Zionist groups planned to lobby Univ. of Illinois trustees over Salaita appointment

In a new interview with The Electronic Intifada, Cary Nelson, past president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), has revealed that he is directly advising national Zionist organizations in their campaign against Steven Salaita.

This included a proposal to directly lobby the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Last week it was reported that University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Chancellor Phyllis Wise had abruptly terminated Salaita weeks before he was due to start teaching in a tenured position in the American Indian Studies Program.

This followed a media campaign against Salaita, a prominent advocate for the boycott of Israeli academic institutions, over tweets he made condemning Israel’s massacre in Gaza.

Wise’s move has drawn broad and forceful condemnation from heavyweight academics and organizations including the AAUP.

Nelson, a professor of English at UIUC, also spoke frankly about his affiliation with the Israel on Campus Coalition, a Zionist advocacy group funded by an extreme anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim ideologue.

Nelson also revealed his own ties to the editor of a far-right website that has been monitoring Salaita.

Nelson denies “monitoring” Salaita s_imagespeoplesalaita.