism, and the military-industrial complex,’ as the petition does, is a dangerous ethnic slander."
While West was not given tenure, Harvard gave him a 10-year extension on his professorship and endowed a chair in his name.