Aria Fani is an Iranian-American associate professor at the University of Washington. He holds the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Professorship in Persian and Iranian Studies and is director of Persian and Iranian Studies Program. Until earlier this month, he was also director of the Middle East Center in the Jackson School for International Studies (JSIS). But after a nasty campaign by a local pro-Israel media influencer to fire Prof. Fani, the JSIS dean did just that. He claimed that other (presumably Zionist) faculty had complained about two messages Fani posted (see them embedded below) to a school listserv:
[Dean Daniel] Hoffman told him he was unfit for leadership because his emails had made some members of the Middle East Center community feel attacked for their views.
Fani conveyed more of Hoffman’s justification of his firing:
‘You used the Listserv improperly. The Listserv is not to be used for personal, for the expression of personal views.’”
You can read below what Fani posted. When a professor speaks on subjects within his academic expertise, he is doing more than expressing ‘personal views.’ These views could be published in a book or academic paper. Would that take them out of the personal realm and cross over into the academic realm? How does Hoffman separate the two?
Fani was doing what academics do: they study in their field and train, teach and write. This includes not only their objectives views, but their subjective views as well. They are both academic and personal. Any professor in the social sciences or humanities who denies the personal is fooling him/herself. Dean Hoffman appears to be one of these.
Fani prefaced the thread with a statement offering context and explaining its educational purpose. He emphasized they were his own views and did not represent those of other JSIS faculty. This is a pdf of a portion of what he posted:
What were these “frightening” views?
…He wrote the war isn’t against the Islamic Republic but against the state of Iran and its people, cultural heritage, ecology and civilian infrastructure, and said Israel was committing acts of terrorism. He wrote that he saw Zionism as “cancerous, a potentially fatal outgrowth in our planetary body.”
There’s a little thing called the First Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech to all Americans, including university professors; especially those commenting within their academic field. The listserv, it should be noted, is a Jackson School faculty communication forum. There were no rules regarding what content could or could not be posted to it. Nevertheless, after his posts he was denied further access to it without explanation (until the firing).
Who were these faculty who were supposedly so threatened by what Fani wrote? Unfortunately, they’re anonymous–if they exist at all. One wonders why they couldn’t have ignored the messages or deleted them, or blocked Fani. Why was it so important to complain to the boss and get him banned? Whatever happened to the free exchange of ideas? You know, that principle on which all of academic discourse is based. I guess some ideas are too dangerous and must be suppressed.
Apparently free speech no longer exists on the UW campus; at least as far as speech concerning Israel and Zionism. Clearly, the MAGA assault on higher education, largely under the guise of rooting out the campus scourge of anti-Semitism, has infected the UW even though it has not been directly targeted.
However, the UW had $1.4-billion in federal research grants for its medical, aerospace and engineering programs. It’s overall budget was $11-billion. That’s 13% of its overall budget. You can understand why a university president or dean might cower at the prospect of getting on Trump’s bad side; fearing that, Ari Hoffman, the MAGA media personality might plant accusations of anti-Semitism against UW in the president’s ear. Not to mention the deans of such departments/schools breathing down his neck in their attempt to protect such a critical funding source.
The MAGA media influencer, Ari Hoffman (no relation), apparently has become the school’s Thought Inspector, who polices professors for speech violations. Hoffman promotes transphobic, Islamophobic and anti-immigrant views on his local radio program. Among them are:
- advocating dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza
- “Joking”repeatedly about Ilhan Omar marrying her brother
- Claiming Jewish pro-Palestinian protestors are not, and that those who claim they are Jewish are “kapos”
- Referring to local Congressmember Pramila Jayapal as “Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-HAMAS)
The firing followed two weeks after Hoffman sponsored a “town hall” (video above) at his synagogue with the University president, Robert Jones. The subject was that weaponized Zionist shibboleth, “campus anti-Semitism.” The introduction featured this questionable claim (especially given Fani’s subsequent firing):
This [event] is not about excluding anyone. It’s not about silencing anyone. And it’s not about politics.
The assumption offered here is that “anti-Semitism” is somehow above politics. The danger of this perspective is that it transforms legitimate speech on Iran and Palestine into a supra-category of impermissible speech. Such protest is no longer protected speech since it is discriminatory and endangers Jew. This is a toxic, anti-democratic conception.
