[News] Palestinian Professor Rabab Abdulhadi wins second grievance at SFSU

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mondoweiss.net
<https://mondoweiss.net/2022/02/a-victory-professor-rabab-abdulhadi-wins-second-grievance-at-sfsu/>
A
Victory! Professor Rabab Abdulhadi wins second grievance at SFSUFebruary
19, 2022
------------------------------

A faculty panel has unanimously sided with Professor Rabab Abdulhadi at San
Francisco State University (SFSU) in a grievance she filed through her
union, the SFSU chapter of the California Faculty Association
<https://www.calfac.org/cfa-san-francisco/>. Dr. Abdulhadi’s grievance
reiterated her demand for SFSU to fulfill its outstanding commitment to
build Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas (AMED) Studies
<https://amed.sfsu.edu/> by hiring two additional tenure-track faculty
members, institutionally supporting AMED, stopping the attempt to dismantle
AMED, and ending the creation of the hostile work environment to which Dr.
Abdulhadi has been subjected for at least 13 years for her directorship of
AMED and her refusal to abandon it.

Issued yesterday by the three-person Faculty Hearing Committee that
adjudicated Dr. Abdulhadi’s grievance on February 4, a report
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bz_fZAb4skTC3vAIdl9UjZZiWt91UG4V1dcBpXjeZL0/edit?usp=sharing>
agreed with Dr. Abdulhadi’s claims that SFSU breached her hiring contract
and fostered a hostile work environment to pressure her to give up AMED
Studies. The Faculty Hearing Committee supported Dr. Abdulhadi, and upheld
AMED’s independence and integrity.

The statutory grievance filed by Dr. Abdulhadi documented SFSU’s refusal to
honor the original Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) which the university
signed when it recruited Dr. Abdulhadi to create and direct the AMED
program in 2005. That MOU stipulated that two additional tenure-track
positions would be hired along with Dr. Abdulhadi to ensure a full and
sustainable academic, communal and advocacy multi-site space on the
history, politics, cultures and social movements of Arab, Muslim and
Palestinian communities as they intersect with and contribute to the
indivisibility of justice within and outside of the College of Ethnic
Studies at SFSU. The fact that those faculty positions were never filled
served to thwart AMED Studies and turn it into a token, one-person
operation without possibility of growth and development – had it not been
for Dr. Abdulhadi’s tenacity and determination to resist such designs.  In
addition, the grievance detailed how the university created a hostile work
and study environment on campus for Dr. Abdulhadi and her Arab, Muslim and
Palestinian students and their allies, including anti-Zionist Jewish
students, staff and colleagues. These efforts have been publicly decried by
numerous scholars and academic organizations, including the SFSU chapter of
the California Faculty Association
<https://www.calfac.org/cfa-san-francisco/>.

The February 4 Faculty Hearing Committee rejected the university’s claims,
including several bad faith actions that sought to undermine the
transparency of the grievance hearing. Not only did the SFSU Administration
fail to submit the list of witnesses and evidence on time as per their own
deadline. The university representatives made a mockery of the proceedings
by sharing the names of their witnesses less than 24 hours before the
hearing, contrary to the very agreement on which they had insisted.

The three committee members, Drs. Rita Melendez (Chair), Elahe Essani, and
Hui Yang, relied on “written documents, direct testimony, and
cross-examination of witnesses” to reach their findings defining Dr.
Abdulhadi’s grievance “to be serious, thus requiring an immediate remedy.”
The committee’s report recognized that Dr. Abdulhadi “met the burden of
proof and provided evidence that the former Dean of Ethnic Studies (Dean
Monteiro) promised two new faculty positions in AMED as a condition of Dr.
Abdulhadi coming to SFSU,” as stipulated in her job offer.  The report
rejected the attempt by the SFSU Administration to engage in character
assasination of Dr. Abdulhadi, stressing that SFSU “has fostered a hostile
environment” and that “lack of hires has resulted in intellectual isolation
for Dr. Abdulhadi and has had negative consequences in terms of her
building an AMED program.” The report ordered SFSU to “issue an apology to
Dr. Abdulhadi for not fulfilling the promise made to her upon her hire and
for years of denying the requests for the faculty hires.”

