{"id":120363,"date":"2025-04-08T17:05:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T15:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=120363"},"modified":"2025-04-08T10:36:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T08:36:27","slug":"08-05-116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=120363","title":{"rendered":"A University of Florida Teacher Promotes Hatred for Israel; Will the State Act?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>A University of Florida Teacher Promotes Hatred for Israel; Will the State Act?<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Molly Seghi<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The University of Florida campus. Photo: Wiki Commons.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Despite the University of Florida (UF)\u2019s strong administrative support for Zionist students post-Oct. 7, the concerns highlighted in a recent American Jewish Committee (AJC) report \u2014 finding that nearly one-third of American Jewish college students have encountered\u00a0faculty-promoted antisemitism<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 remain relevant on campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malini Johar Schueller, a professor in UF\u2019s English department, is the faculty adviser for the school\u2019s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and, more recently, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Schueller regularly uses her academic position to spread her anti-Israel ideology, fostering and fueling a hostile atmosphere on campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schueller is listed as the\u00a0#1395 endorser<\/a>\u00a0of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel Organizing Collective and the\u00a0#2259 signer<\/a>\u00a0of the only publicly-made signed statement of the Scholars Against the War on Palestine. She is also a member of\u00a0Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine at UF.<\/span><\/p>\n

A little over a month after the Oct. 7 massacre carried out by Palestinian terrorists, Schueller\u00a0changed her cover photo on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0from a photo of her and her husband to the Palestinian flag. In\u00a0December 2023, she shared a photo<\/a>\u00a0of a bus advertisement originally posted by\u00a0Refaat Alareer<\/a>\u00a0in 2021 reading \u201cNORMAL PEOPLE BOYCOTT ISRAEL.\u201d The caption claimed that \u201cyou do not have to be a Muslim or Arab to support Palestine, you just need not be an asshole,\u201d to which she responded, \u201cSo true.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A few months later, Schueller\u00a0shared sentiments<\/a>\u00a0amidst the rise of encampments that swept the nation in late April 2024, hoping that UF faculty would follow in the footsteps of NYU faculty who \u201cprotected\u201d protesters from arrest threats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schueller\u2019s activism escalated beyond merely pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel sentiments and made statements supporting Palestinian \u201cresistance\u201d \u2014 a term that has been often used by Palestinians themselves to justify violence against Israelis and Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, Schueller proclaimed:\u00a0\u201cResistance is justified when people are occupied,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a commonly used\u00a0chant to excuse violence<\/a>\u00a0against Israelis and Jews, according to CAMERA\u2019s Dictionary of Hamas Supporters\u2019 Chants and Slogans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schueller\u2019s Orlando Sentinel\u00a0<\/em>piece, \u201cFalse anti-Semitism charges blind us to real bigotry<\/a>,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0accuses Israel of being a settler-colonial and apartheid state, claims disputed by groups like the\u00a0Anti-Defamation League<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0American Jewish Committee<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 as well as by many non-Jewish organizations and scholars. She further asserts that accusations of antisemitism wrongly portray all Jews as monolithic supporters of Israel, but a Pew Research Center report contradicts her claim, showing that\u00a0most Jewish people oppose BDS<\/a>, highlighting her tendency to amplify minority viewpoints at the expense of the majority.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an educator, Schueller is positioned to teach the next generation of leaders, yet she openly boasts of using her academic position to advance her unacademic activism. Her teaching methods are outlined in her 2024 research article titled\u00a0\u201cTeaching Palestine: Challenges of Identification and Alliance.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0In it, she advocates for an \u201cactivist reading\u201d of Palestinian literature. She pushes students to see Palestinians through a \u201cradical alterity\u201d framework. She also uses and cites the work of authors, such as\u00a0Susan Abulhawa<\/a>, who\u00a0reject<\/a>\u00a0the Jewish indigenous connection to the land of Israel and\u00a0laud<\/a>\u00a0Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7 massacre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schueller\u2019s courses include\u00a0Introduction to Postcolonial Theory<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Comparative Settler Colonialisms<\/em><\/a>. Required readings are heavily one-sided, relying on activists and ideologues such as Frantz Fanon,\u00a0Edward Said<\/a>, and Abuhawa. Among the other readings is a text by\u00a0Ghassan Kanafani<\/a>, a former senior member of the US-designated Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine.<\/span><\/p>\n

The student groups she advises, UF Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), champion the same anti-Zionist rhetoric she promotes.<\/span><\/p>\n

UF SJP, for example, regularly posts similarly ideological messaging that crosses into antisemitic conspiracy theorizing, such as depicting \u201cZionist colonialism<\/a>\u201d as a profit-making conspiracy. They have erected displays repeating the antisemitic \u201cZionism is racism<\/a>\u201d canard, famously rejected by the United States and rescinded by the United Nations. UF SJP is\u00a0intolerant of opposing viewpoints<\/a>\u00a0and has led harassment\u00a0campaigns to shut down events<\/a>\u00a0featuring Israeli speakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both the state government and university administration have been steadfast on their policies defending Jewish students and academic freedom.\u00a0And as the Fall 2024 semester approached, Ray Rodrigues, the chancellor of the state university system, directed a\u00a0state-mandated course syllabi evaluation<\/a>\u00a0for courses related to antisemitism for Florida\u2019s 12 public universities.<\/span><\/p>\n

But courses like Schueller\u2019s fell through the cracks because they lacked specified keywords.<\/span><\/p>\n

UF must take decisive action to continue to protect academic integrity and ensure that its classrooms remain spaces for genuine intellectual inquiry, not platforms for political indoctrination. Schueller\u2019s teaching and activism may have violated UF\u2019s\u00a0Academic Freedom and Responsibility regulation<\/a>. The university must conduct a thorough review of her course materials to ensure academia is disparate from activism. By demanding transparency, upholding academic standards, and rejecting the misuse of university resources for activism, UF can reaffirm its commitment to fostering a campus where all students can engage in open, respectful discourse without fear of discrimination.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Molly Seghi<\/strong> is a sophomore journalism student at the University of Florida. She is also the 2024-2025 CAMERA on Campus fellow.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A University of Florida Teacher Promotes Hatred for Israel; Will the State Act? Molly Seghi The University of Florida campus. Photo: Wiki Commons. Despite the University of Florida (UF)\u2019s strong administrative support for Zionist students post-Oct. 7, the concerns highlighted in a recent American Jewish Committee (AJC) report \u2014 finding that nearly one-third of American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120363"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120370,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120363\/revisions\/120370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}