York University fired a staff member on Wednesday for a series of what critics called anti-Semitic Facebook posts. In a letter obtained by the Star dated Sept. 14, York informed Nikolaos Balaskas, a laboratory technologist in its science faculty, that his employment was terminated following his Facebook posts and comments that “target identifiable groups” and “denigrate particular religious faiths including those of the Jewish faith.”On Aug. 28, Balaskas shared a photo that stated: “Jewish Bolshevik mass murderer Genrikh Yagoda was responsible for between 7 and 10 million deaths. The fact that you’ve never heard of him is exactly why the Jews should not have total control of the media.”He commented on the post: “Pray that these same Zionists, haters of God and His children, do not succeed in their goal of bringing about World War III.” Earlier in that month, he reposted a comment in which he accused “Zionists” of murdering 100 million Christians between 1917-1945 and being responsible for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In a statement to the Star, Balaskas criticized the groups that alerted York to his online comments. “Although there are some very disturbing allegations of interference and wrong doing by outside special interest groups that ultimately led to having me unjustly fired, at the moment I just want to clear my name and prevent further attacks and damage to York University’s reputation so that I can return back to work doing what I love to do — helping students in the labs and being there to listen to and support them as their friend,” he stated.

Source: thestar September 17, 2016 01:04 UTC