In June, Oxford University professor Andrew Wilkie refused to admit an Israeli student to his doctoral program because, as Wilkie stated in his rejection email to the prospective student, “I have a huge problem with the way that the Israelis take the moral high ground from their appalling treatment in the Holocaust, and then inflict gross human rights abuses on the Palestinians because they [the Palestinians] wish to live in their own country….no way would I take on somebody who had served in the Israeli army.”
Oxford today suspended Wilkie from his post for two months. Here’s how BBC reported it:
A professor who rejected a student’s application because he had been in the Israeli army has been suspended by Oxford University. Professor Andrew Wilkie, Nuffield professor of pathology, emailed the student saying he would not enrol “someone who had served in the Israeli army.”
Wilkie’s rejection email went far beyond BBC’s version. In fact, it’s doubtful Oxford would have suspended Wilkie if he hadn’t detailed his entire anti-Israel ideology before rejecting the applicant out-of-hand. BBC’s spin job actually leaves Oxford seeming intolerant.
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