UPDATED: Life Imitates Blog Comments: Middle East Edition

In a comment to my recent post on the Boston Globe Israel/Palestine editorial cartoon, I wrote:

Unless one believes that Israelis are inherently murderous (which does cross the line into anti-Semitism), or that Hamas is entitled to fire missiles at will (which forecloses any possibility of peace), it is necessary to at least recognize the sequence of events (which does not erase or justify historical circumstances).

Now, MSN reports, among many other news outlets:

Google Diversity Chief Claimed Jews Have "Insatiable Appetite for War and Killing"

Kamau Bobb, who has worked at the tech giant since 2018, made the comments in a blog pot in 2007 entitled "If I were a Jew."

In an email shared internally with Jewish staff at Google, Mr. Bobb said he was "deeply sorry" for the remarks and admitted they "fed into anti-semitic tropes".

He said: "What I wrote crudely characterised the entire Jewish community. What was intended as a critique of particular military action fed into antisemitic tropes and prejudice .

The 2007 blog was posted on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Holocaust.

UPDATE: Kamau Bobb has been removed from his position as Google's global head of diversity strategy and reassigned to STEM research. I think this is unfortunate. Everyone does unwise or foolish things as an undergrad. Bobb appears to sincerely understand why his blog post was anti-Semitic and it would have been better to allow him to make that point in the future as part of Google's diversity mission. Too many of today's undergrads are making similar statements, and Bobb could have played a useful role in explaining anti-Semitism to them.

In related news, Hamas has expelled the director and deputy director of the UNRWA from Gaza for the offense of telling a bit of truth about the Israeli airstrikes.

Details after the jump.

As reported in the Jerusalem Post:

Palestinian factions on Wednesday declared Matthias Schmale, director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, persona non grata and said he will not be allowed to return to the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

Schmale told Israel’s Channel 12 last week that the Israeli military strikes on the Gaza Strip appeared to be carried out with “sophistication” and “precision.”

“I have the impression there is a huge sophistication in the way the Israeli military struck over the 11 days,” Schmale said. “Yes they didn’t hit, with some exceptions, civilian targets, but the viciousness, the ferocity of those strikes were heavily felt. More than 60 children were killed, 19 of who went to UNRWA schools. So I think the precision was there but there was unacceptable and unbearable loss of life on the civilian side.”

Even condemning viciousness and ferocity was insufficient to allow Schmale to continue doing his job, evidently because Israelis may only be described in the most uncompromising and warlike terms, even by an official of the United Nations.

 

 

Comments

[Jeff Rice]

Bobb's comments were unacceptable and made when he was an undergrad. Can he have engaged in a process of self-criticism in the last decade plus. He is free to criticize Israeli military actions without necessarily being an anti-Semite. Many Israelis do the same.
"Palestinian Factions" (who/whatever) are 86ing Schmale. Bad move, bad optic, etc. Never have liked anyone in power throwing litmus tests up for views or actual wording.

[Steve L.]

See update.