MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY–UPDATED

The victim is the legal philosopher Hanoch Sheinman, one of the leading scholars in the field of his generation, who is a member of the law faculty.  The persecutors are the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Shahar Lifshitz, aided and abetted by the University Rector Miriam Faust.  Readers may recall that when, during the assault on Gaza, Prof. Sheinman expressed sympathy for all victims of the violence, a controversy ensued and more than two hundred academics signed a petition in his support.  Although the Dean purported to back down at that time, it's now clear he did nothing of the kind.  As now reported in Haaretz (behind a paywall, alas) and set out in Prof. Sheinman's lawyer's letter to Dean Lifshitz ( Download Letter to Dean Bar Ilan), in the last week of November, the Dean announced a new (and retroactive) "midway review process" for Prof. Sheinman, affording him one week to produce all the necessary materials to the Appointments Committee.  (The lawyer's letter sets out all the sorry details of this episode).

The continued harassment of Professor Sheinman by Bar-Ilan University is shocking and a disgrace.  I and others will continue to monitor the situation.  I hope it is not necessary to call for a general boycott of the university, but unless  the political persecution of Prof. Sheinman stops that seems the likely next step.

UPDATE:  Several law faculty from Bar-Ilan dispute Prof. Sheinman's account and have asked me to share their statement:   Download Bar Ilan Faculty Response

AND ANOTHER:  Les Green (Oxford) replies to the preceding.