University of Illinois, Steven Salaita settle over job lost over tweets

A professor who had his job offer rescinded over a series of tweets critical of Israel's 2014 bombardment of Gaza will receive $600,000 plus legal costs under an agreement that University of Illinois trustees approved Thursday.

The agreement settles Steven Salaita's lawsuit against the university, with the school admitting no wrongdoing, the university said. Salaita will not be rehired, and his legal claims against the university in federal and state courts will be voluntarily dismissed.

Salaita resigned from his previous post at Virginia Tech and moved to Illinois for the tenured position to start in the fall of 2014. After he tweeted criticism of Israel during that summer’s war on Gaza, pro-Israel groups allegedly pressured the university to withdraw its offer. Salaita maintained that he had already been hired, and that his speech was protected by tenure.

"This settlement is a vindication for me, but more importantly, it is a victory for academic freedom and the First Amendment," Salaita said in a statement.

However, Mark LeVine, professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of California at Irvine, views the settlement as a defeat for academic freedom.

"Anti-Palestinian forces have once again silenced a voice and gotten away with it," LeVine told Al Jazeera. Those who "started this by threatening the university with a major loss of donations if he didn’t lose his job are the big winners."

LeVine added that the settlement sets a bad precedent for academic freedom, noting that most departments won't "even consider hiring someone with professor Salaita’s views."

University of Illinois trustees approved the agreement 9 to 1.

The approved settlement amount is for $875,000, university spokesman Tom Hardy said. The amount consists of $600,000 to Salaita plus $275,000 for attorneys' fees. However, Salaita's attorney Maria LaHood said legal fees amount to less than $275,000. 

Interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson of the university’s flagship Urbana-Champaign campus said that the amount is significant but less than what the university would have paid had the case gone to trial.

"The university believes that reaching a settlement with Dr. Salaita is the most reasonable option to fully and finally conclude all of the pending issues," she said.

Salaita has since taken a job at the American University of Beirut.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press. Ehab Zahriyeh contributed to this report.