A New York City public school teacher who was slammed for branding Israel a ‘terrorist state’ and shared a photo of a pro-Hamas paraglider has doubled down on his views amid calls for him to be sacked.
Mohammad Jehad Ahmad, a math teacher at Gotham Tech High School in Queens, shared the paraglider-image on his Facebook page last weekend.
He had already branded NYC’s public schools chancellor David Banks a ‘white supremacist imperialist scumbag’ after he condemned the Hamas attack of October 7.
Now the unrepentant educator has stood by his views, despite revealing they have earned him death threats. He said on social media platform X: ‘I stand by everything I said.’
Ahmad claimed that ‘hateful white people’ had also been ‘harassing’ his workplace with calls for him to resign.
Mohammad Jehad Ahmad, a math teacher at Gotham Tech High School in Queens, has remained defiant after sharing a pro-Hamas paraglider image and anti Israel tweets
Despite allegedly receiving death threats and calls for him to resign he doubled down on his views in a series of social media posts
Among them are Gotham Tech parents who have now reportedly begun requesting that their children be removed from his classes.
During a PTA meeting on Thursday, parent Karla Rodriquez said: ‘Kids are already affected by his poison, he applauds terrorism and violence,’ the New York Post reports.
Meanwhile, the Citywide Council on High Schools said the advisory group has received over a dozen inquiries from current Gotham Tech parents and other members of the public raising concerns or calling for his resignation.
But a defiant Ahmad said: ‘I stand by everything I said in the same way I continue to stand by the oppressed people whenever I encounter them. Both here in NYC and worldwide. Free Palestine. Free Palestine from so-called ‘Israeli’ oppression and active genocide.’
It remains unclear if the city’s Department of Education has disciplined him in any way, or whether it intends to allow him to keep his role but he does not appear on the school’s website.
The Department did not immediately respond to AlertContent.com’s inquiries on Monday.
The teacher caused uproar last week when he posted a diatribe against Israel and then mocked Jews who deemed it offensive.
‘How can Jews feel safe in Mohammad’s classroom?’ asked Justin Sprio, a New York City school social worker.
Ahmad claimed that he has received death threats solely from ‘hateful white people’ over his views
Ahmad has since changed his Facebook cover photo to a different pro-Palestine image that does not include the paraglider
Gotham Tech High parents have now called for him to resign or for their children to be removed from his classes, it remains unclear if he is facing any disciplinary action
Ahmad hit back: ‘Look at this clown and the others in his replies. So-called ‘Israel’ is a settler colony that was invented and only continues to exist through terrorism, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and ongoing incremental genocide.
‘To support ‘Israel’ is to support white supremacist terror.’
In a response to another outlet, Ahmad fumed: ‘So-called Israel was invented in 1948 through coordinated acts of terrorism to depopulate and ethnically cleanse Palestinian land.
‘For over the past 75 years, so-called Israel has continued to exist through continued dispossession, ethnic cleansing and incremental genocide.
In reference to the Hamas attack, he said: ‘On Saturday, Palestinians from Gaza completed a successful military campaign against that oppressor.’
Ahmad has been a teacher at Gotham Tech High School since July. He is currently not listed among the teachers on the school’s website
When criticized by Jewish social worker Justin Spiro about how Jewish children might feel safe in his classroom, Ahmad mocked him by calling him a ‘clown’
He labeled reports of Hamas murdering children and babies as ