Professor Who Led Auschwitz Trip Resigns From Al-Quds U.

Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, the Al-Quds University professor who led a group of Palestinian students on an unprecedented trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, has resigned from the university after weeks of mounting pressure, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported.

Mr. Dajani told the newspaper he felt he had no choice after the university authorities refused to back up their private assurances with a display of public support after what he described as a campaign of “incitement” against him from some members of the university faculty.

An activist who has tried to encourage tolerance between Palestinians and Israelis, Mr. Dajani was a professor of American studies and director of the library at Al-Quds, in East Jerusalem. Following the Auschwitz trip, in March, he was denounced as a “traitor” and “collaborator” by Palestinian critics and expelled from a university staff union.

Mr. Dajani said he submitted his letter of resignation on May 18, hoping the university would reject it and thereby send “a clear and loud message” that it supports academic freedom. Instead, he received a response from the university personnel department that his resignation would take effect on June 1.

There was no comment from university officials in the Ha’aretz article.