University of California Merced Sticks by Professor Behind Antisemitic ‘IsraHell’ Twitter Account
by Algemeiner Staff
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.
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.