An American Sign Language lecturer at the University of Arizona is facing calls to resign after posting “F—k Israel” on social media and telling followers to “F—k off” if they identify as “MAGA” or “Zionists.”
Jason Gervase, in a video shared on Dec. 18, 2025, told his more than 100,000 TikTok followers, “If you are MAGA, if you are a Zionist, or you are anti-human rights, this is not your space.” Liora Rez, founder and executive director of the U.S.-based advocacy group StopAntisemitism, said Jewish members and influencers in the ASL community flagged Gervase’s comments. She subsequently sent a letter to the university on Tuesday morning calling for his termination.
“As a parent myself, I thought to myself, if I had a deaf child, what would happen if he or she was in their classroom with these kinds of biases, hatred, and rhetoric?” Rez told The California Post. “I wouldn’t want my child there. I wouldn’t want to be paying tuition for my child to be in these kinds of situations.”
In separate posts, Gervase told followers to “F—k Israel” and appeared to agree with a comment suggesting the Bondi Beach terror attack in December was a “false flag operation” conducted by Mossad. “I know. This was posted before that information came to light,” he replied.
In her letter to the university, obtained by The Post, Rez described Gervase’s conduct as “deeply disturbing and fundamentally incompatible with the responsibilities of a university educator.” She called for his termination and for a public reaffirmation of the university’s commitment to protecting Jewish students and staff from discrimination and hate.
Mitch Mieczyslaw, a spokesperson for the University of Arizona, told The Post that Gervase’s comments “do not represent the university’s position.”
“As a public university, the University of Arizona recognizes that employees have the right to express personal views, even when those statements fall short of our values of respect and civil discourse,” Mieczyslaw said. “Messages shared on personal social media do not represent the university’s position.”
Gervase responded to the calls for his termination in a post on Threads, citing the First Amendment and saying, “Criticism of Zionism, a political movement and ideology, is not an attack on a people or a faith.”
“I am a dedicated professor, and I will not allow a coordinated digital mob to litigate my private, protected speech,” he wrote. “I am grateful for the principles of academic freedom that protect all of us from the reach of those who wish to silence others.”
The university’s Political Activity Policy states that “employees must not allow their interest in a particular party, candidate, or political issue to affect the objectivity of the performance of their University duties.”
Rez argued that Gervase’s statements “targeted expressions of hostility toward a core component of Jewish identity” and noted the difference between protected speech and hate speech. “Often individuals who express hateful rhetoric like to use the First Amendment and freedom of speech as a tool to justify their speech,” she said. “Individuals who do not agree with them also have those same rights to call them out, and hateful speech often comes with consequences.”
Rez added that antisemitism and hate speech often resurface during high-profile events, such as the assassination of Charlie Kirk or U.S.-Israel military actions. “With this joint U.S.-Israel attack, we’re seeing educators and individuals siding with the Iranian regime versus a democratic West trying to prevent extremists from threatening Israel,” she said.