Anti-Zionist lecturer posts KKK link

[Ognir]

Simon Rocker
August 28, 2008

The popular political blog Harry's Place was removed from the internet this week after a controversy involving an anti-Zionist lecturer.

Jenna Delich, a business-studies tutor at The Sheffield College, was this week suspended by the University and College Union from participating in an email forum for union members after posting a link to an anti-Israel article on the website of David Duke, the American white supremacist.

But a regular Harry Place blogger, who writes under the name David T, said his site had been taken down after its coverage of the incident, which criticised Ms Delich.

He said that the company which hosts Harry's Place on the web, Daily.co.uk, had not explained the decision to take down the site, beyond having received a complaint over allegedly "slanderous comments".
"After I asked them, they told me it was the Delich post," he said. He added that he had told Daily.co.uk the material in question was not defamatory.

Ms Delich refused to answer any questions from the JC. She simply sent an email response which read: "If you or anyone else mention my name or anything to do with me anywhere in the media or a public place, I will sue."

Last Thursday, Ms Delich wrote to the UCU activists' list, an email forum used by several hundred members of the lecturers' union. It contained a link to an anti-Israel article authored by one Joe Quinn on the website of David Duke.

The website, among other things, lists links to articles written by Mr Duke himself - a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan - including "The Hypocrisy of Jewish Supremacism" and "Black Population Welfare Bomb Ticks".

After the reaction to her post, another email in Ms Delich's name on the UCU forum stated: "I didn't realise who David Duke was nor did I hear of him. I just looked at the article, not the website where it appeared."

But this week the UCU took action against her. A spokesman for the union said: "UCU received complaints from subscribers to a members' network concerning the submission by an individual of a listing which included reference to a website which contains highly offensive, racist material. UCU acted to suspend the posting rights of the list member as soon as the union became aware of the link."

The union previously rejected a complaint against remarks made by her on the activisits' list including reference to Israel's "genocidal" government.

Jon Pike, a member of the union's national executive and founder of the Engage website which counters antisemitism and anti-Zionism, commented: "It is good that the UCU leadership has taken some action, however minimal, about the distribution of antisemitic material within the union."

But he called for an inquiry to be set up into "institutional antisemitism" at the UCU, saying that "the problem has been there for months".

David T said that Harry's Place (hurryupharry.org) expected "to be back in circulation at the beginning of next week".

Daily.co.uk said it could not comment owing to client confidentiality.
Last updated: 4:04pm, August 29 2008



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