Forever potty mouth (and insensitive comedienne) Joan Rivers is explaining herself after terrible comments she made regarding Palestinians in the Gaza conflict went public.
When a TMZ reporter stopped Rivers to talk about the war between Israel and Hamas, Rivers replied with these disparaging remarks about Palestine:
“Oh my God! Tell that to the people in Hiroshima…Good. Good. When you declare war, you declare war. They started it. We now don’t count who’s dead. You’re dead, you deserve to be dead. Don’t you dare make me feel bad about that.”
“They were told to get out. They didn’t get out. You don’t get out, you are an idiot. At least the ones that were killed were the ones with low IQs.”
The month-long fighting has killed nearly 2,000 Palestinians, mostly children and civilians. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting, as well as three civilians.
But Rivers, who has defended Israel in the past, took to her Facebook page to explain that her comments were taken out of context:
You can watch Rivers make those disturbing comments here.
Meanwhile, a University of Illinois professor claims he was fired after he took to Twitter to express his frustration with Israel for killing Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Steven Salaita was offered a position with the university in the American Indian Studies program, but after speaking out against Israel, the former associate professor in the English Department at Virginia Tech was informed that the school was rescinding their offer.
The university, however, has declined to comment on why Salaita’s appointment was blocked.
From the Huffington Post:
Reports by Inside Higher Ed and the Daily-Gazette indicate that Salaita’s anti-Israel tweets on the conflict in Gaza, which had recently received some media attention, was the reason why the author’s offer of employment was rescinded.
The American Association of University Professors’ Illinois committee on Wednesday issued a statement describing the professor’s words as “strident and vulgar” but also “an impassioned plea to end the violence currently taking place in the Middle East.”
“Speech that is deemed controversial should be challenged with further speech that may abhor and challenge a statement,” the AAUP statement continues. “Yet the University of Illinois cannot cancel an appointment based upon Twitter statements that are protected speech in the United States of America.”
However, Cary Nelson, an English professor at the University of Illinois and the former president of the AAUP, appeared on HuffPost Live Thursday to address the controversy, saying his would-be colleague had “stepped over a line” with not only the tone but also the content of his comments on the Gaza conflict. Nelson said that he supported the university’s decision.
Check out his tweets below. A Change.org petition in support of Salaita has garnered thousands of signatures.
When will the attack on #Gaza end? What is left for #Israel to prove? Who is left for Israel to kill? This is the logic of genocide.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 2, 2014
#Israel gets billions in aid, arms, and financial subsidies from the US, yet most Americans condemn imaginary Black women for welfare.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 2, 2014
It’s a senseless world: a colonial power bombs people in hospitals and shelters and somehow the dead are called “terrorists.” #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 2, 2014
#Israel is a great example of how colonization impairs ethics and compels people to support shameful deeds in the name of atavistic ideals.
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) August 2, 2014
It’s quite simple, really: don’t support any ideology whose practice results in dead children. #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 31, 2014
Make no mistake, #Israel isn’t just punishing Palestinians; it’s sending the world a message: no amount of outrage can stop us. #Gaza
— Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita) July 31, 2014
SOURCE: Facebook, TMZ, HuffPost, Twitter | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
