Did ‘Powerful Zionists’ in Canada Deny a Law Professor a Post?

by Hugh Fitzgerald

One more of those stories about a potential hire of a pro-Palestinian faculty member, the opposition expressed – quite understandably — to that hire, and the antisemitic charge that a “powerful Zionist” cabal had prevented the hire. The story is here: “Canadian Jewish Group Asks Government to Intervene in University of Toronto Hiring Controversy Over Anti-Israel Academic,” by Dion J. Pierre, Algemeiner, August 13, 2021:

B’nai Brith Canada implored several Canadian government agencies on Thursday to deny a work permit to Valentina Azarova, a pro-Palestinian activist who was last year denied a job at the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program, [with Azarova] blaming what the group termed “an antisemitic fantasy” for the decision.

Azarova — a German law professor who had previously drawn criticism for her work with the al-Haq organization, which has links with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group — was considered last year to serve as the program’s director, but was rejected.

Azarova was not simply “pro-Palestinian” – such people are all about us these days – but she was also connected to a group, Al-Haq, with links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), one of the most murderous of Palestinian terrorist groups. That should have stopped Azarova’s candidacy in its tracks, and not only among “Zionists.” But it was not the reason she was not hired; she was ineligible because she lacked a work permit.

Despite an independent review of Azarova’s hiring decision in March determining that the university had made its decision because she was ineligible for a work visa, “many opponents continue to fantasize about reality and charge that the real reason for refusal of the recommendation of the search committee was an antisemitic conspiracy: Jewish power, influence and money,” B’nai Brith said.

The decision not to hire Azarova was not the result of “Jewish power, influence, and money.” It was the straightforward result of the fact that she was ineligible for a work visa. That ought to have been the end of the story, but it wasn’t.

Should Ms. Azarova request a work permit for the position of director of the International Human Rights Program at U of T, the government should deny that request,” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada. “Our federal government simply cannot aid and abet the University of Toronto in a distorted and unfair hiring process that discriminates against Canadian applicants.”

The letter followed the reposting of the job for which Azarova was considered without its previous preference for Canadian citizens, the group said, claiming that the search committee had changed the rules to fast track her through a second hiring process.

After Azarova was declared ineligible because of her lack of a work permit,  the hiring committee at the University of Toronto Law School, unwilling to hire anyone else, did not invite another candidate to fill the position. When it reposted the job announcement, it contained an important change. In the first posting, it was stated that preference would be given to Canadian citizens. In the new posting, that “preference for Canadians” was left out, in order to improve, or perhaps to make certain, Azarova’s chances of being hired.

And there was another way that the Dean of the Law Faculty privileged the PFLP-linked Valentina Azarova:

“It has been reported that the U of T Faculty of Law Dean has reached out to Azarova to let her know the application is open, but there is no public indication that the U of T has similarly reached out to Canadians who have previously applied for the position,” wrote David Matas, the Jewish advocacy group’s Senior Legal Counsel, to the Canadian government.

The Dean contacted Azarova personally to make sure she knew that the job search had been reopened, but there was apparently no such notification given to any of the others who had previously applied. Why such favoritism? What was so wonderful about Azarova, that the Law Dean wanted to make sure she would again apply, and why did he think this time she would be provided with a work permit — as of this writing, she hasn’t — by the government of Canada? Was the fix in for that?

B’nai Brith also responded to University of Toronto Faculty Association President Teriza Zoric’s saying at an event in June that Azarova’s candidacy was opposed by an “entitled, powerful Zionist minority.”

Actually, Azarova’s candidacy was opposed not just by that “entitled, powerful Zionist minority” – Tereza Zoric’s nod to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion — but by all those who think that someone who in the past has affiliated with the terrorist PFLP is not fit to be a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. You don’t have to be a Zionist, Jewish, or a supporter of Israel to find that prospect appalling.

“In her remarks, Zoric simultaneously invoked centuries-old anti-Jewish conspiracy myths while also denying the legitimacy of Jewish people’s concerns of antisemitism,” B’nai Brith said.

Questions need to be answered:

Why was Valentina Azarova’s application the first time around even looked at, when she lacked the necessary work permit?

Did the Faculty Hiring Committee discuss, in their deliberations, Azarova’s connection to Al-Haq, linked to the terrorist group PFLP? If not, why not? If it was discussed, why was that connection not seen as disqualifying her for a position in the Faculty of Law?

Why was the announcement of the job changed, so that the “preference will be given to Canadian citizens” was removed?

Why did the Hiring Committee decide not to hire anyone the first time around, once it had been determined that Azarova was disqualified from being considered? Were they keeping the position open for her? What was it that they found so compelling about her candidacy?

Why, when the job announcement, in its revised form, was again posted, did the Dean of the Law Faculty contact Valentina Azarova to make sure she would reapply?

Did the Dean of the Law Faculty notify any of the others who had previously applied that the job search had been re-opened? If not, why not?

Will Tereza Zoric, the President of the University of Toronto Faculty Association, be asked to resign from that position, after her crude antisemitic outburst blaming the failure to hire Azarova on an “entitled, powerful Zionist minority”? Was she not aware that Azarova was eliminated as a candidate the first time around because she lacked the necessary work permit?

Questions that need to be answered. We’ll wait right here for the answers.

First published in Jihad Watch.