Joel Kovel -- one of the more outspoken professorial critics of Israel on American college campuses -- is out of his job at Bard College. This week Kovel sent a letter to all Bard faculty members denouncing the way he has been treated and charging that his politics cost him the position.

Others suggest, however, that Kovel was treated the way many non-tenured professors are being treated these days as colleges retrench -- and that mixed student reviews of his organizational skills in the classroom may have hurt him more than his politics.

And while the college is generally avoiding comment, some at Bard are angry at Kovel's accusations that appear to link Israel's treatment of Gaza with the college's treatment of him.

His faculty letter concluded this way: "If the world stands outraged at Israeli aggression in Gaza, it should also be outraged at institutions in the United States that grant Israel impunity. In my view, Bard College is one such institution. It has suppressed critical engagement with Israel and Zionism, and therefore has enabled abuses such as have occurred and are occurring in Gaza. This notion is of course, not just descriptive of a place like Bard. It is also the context within which the critic of such a place and the Zionist ideology it enables becomes marginalized, and then removed."

Kovel stands out among academic critics of Israel in that he does not just criticize actions of the government there, or advocate for a Palestinian state, but argues for the replacement of Israel with a secular state for Israelis and Palestinians. In interviews, he has called Israel an "abomination" and said that he understands "the desire to smash Zionism." His book Overcoming Zionism set off a controversy last year when its American distributor -- the University of Michigan Press -- temporarily halted sales, and then ended its relationship with Pluto Press, the publisher.

In his letter, Kovel argues that his position at Bard deteriorated as his opposition to Zionism grew and became more public. He cites his various public statements as well as the links of Bard's president, Leon Botstein, to Israel. Botstein is musical director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and Kovel's letter cites as problematic a visit by the orchestra to Bard's campus in which the national anthems of the United States and Israel were played. (While Bard does have ties to Israel, it notably has ties to Palestinian higher ed that may be deeper than those of most institutions, just this week announcing a series of joint programs with Al Quds University.)...

...Kovel has taught at Bard since 1988, first holding the Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies, and later moving to a part-time professorship...

There is a serious omission in Jaschik's treatment of my being terminated at Bard College. He correctly states that the findings of the College Evaluation Committee were instrumental in Bard's decision to let me go. However, he fails to mention that a central aspect of my complaint is that this committee was improperly constituted, in that at least one of its members was heavily involved in Zionist politics, and indeed worked on matters about which I had taken a very public, anti-Zionist stand. The Faculty Handbook of Bard states clearly that such an evaluator should recuse himself, which was not done. Therefore the findings on the basis of which I am to be let go, are to be considered bogus. The reader is urged to follow the evolution of this matter.