CHICAGO — A professor who lost a University of Illinois job offer over anti-Israel Twitter messages has sued the university’s board of trustees and key administrators to try to get that job.

Steven Salaita filed his lawsuit Thursday, January 29 in Chicago.

The suit asks the court for an order letting him go to work at the University of Illinois’ Urbana-Champaign campus. He is also seeking unspecified monetary damages.

A university spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Salaita was offered a job teaching Native American Studies starting last August. The offer was rescinded after he wrote the Twitter messages. Some university donors complained that his posts were anti-Semitic.

Salaita had stated that left a job at Virginia Tech University to come to Illinois, but his hiring hadn’t yet been approved by the trustees.