It’s offensive that Hoffman equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. It’s equally offensive that he portrays himself as representing the entire Seattle Jewish community (except for the “objectionable” Jews, whom he labels “kapos”). A small portion of the local community is Republican, let alone Judeo-supremacist like Hoffman. That he has been recognized by the University of Washington as a legitimate figure, who influences academic decision-making is deeply troubling.
During the interchange with Jones, Hoffman railed against a Middle East Center conference held a week earlier, The World as Palestine: On Advocacy, Activism, and Justice. The presentations would clearly have disturbed local Zionists: Policing Dissent: Reflections from Eastern Washington’s Palestinian Liberation Movement, People’s Justice: Lessons from the Palestinian and Filipino Struggles for Liberation, and The Palestine Exception. Fani came under attack for his role in conceiving the event, which they accused of promulgating dangerous anti-Semitic views. Two weeks later, Fani was out.
Why did the president of the state’s leading higher education institution agree to participate in this kangaroo court event? Why didn’t he realize who Hoffman was and what would happen there? That he would be at best put on the spot and at worst, pressured to adopt Hoffman’s agenda? Though Jones had just assumed the presidency, he has an entire communications staff which is supposed to help him determine his public appearance priorities. How did anyone not flag this as a bad idea? In fact, it appears the press office embraced the event, as three of its staff are thanked in the introduction: Victor Balta, Jane Yung and Jack Martin. The president in fact didn’t receive an invitation to participate in the town hall, they initiated it by reaching out to Hoffman. In other words, whether knowingly or unknowingly, it was an implied University “fuck you” to the pro-Palestine campus community, which also includes thousands of students and faculty (many Jewish). It says: we care about the “Jews.” That is, the far-right Zionist thugs like Hoffman who are, for all intents and purposes, the Jews.
The speaker introducing the event also gives a shout-out to Sally Clark, the vice-president for campus safety, in effect the police chief, who is lauded as “a great friend to our community.” Once again, this indicates that pro-Palestine activism is falsely viewed on campus as a safety, rather than a political or free speech issue.
What happened internally within that two week period? Did Jones communicate with Dean Hoffman his displeasure? If so, one can assume he called for action against Fani. If that is the case, what were the president’s considerations in doing so? If–as Hoffman claimed in a statement exonerating the president of any involvement (without mentioning him)–the latter wasn’t involved, what were Dean Hoffman’s reasons for the firing?
Jewish Voice for Peace’s academic advisory board is hosting a panel, Against University Complicity in Fascist Times, which will include the subject of free speech on campus. It will include Judith Butler and others.
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I posed a series of questions to Dean Hoffman, who was not available to comment before publication.
That should not be the safe place in such cases. A safe place should be a dependable support from the employer (UW) who should stand behind ALL non-criminal activities of faculty, staff and students because such freedom is what a university needs to stand behind or it becomes a partisan cog in a persecution machine.
@ Jafar:
Would that it were true.
The zionist lobby in Australia endlessly play victim and target Palestinians and other who criticse Israel, book festivals have been cancelled – even a session with a jewish moderator in conversation with a Palestinian. The reality is around the world the zionist lobby are whining and the only abuse of normal jewish people comes from the hard core right wing zionist lobby. The rest of the country see the jewish banners at every protest , they march with Palestinians and others because they do not like Israel and they are called traitors and the Chabad group scream they should be raped by hamas or killed. It’s truly sickening – the jewish people I know help refugees, work with the indigenous community for fairness an equality and tell the truth about Israeli’s brutality – they are a loved part of Australian life
This is shocking of course. But, fortunately, Dr. Fani is tenured, and they cannot remove him from his position. In some sense, he is now a free man also to express his opinion.
@ Muhammad: Indeed, I just read an interivew he gave in which he denounced the Middle East Center, both the one he ran & the entire concept:
I can’t say he’s wrong. Unfortunately, he’s had to learn a hard, difficult lesson about the University & its collusion with the powers that be, whether they be community thugs like Ari Hoffman; or academic henchmen like Dean Hoffman.