The report comes on the heels of another recent victory achieved by Dr.
Abdulhadi, AMED Studies communities, and Palestine scholarship and
pedagogy. In October 2021, a Faculty Hearing Committee ruled unanimously
<https://mondoweiss.net/2021/11/sfsu-president-sides-with-tech-giants-on-silencing-of-palestinian-voices/>
that SFSU violated the academic freedom of Dr. Abdulhadi and her colleague,
Dr. Tomomi Kinukawa, when the university failed to stand up to Zoom’s
silencing and cancellation
<https://theintercept.com/2020/11/14/zoom-censorship-leila-khaled-palestine/>
of an open classroom they co-organized on Palestine, titled “Whose
Narratives: Gender, Justice and Resistance: A Conversation with Leila Khaled
<https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41817>”, on September 23, 2020. The
Faculty Hearing Committee members
<https://countercurrents.org/2021/10/zoom-san-francisco-state-university-and-academic-freedom-an-update/>
ordered the university administration to apologize to Drs. Abdulhadi and
Kinukawa and host the censored webinar without interference from big tech
corporations while also faulting the administration for colluding with The
Lawfare Project, a right-wing organization that has been part of a network
of pro-Israel lobby industry groups intent on smearing, bullying and
silencing scholarship, pedagogy and advocacy for Palestinian freedom for
years, including that of Dr. Abdulhadi and AMED. The Lawfare Project’s
federal lawsuit against SFSU and Dr. Abdulhadi (the only faculty member
named in this lawsuit) was dismissed with prejudice
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2018/10/30/lawfare-case-thrown-out> in
federal court in 2018 after 18 months of persistent attacks against Dr.
Abdulhadi.

Rather than respect members of the SFSU faculty who volunteered their time
and exerted their intellectual energy to serve on the Faculty Hearing
Committee, SFSU President Lynn Mahoney vetoed the committee’s unanimous
decision that called for redress to Drs. Abdulhadi and Kinukawa. In so
doing, President Mahoney sought to nullify the committee’s recommendations
and sabotage the grievance process. Intellectuals and academics were
outraged by President Mahoney’s disregard of faculty rights and due process
and called for her immediate resignation
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd0OYjJ9o21SocNNyjppJOxoSMANYMI-HEGySDsaRi7x3_mUA/viewform>.
These outcries and calls coincided with similar calls for the resignation
<https://www.calfac.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CFA-LB-Call-for-the-Resignation-of-CSU-Chancellor-Joseph-Castro.pdf>
of California State University (CSU) Chancellor Joseph Castro, who in fact
resigned on February 17, 2022 after reports appeared that he mishandled
misconduct complaints. Chancellor Castro had been supportive of Mahoney,
giving her a 10% salary increase despite faculty uproar over budget cuts
and the firing of a significant number of lecturers, using the COVID
pandemic as an excuse.  Castro also presided over the cancellation of the
Edward Said faculty position at CSU-Fresno under Zionist pressure
<https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/fresno-state-cancels-a-middle-east-studies-professorship-after-pressure-from-right-wing-pro-israel-group/>
.

