Petition to Fire Pro-Hamas Columbia Professor Nears 40,000 Signers

Columbia students participate in a rally in support of Palestine at the university on Octo
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Olivia Rondeau

A petition to remove a Hamas-praising professor from his tenured position at Columbia University is nearing 40,000 signatures after just three days. 

The day after Islamist terrorists from the Gaza Strip committed the worst attack on Israeli soil in decades earlier this month, history and politics lecturer Joseph Massad published an article referring to the deadly event as an “awesome stunning victory.”

In the opinion piece, titled “Just another battle or the Palestinian war of liberation?” Massad called the October 7 attack that killed over 1,300 Israelis “astonishing” and “remarkable.” 

Painting a positive picture of the terrorists who dropped from the skies into a music festival being enjoyed by unsuspecting concertgoers, he wrote “awesome were the scenes witnessed by millions of jubilant Arabs who spent the day watching the news, of Palestinian fighters from Gaza breaking through Israel’s prison fence or gliding over it by air.”

WATCH — WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: How Hamas Took Israel by Surprise:

The Columbia professor went on to refer to Israel as “cruel colonizers” and Hamas terrorists as “resistance fighters.”

The sight of the Palestinian resistance fighters storming Israeli checkpoints separating Gaza from Israel was astounding… Perhaps the major achievement of the resistance in the temporary takeover of these settler-colonies is the death blow to any confidence that Israeli colonists had in their military and its ability to protect them.

The petition was created by Columbia student Maya Platek, 23, who took to Change.org to garner signatures for Massad’s removal.

“Condoning and supporting terrorism is not acceptable,” she wrote. 

“This attack massacred over 1,300, injured over 3,000, as well as raped and kidnapped women, children, and the elderly (including Holocaust survivors) from over a dozen countries. Massad refuses to condemn Hamas—which is recognized as a terrorist organization by the US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, and Japan—for its horrific actions. Instead, he shows support for the terrorist organization.”

Platek went on to condemn Massad’s “decision to praise the abhorrent attack,” claiming that he is encouraging “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.

As of Monday afternoon, about 39,000 people have signed the petition calling for Massad’s termination from the university. 

According to the Daily Mail, Massad is a native of Jordan but of Palestinian descent. He has been a member of faculty at Columbia since 1999 after receiving his doctorate from the school in 1998. 

The outlet also reported that this is not the professor’s first time being publicly challenged for his anti-Israel opinions. In 2009, “his tenureship was protested by Columbia’s pro-Israel group LionPAC.”

Columbia has been a hotspot for pro-Palestine protests within the past weeks, featuring chants such as, “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.”

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