Panel Clears U. of California Professor Whose E-Mail About Israel Drew Complaints

A controversial investigation at the University of California at Santa Barbara of a professor’s harsh criticism of Israel in an e-mail message to students has cleared the professor of academic misconduct, the Associated Press reported.

Some critics of the investigation, by a committee of the university’s Academic Senate, had speculated that it was begun in response to pressure from the Anti-Defamation League, whose leader had met with university administrators and faculty members in March. University officials denied any such motive, saying the investigation was already under way at the time of that meeting.

The investigative committee determined that William I. Robinson, a professor of sociology, had not violated a university policy that bars professors from using campus resources for political reasons unrelated to teaching when he sent the e-mail message to students. In the message, sent on January 19 to students in his “Sociology of Globalization” class, Mr. Robinson accused Israel of war crimes for its military actions in Gaza, and forwarded juxtaposed photographs of what he called “Nazi atrocities against the Jews and Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians.” —Charles Huckabee