Academics, public intellectuals, and the broader Palestine justice movement
welcome yesterday’s ruling and congratulate members of the Faculty Hearing
Committee, Dr. Abdulhadi and the SFSU chapter of the California Faculty
Association for their persistence in protecting faculty rights and refusing
to join the SFSU Administration in its collusion with the Zionist,
orientalist and racist agenda that seeks to silence the teaching of
Palestine.  During the 6-hour virtual February 4 hearing, SFSU arrogantly
dismissed the seriousness of Dr. Abdulhadi’s grievance and disregarded the
university’s own proclaimed principles of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
(DEI). SFSU’s actions demonstrated its cynicism regarding the university’s
well-publicized support for multiculturalism, equity and inclusion, which
directly contradicts the history of SFSU’s collaboration with and
preferential treatment of Zionist groups, including the recent agreement
with Hillel, Hillel International and the Academic Engagement Nework, as
well as the SFSU’s longstanding unjustifiable harassment of Dr. Abdulhadi
by subjecting her to multiple baseless audits for the sole purpose of
discrediting Dr. Abdulhadi and placating the AMCHA Initiative, a pro-Israel
lobby group. SFSU’s deceitful practices, misrepresentation of facts, and
continued attempts to smear Dr. Abdulhadi’s character in the recent hearing
once again showed SFSU’s disdain for the AMED Studies program and its
complicity with outside organizations that seek to silence Palestinian
voices (see Mondoweiss
<https://mondoweiss.net/2022/02/why-are-dr-rabab-abdulhadi-and-the-amed-program-under-attack-at-sfsu/>
).

Evidence <https://sfsu.box.com/s/rto857jx03q1kz9theb6npgpu3u56vq9>
presented in this most recent hearing, including testimonies by witnesses
who were unable to testify due to SFSU’s attempt to subvert the process,
such as Dr. Robin D. G. Kelley
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qmy-2wseQ5ra6Kq0wx8pfF7dhG4o_w5z/view?usp=sharing>,
Dr. James Martel
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hdHeuAmCEXqQXyYO6KdGsCEDwVrtVbFm/view?usp=sharing>
and doctoral candidate Saliem Shehadeh
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J2uA8Jv6QXy6Xc745MCu0DHDf3T-oabU/view?usp=sharing>,
further demonstrates the corporatization of SFSU and its administration’s
collusion with right-wing and Zionist organizations trying to dismantle and
destroy the critical AMED Studies program. Testifying for Dr. Abdulhadi
were Dr. Tomomi Kinukawa, Dr. Marc Stein, Dr. Blanca Misse, and AMED/Ethnic
Studies Graduate Student Leith Ghuloum. Dean Amy Sueyoshi, Associate Dean
Catriona Rueda Esquibel and Dean of Faculty Carleen Mandolfo testified for
the Administration. Dr. Abdulhadi was represented by Professor of English
and member of the Executive Board of the SFSU Chapter of the California
Faculty Association, Dr. Larry Hanley. Professor Hanley was supported by a
committed team of scholars, public intellectuals and activists representing
AMED communities of justice who worked tirelessly and voluntarily to defend
Dr. Abdulhadi and AMED Studies and its students as they have done
throughout the last 15 years of Dr. Abdulhadi’s battle to build AMED
Studies and refusal to be stymied by the Zionist and corporatized agenda
within and outside SFSU. Yesterday’s report by the February 4 Faculty
Hearing Committee bodes well for the sustainability of critical challenges
to these reactionary efforts and the racism and anti-intellectualism they
entail.

*For more information, contact The International Campaign to Defend
Professor Rabab Abdulhadi <https://www.facebook.com/DefendProfAbdulhadi> or
write to Team at professorabdulhadidefense.com
<Team at professorabdulhadidefense.com>.*

So where are the Palestinian voices in mainstream media?

*Mondoweiss* covers the full picture of the struggle for justice in
Palestine. Read by tens of thousands of people each month, our
truth-telling journalism is an essential counterweight to the propaganda
that passes for news in mainstream and legacy media.

Our news and analysis is available to everyone – which is why we need your
support. *Please contribute so that we can continue to raise the voices of
those who advocate for the rights of Palestinians to live in dignity and
peace.*

Palestinians today are struggling for their lives as mainstream media turns
away. Please support journalism that amplifies the urgent voices calling
for freedom and justice in Palestine.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20220220/b09d82e7/attachment.htm>