University of California Merced Sticks by Professor Behind Antisemitic ‘IsraHell’ Twitter Account
by Algemeiner Staff
The now-deleted antisemitic Twitter account maintained by University of California Professor Abbas Ghassemi. Photo: Screenshot.
The University of California Merced’s School of Engineering was on Wednesday sticking by one of its top professors despite a viciously antisemitic and anti-Zionist Twitter account that he maintained for nearly two years having come to light.
A spokesperson for the school said that its faculty member — Abbas Ghassemi, a professor emeritus in its engineering department — had operated the account as a private individual.
“As the now-inactive Twitter account made clear, these were the opinions of a private individual, not the positions of the institution,” James Chiavelli — assistant vice chancellor of external relations at UC Merced — said in a statement.
Ghassemi’s Twitter antics were exposed earlier this week by the J-Weekly, a Jewish news outlet serving northern California.
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In one recent post commenting on President-elect Joe Biden’s Nov. 4 victory, Ghassemi tweeted: “Surprise, surprise!! The entire system in America is controlled by Zionist. Change of president is just a surface polish, change of veneer. Same trash different pile!”
A specialist in environmental engineering, Ghassemi was a keynote speaker at the 2019 agricultural technology summit in Salinas, California.
The focus of the summit — sponsored by global media giant Forbes — was the future of food production.
