Laura Lyons

Overview

Laura Lyons [Laura E. Lyons] is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, has defended disgraced anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita and expressed support for a Palestinian terrorist. 

Lyons is also in a writing group with anti-Israel professor, Cynthia Franklin.

As of January 2020, Lyons was a professor in the Department of English at the University of Hawai’i (UH) and the Interim Dean of the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature at UH. 

Supporting BDS

As of January 2020, Lyons was a signatory to a list of endorsers of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). ”

In 2016, Lyons signed an open letter calling for the academic boycott of Israel. 

The open letter was addressed to the Modern Language Association (MLA), “calling on the association to pass a resolution endorsing the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”
In February 2014, Lyons signed an open letter condemning the administration of the University of Hawaii (UH), for expressing its opposition to the American Studies Association’s (ASA) recent endorsement of the academic boycott of Israel.

Signatories of the letter, signed by Lyons, charged that opponents of the academic boycott of Israel “support academic institutions that participate in the denial of human rights, including the right to education, experienced by Palestinians who, like Native Hawaiians, live under conditions of occupation.”

The letter went on to charge: “our administrators nowhere in their statement acknowledge Palestinian existence, let alone ways Palestinians’ academic and human rights are violated by Israel and with the support from the US of over three billion federal tax dollars a year in direct aid alone.”

Defending Steven Salaita

Lyons signed a petition published on August 21, 2014 by the BDS movement titled: “A Call to People of Conscience Not to Speak at the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Until Chancellor Wise Honor [sic] the Contract to Hire Professor Steven Salaita.”  

On August 21, 2014, Lyons signed a petition published by the BDS movement titled: “A Call to People of Conscience Not to Speak at the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Until Chancellor Wise Honor [sic] the Contract to Hire Professor Steven Salaita.”

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

Support for a Terrorist

In February 2012, Lyons signed a petition titled: “Scholars in Solidarity with Khader Adnan” that demanded the “immediate release” of Khader Adnan. The petition described Adnan as a “Palestinian baker and political prisoner.”

Khader Adnan was a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?” In May 2023, Adnan died in prison after refusing medical treatment during a hunger strike.

Social Media and Weblinks

University Website: http://english.hawaii.edu/faculty/laura-lyons/

Second University Website: http://www.manoanow.org/kaleo/special_issues/meet-the-deans-of-the-university-of-hawai-i-at/article_28152d46-99b7-11e8-a4d1-9310ce0c620b.html