University of Washington Removes Middle East Center Director Over Anti-Zionism Remarks

The University of Washington has removed Aria Fani as director of its Middle East Center following remarks in which he criticized the Iran war and described Zionism as cancerous.

"Ultimately, I understand Zionism as a cancerous, a potentially fatal outgrowth in our planetary body: multiplying uncontrollably, invading healthy tissues, spreading, disrupting organs, stealing nutrients, and ultimately shutting vital systems down," Fani wrote.

The Daily at UW reported in April that university officials removed Fani from the director role on March 27.

In another statement, Fani said, "The Islamic Republic operates in very similar fashion to the US/Israel, albeit on a much smaller scale. As such, Iran poses a real danger to its population and ecology while the US/Israel pose a planetary threat. To combat the latter, we need to understand how two economies—military and linguistic—work harmoniously; the latter presents certain groups as less than human while the former enacts that vision in material ways."

He added, "Our ability to rein in the economy of militarism requires building a democracy, but we can get a massive head start on creating a new, anti-colonial economy of language."

The Daily reported that Fani anticipated the decision. "I knew it was gonna come," he said. "It was only a matter of time."

Fani, who earned his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and joined UW in 2019, remains an associate professor. An automated response to a Fox News Digital inquiry indicated he is on medical leave until September.

Fani told Fox News Digital that the medical leave is unrelated to his removal as director.

He defined Zionism for Fox News Digital as "a nineteenth-century political ideology that sought to define European Jewry as a nation and facilitate their settlement in the land of Palestine through the displacement, dispossession, and control of Palestinians and Arabs. One does not have to be Jewish to be a Zionist, and in fact most Zionists are not Jewish. There are plenty of atheist, Christian and Muslim Zionists."

He continued, "That Zionism offers a political theory of Jewish self-determination is a sterilized lie precisely because it overlooks how Zionism has historically been practiced."

Fani added, "I compared Zionism to cancer because it has constantly metastasized since the very beginning of its history in Palestine. Israel is the only country in the region that has never remained within its internationally recognized borders and has constantly invaded, ethnically cleansed, occupied, and bombed other lands and countries."

University spokesperson Victor Balta, assistant vice president for communications, told Fox News Digital, "I can confirm that Aria Fani is no longer the director of the University’s Middle East Center. Daniel Hoffman, the director of the Jackson School of International Studies, will cover the administrative responsibilities of the Middle East Center for this spring and summer."

Balta added, "Fani remains an associate professor at the University. These types of decisions are made at the unit level, and no one outside the Jackson School of International Studies was involved in this decision."