Robinsons of Scotland own part of Hawaii

Niʻihau (Hawaiian \ˈni'iˈhɐw\, anglicized as Niihau \NEE-(ee-)how\), is the westernmost main and seventh largest inhabited island in Hawaii, which is a state consisting of more than 1,000 islands few know about.

It is 17.5 miles (28.2 km) southwest of Kauaʻi across the Kaulakahi Channel. Its area is 69.5 square miles (180 km2)[3].

Several intermittent playa lakes provide wetland habitats for the Hawaiian coot, the Hawaiian stilt, and the Hawaiian duck.

The island is designated as critical habitat for Brighamia insignis, an endemic and endangered species of Hawaiian lobelioid.

The United States Census Bureau defines Niʻihau and the neighboring island and State Seabird Sanctuary of Lehua as Census Tract 410 of Kauai County, Hawaii.

Climbing the Buddha's Hand elevated monument

Its 2000 census population was 160, most of whom are native Hawaiians [4]; its 2010 census population was 170. At the 2020 census, the population had fallen to 84 [5].

Scottish Elizabeth Sinclair purchased Niʻihau in 1864 for US $10,000 (equivalent to about $190,000 in 2023, or $350,000 in 2024) from the pre-USA Kingdom of Hawaii.

The island's private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinsons.

• Robinson Crusoe

During World War II, the island was the site of the Niʻihau incident, in which, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese Navy fighter pilot crashed on the island and received help from the island's residents of Japanese descent.

The island, known as "the Forbidden Isle," is off-limits to ALL outsiders except the Robinson family and their relatives, U.S. Navy personnel (military-industrial complex), government officials, and invited guests.

From 1987 onward, a limited number of supervised activity tours and hunting safaris have opened to tourists.

The island is currently managed by brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson. The people of Niʻihau are noted for their gemlike lei pūpū (shell lei) craftsmanship. They speak Hawaiian as a primary language. More: Niihau

Are Israeli Soldiers Like Nazis?

UCSB sociology professor William Robinson compares Israel to Nazis

William I. Robinson is a Jewish tenured sociology professor at UC Santa Barbara. His e-mail has triggered a campus investigation and drawn accusations of anti-Semitism from two national Jewish groups, even as many students and faculty members have voiced support for him.

There is a [4/30/09] Los Angeles Times report on Professor William I. Robinson, who teaches sociology at UC Santa Barbara. He is in the middle of a controversy after he sent e-mails to students comparing Israel's recent Gaza incursion to the Holocaust:

Controversy has erupted at UC Santa Barbara over a professor's decision to send his students an e-mail in which he compared graphic images of Jews in the Holocaust to pictures of Palestinians caught up in Israel's recent Gaza offensive.

The e-mail by tenured sociology professor William I. Robinson has triggered a campus investigation and drawn accusations of anti-Semitism from two national Jewish groups, even as many students and faculty members have voiced support for him.

The uproar began in January when Robinson sent his message -- titled "parallel images of Nazis and Israelis" -- to the 80 students in his sociology of globalization class.

The e-mail contained more than two dozen photographs of Jewish victims of the Nazis, including those of dead children, juxtaposed with nearly identical images from the Gaza Strip. It also included an article critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and a note from Robinson."

Gaza is Israel's Warsaw -- a vast concentration camp that confined and blockaded Palestinians," the professor wrote. "We are witness to a slow-motion process of genocide."Two Jewish students dropped the class, saying they felt intimidated by the professor's message. They contacted the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which advised them to file formal complaints with the university.

In their letters, senior Rebecca Joseph and junior Tova Hausman accused Robinson of violating the campus' faculty code of conduct by disseminating personal, political material unrelated to his course. More>>