More Britons dislike Israel than Iran, survey finds | 2 Feb 2015 | Thirty-five percent of British respondents to a recent survey said they feel “especially unfavorable” towards Israel. The only non-European country Britons appeared to dislike more — at 40 percent — was North Korea. Iran, Israel’s current geopolitical nemesis, was deemed “especially unfavorable” by 33 percent of the respondents. The poll was part a joint YouGov-Chatham House project that surveyed more than 2,000 Britons on their attitudes regarding their country’s foreign policy…In October, the British House of Commons voted to recognize Palestine as an independent state, a symbolic act that doesn’t affect the policies of Britain’s leadership.
Professor fired over anti-Israel tweets sues University of Illinois | 1 Feb 2015 | A professor who lost his job over anti-Israel tweets is suing several officials at the University of Illinois. Professor Steven Salaita quit Virginia Tech University, after he was offered a position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). However, just two weeks before the start of the 2014 academic year, Salaita was informed of a job offer being rescinded over his “uncivil” tweets, posted mainly during the summer war in Gaza…In the federal suit, filed in US District Court in Chicago on Thursday, Salaita argues the university violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech and “trampled on principles of academic freedom.”
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