More than 100 Columbia University professors signed a letter in defense of students seeking to ‘recontextualize’ the Hamas attacks on October 7 and called on administrators to protect them from ‘disturbing reverberations’ on campus.
The letter, published Monday, claims that students are looking at the ambush within the larger framework of Palestinian oppression at the hands of the Israeli government.
The professors aired their concerns about students being publicly shamed and doxed due to their opinions, as well as facing retaliation from employers.
Columbia has come under fire in recent weeks, with billionaire investor Leon Cooperman threatening to cut off donations to his alma mater over student support for Palestine.
‘These egregious forms of harassment and efforts to chill otherwise protected speech on campus are unacceptable,’ Monday’s letter reads.
Over 100 professors signed a letter defending students who sought to ‘recontextualize’ the October 7 Hamas ambush
It defends those who have expressed ’empathy for the lives of dignity of Palestinians’ as well as those who ‘signed a student-written statement that situated the military action begun on Oct. 7 within the larger context of the occupation of Palestine by Israel.’
The letter argues that the student statement ‘aims to recontextualize the events of Oct. 7, 2023′ by pointing out that state violence did not begin with the Hamas attacks, ‘but rather it represented a military response by a people who had endured crushing and unrelenting state violence from an occupying power over many years.’
Students believe that peace will be unattainable ‘unless the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory ends and accountability for that illegal occupation is achieved,’ the professors wrote.
They added that this was ‘not a radical or essentially controversial opinion,’ as it was supported by the United Nations and human rights organizations.
‘One of the core responsibilities of a world-class university is to interrogate the underlying facts of both settled propositions and those that are ardently disputed,’ the letter ends.
‘These core academic values and purposes are profoundly undermined when our students are vilified for voicing perspectives that, while legitimately debated in other institutional settings, expose them to severe forms of harassment and intimidation at Columbia.’
The message concludes with a request that the school reverse a decision to create curricular and research programs in Israel – echoing a demand made by over 100 Columbia faculty last year.
The professors also insisted that the university cease issuing statements that ‘favor the suffering and death of Israelis or Jews over the suffering and death of Palestinians, and/or that fail to recognize how challenging this time has been for all students, not just some.’
The letter, published Monday, expresses concern for students who have been publicly shamed or put at risk of retaliation from employers
It claims students are ‘vilified for voicing perspectives that, while legitimately debated in other institutional settings, expose them to severe forms of harassment and intimidation at Columbia’
The first signatory of the letter is Katherine Franke, a law professor who was once deported from Israel over suspected ties to a pro-Palestine movement
Another name is Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian-American historian and professor who recently penned an op-ed about the conflict for The New York Times
James Schamus, professor at Columbia’s School of the Arts, has ties to Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist Jewish group
Among the signatories was Katherine Franke, the James L. Dohr Professor of Law. Franke specializes in gender and sexuality studies and began her career as a civil rights litigator.
She visited Israel as part of a human rights delegation in 2018, but was detained and later deported. The Israeli authorities accused her of having ties to a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments and economic sanctions against the country.
‘150+ Columbia/Barnard Faculty have signed a letter supporting our students’ right to contextualize the war in Israel/Gaza within the 75 yr occupation of Palestine – insisting that it isn’t anti-Semitic to do so,’ she wrote on Twitter with a link to the letter.
Franke quickly faced backlash in the comments, including from one user who wrote: ‘That letter is about the farthest thing from objective scholarship I’ve ever seen.’
Other faculty members whose names appeared on the letter included Rashid Khalidi, the university’s Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies.
Khalidi is the editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies and a former advisor to the Palestinian delegation during the Madrid Conference of 1991.
The Palestinian-American historian recently penned an op-ed for the New York Times titled ‘The U.S. Should Think Twice About Israel’s Plans for Gaza.’
The essay reads, in part: ‘It is past time for the United States to cease meekly acquiescing to Israel’s use of violence and more violence as its reflexive response to Palestinians who have lived for 56 years under a stifling military occupation.’
Monday’s letter came after students were slammed for signing a letter that denounced ‘Israeli aggression, apartheid and settler colonization’
The Anti-Defamation League has urged colleges to investigate campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine for allegedly supporting Hamas
Prestigious law firm Davis Polk recently rescinded job offers for three students, including two from Columbia who signed the statement decrying Israel
Monday’s letter concludes with a request that the school reverse a decision to create curricular and research programs in Israel, which previously faced backlash
The signatories also demanded that the university cease issuing statements that ‘favor the suffering and death of Israelis or Jews over the suffering and death of Palestinians’
Another educator whose name made an appearance was James Schamus, former CEO of Focus Features, who is now the Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia’s School of the Arts.
Schamus is Jewish and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist Jewish activist organization. JVP, coincidentally, backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign that Franke was accused of supporting.
The film producer recently retweeted a video of the enormous JVP sit-in at Grand Central Station and captioned it: ‘Never more proud of my comrades.’
Monday’s letter came in response to backlash over a student statement that was written earlier this month.
It slammed ‘the Israeli extremist government’ and other governments ‘which fund and staunchly support Israeli aggression, apartheid and settler colonization.’
And while more than 100 professors have rallied behind the students, other groups have argued that their words are not advocating for human rights, but terrorism.
Just last week, the Anti-Defamation League sent an open letter to more than 200 colleges and universities, urging them to investigate campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine for allegedly supporting Hamas.
Columbia’s SJP chapter told CNN that it refused to engage with the ADL, arguing that it ‘demonizes nonviolent tactics by Palestinian activists.’
Davis Polk, one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, recently rescinded job offers for three students, including two from Columbia who signed the statement decrying Israel.
‘The views expressed in certain of the statements signed by law school student organizations in recent days are in direct contravention of our firm’s value system,’ the firm said in a statement.
It is now reconsidering the decision for two students who fought their dismissals, but has not released their identities.
Other groups that have fired back at the students’ alleged support of Hamas include Accuracy in Media, a conservative media group.
On October 25, the nonprofit sent trucks with digital billboards to Columbia’s Morningside campus, displaying students’ names and faces and deeming them ‘Columbia’s Leading Antisemites.’