Columbia U President Faces Tough Questions Over Faculty’s Controversial Remarks Amid Rising Campus Anti-Semitism

Columbia U President Faces Tough Questions Over Faculty’s Controversial Remarks Amid Rising Campus Anti-Semitism

Edited by: Fern Sidman

In a congressional hearing held on Wednesday, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik faced a barrage of questions regarding the university’s efforts to combat rising anti-Semitism on campus. As was reported in the New York Post, the spotlight was particularly harsh due to the inflammatory comments made by several Columbia professors, which have ignited widespread controversy and calls for their dismissal.

At the heart of the controversy are three faculty members whose remarks have drawn significant attention and criticism. Joseph Massad, a professor of modern Arab politics and history, has been a prominent figure in these discussions. As per the report in the Post, with a tenure spanning 25 years at Columbia, where he also earned his PhD, Massad’s contributions to the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) have been overshadowed by his contentious public statements.

Joseph Massad, a long-serving professor at Columbia University, has been a polarizing figure due to his provocative views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As per the Post report, in a recent essay, Massad described the temporary takeover of Israeli settlements by Palestinian resistance fighters as a “death blow to any confidence that Israeli colonists had in their military.” This comment, which appears to celebrate the undermining of Israeli confidence in their military protection, has intensified calls for his removal. A student-led petition demanding his termination has amassed over 78,000 signatures, reflecting significant discontent with his perspective within the student body.

The congressional hearing highlighted not only Massad but also other faculty members such as Mohamed Abdou and Katherine Franke, though specific details of their remarks were not discussed as extensively as those of Massad, the report in the Post noted.

Massad’s history of controversial remarks includes comparisons of Hamas aggression against Israel to the Warsaw ghetto uprising during World War II. Noted in the Post report was that he has also characterized Israel as “a racist state” in his lectures, further fueling accusations of anti-Israel bias.

Mohamed Abdou, a visiting scholar set to teach at Columbia in spring 2024, has also come under scrutiny for his public support of Hamas and Hezbollah, declared in a social media post just days after the October 7 attack, “Yes, I’m with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad,” as was revealed in the Post report. These remarks directly align him with groups that are widely recognized as terrorist organizations by the United States and many other countries. This declaration complicates Columbia’s position, especially given the university’s commitment to fostering a scholarly environment that respects diverse viewpoints while maintaining a stance against hate and violence.

Abdou’s academic focus on topics such as decolonial-queerness and abolition adds layers to his profile as an “interdisciplinary activist-scholar,” the Post reported. However, his explicit support for groups engaged in violent resistance raises serious concerns about the implications of his presence in the classroom and the potential influence on students.

Katherine Franke has been a faculty member at Columbia since 1999, making substantial contributions to the legal field and engaging actively in various social and political debates. However, her career recently entered turbulent waters following remarks attributed to her in which she stated that “All Israeli students who served in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] are dangerous and shouldn’t be on campus,” as was pointed out in the Post report. This statement, raised during a congressional hearing by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), has sparked a fierce debate over the implications such a stance might have on Israeli students at Columbia and the broader university community.

The context or platform where Franke made these remarks wasn’t immediately clear, adding a layer of complexity to the controversy. In the midst of this, Franke authored an op-ed in The Nation, where she criticized Columbia University’s administration for what she perceives as an assault on academic freedom, the report in the Post affirmed.  In her piece, Franke argued that the university has succumbed to external pressures to marginalize any students or faculty who criticize Israel, framing the university’s actions as a “war on dissent.”

Hamid Dabashi, another Columbia professor entrenched in the debate, has faced criticism for a series of controversial social media posts, particularly concerning Israel. The Post report indicated that in a notable 2018 Facebook post, later cited by the Jewish Journal, Dabashi remarked that “Every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious happening in the world just wait for a few days and the ugly name ‘Israel’ will pop up in the atrocities.”

This statement, which was later cited by the Jewish Journal, drew significant criticism and was perceived by many as inflammatory and contributing to anti-Israeli sentiment.

Such statements have fueled accusations of anti-Semitism and led to calls from various quarters for the university to take disciplinary action.

Dabashi, who serves as the current director of undergraduate studies within the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) and is a professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University, has been a polarizing figure, with his critiques often extending into the realms of cultural and political analysis, according to the information contained in the Post report. The contentious nature of his remarks have raised significant concerns about the impact of such rhetoric on students and the academic environment at Columbia.

In another instance, Dabashi allegedly referred to Zionists as “hyenas,” a comment that led a pro-Israel student group at Columbia to call for the university to formally rebuke him,  the Post report said. These statements have placed Dabashi at the center of a storm regarding the limits of speech by university professors, especially when such speech can be seen as disparaging to specific groups or nations.

Kayum Ahmed, another Columbia faculty member and a former director at the Open Society Foundations, has also faced criticism for his portrayal of Israel in his lectures. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Ahmed has been accused of indoctrinating his students with anti-Israel views. In one of his lectures, he described Israel as a “colonial settler state” that has “oppressed indigenous populations” and “displaced” Palestinians, the Post report revealed. These comments, especially given Ahmed’s influential position within the School of Public Health, have raised concerns about bias in educational settings and the potential impact on student perceptions and campus climate.