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CS Stanislaus Professor Says Israel Will Imprison ‘Non-Jews’ Over Coronavirus

[additional-authors]
March 11, 2020
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

A professor at Cal State Stanislaus tweeted on March 8 that Israel will start to put non-Jews into “mass prisons” in response to the coronavirus.

Political science professor As’ad AbuKhalil’s tweet was in response to a report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an edict on March 9 imposing mandatory 14-day quarantines on those returning to Israel from abroad.

“Israel will — I am sure — have different medical procedures for Jews and non-Jews,” he wrote. “Non-Jews will be put in mass prisons.”

The tweet sparked outrage on Twitter.

“Israelis assist Syrians whose leaders are butchering them, despite Syria being at war with them,” StandWithUs Israel Executive Director Michael Dickson tweeted. “Israelis are working with Palestinians to contain #Coronavirus. @stan_state Professor @asadabukhalil’s lie is the kind of anti-Semitism termed a ‘blood-libel.’ ”

Pro-Israel writer Claire Voltaire tweeted, “We’ve gone full insane conspiracy at this point. This is vile!”

AbuKhalil tweeted on March 10 that “that Zionist hoodlums have reported a tweet I wrote mocking the racism of the state of Israel, and in which I suggest that Israel may discriminate against patients of Corona on the basis of religion.” He argued that he mocked Saudi Arabia’s response to the coronavirus as potentially beheading those who are ill but no one’s accusing him of being anti-Islamic.

“Zionist hoodlums don’t know to concede that most supporters of the Palestinians are also fierce opponents of anti-Semitism which they try to pin on any free voice on Palestine,” AbuKhalil tweeted. “Those same Zionist hoodlums would forgive the ugly anti-Semitism of supporters of Israel are the true servers of the agenda of anti-Semitism by ignoring it and even condoning it when it comes from supporters of Israel.”

He added in a later tweet: “I have always called for rejection of any anti-Semitism in the pro-Palestine camp. If mocking Israeli racism is anti-Semitism, how do you deal with the true racism of the Israeli state, which was founded on series of discriminatory law[s] and which has only been adding more racist discriminatory laws ever since it was founded atop the Palestinian nation.”

Israeli-based writer Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll tweeted, “Making up crap about putting Arabs in jail en mass or providing subpar medical care is libel and lies. Come to a hospital here — at least half of the staff and patients are Arabs.”

CS Stanislaus tweeted a statement addressing AbuKhalil’s tweets.

“Views expressed by faculty members on their personal social media are their own and do not reflect the opinions, values or policies of Stan State,” the statement read. “We are committed to the just treatment of all people and do not condone statements that are in opposition to these values.”

According to the Canary Mission watchdog, AbuKhalil is a supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement; in 2013, he called for “the removal of every vestige of Zionism from Palestine.”

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