Wednesday, March 25, 2015
The Hetsroni Affair
The Amir Hetsroni Affair
For the past 2 years, Amir Hetsroni has been the local hero of the Israeli Left because he was devoting his time to attacking Ariel University and appeared to be the victim of academic persecution by the school. The school is located in "occupied" territory in the West Bank, which enrages the Left. Hetsroni was on the faculty there in the department of communications until he was fired, and the firing was allegedly because of hostile comments he made in his classroom about and towards women.
In spite of the "political incorrectness" of those comments, he became a sort of rallying hero for the Left, which suddenly hailed him as a "victim" - indeed a martyr - of Ariel University's supposed intolerance of academic freedom. He was proclaimed the mascot of academic freedom by Haaretz (http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.612829).
Hetsroni went on a media crusade against the school, which he quickly expanded to a blanket endorsement of the entire agenda of the radical Left. He appeared to be choosing his increasingly extremist leftist rhetoric and political positions based on his anger at Ariel and his intention to escalate the vendetta against it. He filed suits against the head of the University and also against a professor at Ben Gurion University who had claimed he was mentally ill (that prof backed down and apologized). While Hetsroni had been considered somewhat Right-wing when he joined Ariel University, in his vendetta against the school he issued call after call for Palestinian statehood and ending "occupation." In this year's election he endorsed the Stalinist-jihadist Arab anti-Israel Unity Party.
In the past two weeks, Hetsroni went on a bizarre campaign of defamation against Mizrachi Jews. (see http://www.timesofisrael.com/academic-on-hot-seat-after-tirade-against-mizrahi-jews/). The police are threatening to indict him on "racism" charges. He was kicked off a TV show where he insulted a Moroccan Jewish woman crudely and described Israel in the 1950s as "opening her legs" in order to allow unfit Oriental Jews to enter the country. His unhinged vulgarity convinced many that he is mentally unstable. Some suggest he is deserving of pity rather than rage. He announced he was leaving Israel for Iceland in disgust at what Israel had become. He has not found any other academic position in Israel and is unlikely to find any.
The significant part of the story is that suddenly Ariel University has emerged as the good guy in all this. The Left had adopted the Hetsroni "cause" when he was fired by Ariel as a bludgeon to demonize the school. Now nearly everyone in Israel seems to understand that the school had made the correct call. Hetsroni really does not belong there.
Israeli leftists had been reprinting and posting every message of Hetsroni attacking the school and also the "occupation." But in light of Hetsroni's deranged ravings over the past two weeks, suddenly - ah so suddenly - the Left has lost all interest in identifying with and championing him and his "martyrdom.". I wonder why.
2. At last a BDS campaign we can all support:
# posted by Steven Plaut : 12:06 PM
