Professor Julio Pino has spoken out against Israel in the past, but his latest anti-Israel tirade is raising eyebrows and ire anew.
In an open letter written by Pino and received by the History News Network (a project of George Mason University), the Kent State professor blamed all “academic friends of Israel” for “the murder of over 1,400 Palestinian children, women and elderly civilians over the past month.”
His letter also called Israel “the spiritual heir to Nazism,” invoked Fidel Castro, and ended with a declaration of “Jihad until victory!”
While the letter’s hyperbolic tone might give the impression that it was off-the-cuff and unconsidered, Pino later told Watchdog that he stands behind “every word of my original statement.”
Kent State condemned Pino for the letter and said his comments were “reprehensible and irresponsible.” However, the university did not say whether it would take further disciplinary actions against him.
This is not the first time Kent State has called Pino out for “reprehensible” behavior. In 2011, after Pino interrupted a student-led event on campus with an incendiary, anti-Israel question and a shout of “death to Israel,” the university’s president roundly denounced him. Yet, Pino remained on faculty.
The professor of Latin American studies holds a Ph.D in History from the University of California and is a Fullbright Scholar. When asked last summer to name some of his passions other than history, Pino listed, along with his family in Cuba and 1970s classic rock, “Islam” and “freedom for Palestinians.”
