Professor Thomas Abowd is one of those dime a dozen professors you find all over the country whose sole academic pursuit is bashing Israel. He is a professor of some nebulous department of American studies, colonialism and diaspora (what diaspora?) at Tufts University. Currently, he is teaching a course dedicated to-guess what- Israel’s “colonization of Palestine”, the latter a country which has never existed. While not arguing about his right to teach such a course, The College Fix reached out to Abowd to ask him about the course. That’s when the you know what hit the fan. Abowd is reacting as if a threat was placed on his life. He is threatening to call the cops if TCF contacts him again.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/48084/
“Students will examine the region in which Palestine is embedded through a range of path breaking writers, filmmakers, and thinkers. … Themes covered include notions of nationalism and national identity, settler-colonialism, gender and sexuality, refugee politics, cultural hybridity, class politics, violence, and memory.”
Here is some more background on Abowd:
Prior to Tufts, Abowd was a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit from 2003-2009. Apparently, WSU decided not to renew his contract. Of course, he and his supporters blamed it on his support of the BDS movement. Truth be told virtually every university in the land has professors who support BDS, and they hold onto their jobs. Abowd was accused of anti-semitism at the time by his critics at WSU. The above two links were posted by Abowd’s supporters.
Of course, as TCF points out, Abowd and Tufts have every right to teach this course, one-sided and biased as it is. But here is some food for thought: How many universities offer courses that are pro-Israel? Courses that teach their students that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Courses that teach that Israeli Arabs and Muslims enjoy more rights than they would in the Palestinian territories or any other country in the region. How many courses that teach the sheer Jew hatred that Palestinians grow up learning? Courses that talk about buses being blown up and innocents slaughtered by Palestinians. Courses that teach about how parents raise their kids to be suicide bombers. In addition, how many Middle Eastern studies departments have pro-Israel professors?
I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I sure have an idea.
