US college fires professor who blamed Jews for 9/11

The Oberlin College Board of Trustees on Tuesday announced the immediate dismissal of a professor who made a series of anti-Semitic comments on social media posts last year.

Joy Karega, an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition, “fail[ed] to meet” academic standards and failed to “demonstrate intellectual honesty,” the board of the Ohio liberal arts school said in a statement announcing her firing.

Karega published multiple posts that drew widespread attention in February, including claims that Israel and Jews were behind terror attacks and other tragedies.

She had been put on paid leave in August while the school investigated the posts, which were first reported on by The Tower.

“Dr. Karega’s postings could not be justified as part of her scholarship and had ‘irreparably impaired [her] ability to perform her duties as a scholar, a teacher, and a member of the community,” the Board of Trustees said.

The statement added that Karega “attacked her colleagues when they challenged inconsistencies in her description of the connection between her postings and her scholarship,” and refused to admit wrongdoing.

“In the face of Dr. Karega’s repeated refusal to acknowledge and remedy her misconduct, her continued presence undermines the mission and values of Oberlin’s academic community. Thus, any sanction short of dismissal is insufficient and the Board of Trustees is compelled to take this most serious action,” the statement read.

Karega has not apologized for her posts, and said she would issue a public statement on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post.

Karega’s posts included one accusing Israel and “Rothschild-led bankers” of responsibility for downing a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine in 2014, and another alleging that Israel and the Jews were behind the 9/11 terror attack in New York as well as the shooting at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris.

Another post described the Islamic State terror organization as an “operation” by the CIA and the Israeli Mossad spy agency.

In January, an open letter from Oberlin alumni expressed concern about the tolerance of anti-Semitism on campus, particularly within the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Throughout the controversy, the college’s Jewish president Marvin Krislov had emphasized Karega’s right to free speech while clarifying that her views are not shared by the administration.

In September, he announced he was stepping down as Oberlin president at the end of the 2016/17 school year.