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January 31, 2011

Brooklyn College Professor Dismissed For Views on Israel 
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Brooklyn College in New York City is coming under criticism for
dismissing an adjunct professor after a local politician claimed the
professor was biased against Israel. Kristofer Petersen-Overton was let
go last week, one day after New York Democratic State Assemblyman Dov
Hikind complained about the professor's politics. Petersen-Overton said
he was dismissed before he even had a chance to teach his first class, a
graduate seminar on Middle East politics.

Kristofer Petersen-Overton: "It seemed that one of the students in the
class googled me and took objection to some of the political stances
I've taken in the past vis-a-vis the Israeli, Palestinian conflict. They
expressed these concerns to the head of the department, he asked her to
wait until the class actually began before continuing to complain;
unfortunately she didn't. She started spreading this around on the blogs
and quite quickly in fact, disturbingly fast, a campaign to vilify me
was spread all over the internet."



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