University of Kentucky removes professor over petition urging global war on Israel
The University of Kentucky (UK) has removed a professor for creating a website with a 'Petition for Military Action Against Israel.'
Ramsi Woodcock, a law professor at UK and an antitrust scholar focusing on wealth redistribution, launched the petition unequivocally calling for military action against the Jewish state.
The University of Kentucky (UK) has removed a professor for creating a website with a “Petition for Military Action Against Israel.”
Ramsi Woodcock, a law professor at UK and an antitrust scholar focusing on wealth redistribution, launched the petition unequivocally calling for military action against the Jewish state.
“We demand that every country in the world make war on Israel immediately and until such time as Israel has submitted permanently and unconditionally to the government of Palestine everywhere from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” the petition states.
In a July 18 statement, UK President Eli Capilouto said the petition “can be interpreted as antisemitic” and acknowledged that it “appears to be authored by a university employee who is circulating it broadly online.”
“We condemn any call for violence and the views expressed online certainly do not represent the institution’s views,” Capilouto stated. “Let me be clear: the views expressed by this employee, if accurately attributed, are repugnant. “
“As a result, this employee has been removed, pending an investigation, from any teaching and classroom responsibilities,” the president concluded.
In his statement, Capilouto explained that the school will be conducting an independent legal review of the website and will update its web policy, among other changes.
In a statement provided to Campus Reform, Woodcock described Israel as a “Western colony in the Middle East” and advocated for its “decolonization.”
“Decolonization is a process of liberation and the ultimate affirmation of human freedom and dignity,” Woodcock stated. The professor said that Capilouto had mischaracterized his position and called for a retraction.
“Study is urgently required to map out how to bring the colony in Palestine to an end as quickly as possible and in a way that does justice to the victims of colonization,” Woodcock concluded.
The professor directed academics to his website, which accuses Israel of “genocide, extermination, and forcible displacement of the native population of Palestine.” The website continues to describe the Jewish state as posing a “fundamental challenge to international peace and human freedom.”
Woodcock is not the only professor to align himself with the Palestinian cause against Israel.
A professor at the University of Chicago, Eman Abdelhadi, recently described her school as a “colonial landlord” during a socialism conference, saying that she only works there to “build power” in support of Palestine. She also accused Israel of perpetrating “genocide” in Gaza.
At Columbia University, one of the school’s few outspoken pro-Israel professors, Shai Davidai, recently resigned his post because, in his view, the Columbia administration is “unwilling to take the real, necessary steps to fight against the anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, and anti-American hatred on campus.”
