75,000 sign petition to remove pro-Hamas professor from Columbia
he says that October 7th was a “stunning victory” and that Hamas' actions were “astounding,” “awesome,” and “incredible.”
A petition urging Columbia University to remove Professor Joseph Massad due to his antisemitic and anti-Israel stance has collected over 79,000 signatures, yet he will still be allowed to teach a class on “the impact of Zionism” next semester.
The course, titled Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Society, will be taught next Summer by Professor Joseph Massad, a self-identified Christian-Palestinian, who also serves as a Columnist for the publication The Middle East Eye.
“The course examines the impact of Zionism on European Jews and on Asian and African Jews on the one hand, and on Palestinian Arabs on the other–in Israel, in the Occupied Territories, and in the Diaspora,” according to the course description he provided.
It was one of his articles in The Middle East Eye criticizing Israel that resulted in the petition against him. The petition was written by senior-year Columbia University student Maya Platek, a proud Israeli who has also interned at the United Nations.
“I ask you to join me in this petition,” writes Platek.
“Condoning and supporting terrorism is not acceptable. In Professor Joseph Massad’s newest article on The Electronic Intifada, he writes that the brutal attack that occurred in Israel on October 7th was a “stunning victory” and that Hamas’ actions were “astounding,” “awesome,” and “incredible” she writes.
“Massad’s decision to praise the abhorrent attack encourages violence and misinformation in and outside of campus, particularly putting many Jewish and Israeli students on campus at risk. Moreover, many students have expressed that they feel unsafe in the presence of a professor who supports the horrific murders of civilians” she added.
In an interview last fall, Platek wrote in The New York Post that supporting Israel should not be controversial.
The petition was signed by “people all over the political spectrum, from different backgrounds and walks of life… we could all agree: supporting and glorifying terrorism is never acceptable.”
Just two months ago, Professor Massad was writing about alleged “Israeli atrocities” and accusing Israel of “settler violence”, going on to claim that killing is “routine in all Israeli governments”, as he writes for The Middle Eastern Eye.
Further, he accuses Israel of war crimes, remarking that “hospitals were always a favourite (sic) Israeli military target.”
Nowhere does he acknowledge that Hamas intentionally built encampments and tunnels under hospitals in Gaza, putting Israel in a difficult position as it goes about dismantling the current regime and its allies.
“The Jews are not a nation…the Jewish state is a racist state that does not have a right to exist,” the Professor has written elsewhere. Massad did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Columbia University.
According to Canary Mission, Massad also makes the bizarre claim that Israel “used the Nazi system as a model for the Israeli army. Like many of the academics I’ve recently reported on, Massad also subscribes to the idea that Zionism is “Jewish supremacy.”
This past spring, Columbia University was home to the first “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” Students demanded the school divest from Israel and support Palestine by pitching tents on the school’s quad and refusing to leave. The chaos culminated in the arrest of 109 students and alumni who had barricaded themselves inside one of the school’s main teaching buildings.
The standoff between the encampment and the NYPD lasted hours. Horror spread as news of a gunshot rang out, but nobody was hit by the bullet. The school Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter was subsequently suspended, and that was upheld last week by a New York state court ruling, as Eugene Volokh reported.
The petition against Massad can be found here.
This article was written by Toni Airaksinen (@Toni_Airaksinen on X), a journalist and college essay consultant living in Delray Beach, Florida. If you want to stay on top of news regarding college antisemitism, please follow her on Substack, Twitter or Instagram.
Nicely documented. I signed the petition.