ATHENS, Ohio — Ohio University associate professor Tom Hayes returned to the U.S. Oct. 12 following a mission on the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s boat Conscience, which attempted to provide aid to Gaza.
Hayes boarded the Conscience with many others to deliver aid to Gaza.
“That was the mission, it was media workers and medical people,” Hayes said. “Both of these communities could serve a role immediately as well as bring in this aid.”
Israeli forces intercepted the ship on Oct. 8, which prevented the aid from being delivered. Individuals on the boat, including Hayes, were held in captivity. Hayes was released and returned to the U.S. four days later.
Upon his arrival, Hayes was informed that he was removed from teaching his in-person film class, The Art of Editing. OU maintains Hayes was removed as an instructor because he was going to be absent for an unknown amount of time, although the decision has prompted criticism from local activists.
Hayes’ history of activism
Hayes said he “stumbled into Palestine” in the 1980s after working on his first long-form documentary, “Refugee Road.”
The documentary followed a Cambodian family that had fled a genocide and followed them through their first year of resettlement in the U.S.
“I read a story in the Columbus Dispatch in April 1981 that said Israel had launched airstrikes against Rashidieh, a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon,” he said. “I really had a cognitive dissonance; I couldn’t believe what I was reading.”
Hayes said after that after learning more about the situation, he decided he wanted to make a film about Palestinian refugees. He spent nine months studying Arabic at Ohio State University while writing grants “hand over fist.”
“Eighteen months later, I was in Rashiedieh refugee camp with a camera on my shoulder,” he said.
The piece that came from that experience was titled “Native Sons: Palestinians in Exile.”
“My life turned on a dime because the more I saw, the more committed I was to trying to raise consciousness in the United States about this — particularly because of American culpability and complicity in the denial of human and political rights, of all rights to Palestinian human beings on this planet,” he said.
Since then, Hayes has created multiple documentaries about Palestine and the ongoing conflict.
The choice to join the Flotilla Coalition’s Boat Conscience mission was “not a political question” for Hayes.
“I have relationships with people in the West Bank and Gaza that go back decades, I’ve watched their children grow up, their children have children now,” he said. “I have been at my wits’ end for years.”
Hayes was on another Freedom Flotilla mission last year to deliver aid; that mission also was blocked.
Continued advocacy for Palestine is important to Hayes, who expressed support for the tactics of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.
“Anybody who spent 40-some years advocating for Palestinians is somebody who is an optimist in every grain,” Hayes said. “I hope there is more collective action. I’m concerned right now that this faux ceasefire will make people complacent.”
Hayes said he is not pro-Palestinian; he is pro-human.
“This is not so much about them as some specific ethnic group; it’s about the human situation that they live in,” he said.
OU, alumni, students respond
OU spokesman Daniel Pittman said that the university learned that Hayes had “independently informed students” that he would be absent for an unknown duration and his pre-recorded lectures would be available online. In response, the university designated a new instructor of record for the course.
Hayes remains an active OU employee, Pittman said.
Asked whether a policy violation triggered OU’s action to reassign the course, Pittman said he had been clear on why a new instructor was selected.
“As an accredited public institution, Ohio University has an obligation to serve its students by delivering courses that offer regular interactions with faculty who are readily available to support their needs,” Pittman wrote.
He said the newly assigned instructor “resumed in-person instruction last week and will serve in the role for the remainder of the semester,” Pittman wrote in an email.
Pittman did not address the Independent’s question about whether the university reconsidered its decision after Hayes was deported back to the U.S.
Regardless of OU’s decision, students and alumni have expressed support for Hayes.
Susan Hilvert, an Athens resident and alumna of OU’s film and journalism school, wrote a letter of support for Hayes that was signed by other alumni. The letter, which was shared with the Athens County Independent, called for Hayes to be reinstated as the instructor of the class and urged OU to live up to the “mission it claims to commit to.”
“To cut him off from the students is a disgrace to the university and a disservice to the School of Film,” the letter stated. “The message it will send to future School of Film alumni — that standing up for humanity, justice and freedom will be immediately punished — is unacceptable.”
Cody Polinski, a sophomore studying chemistry who is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, also supports Hayes.
“I support his efforts with the movement, and I think it was a really great thing for him to do, to be a part of that,” Polinski said.
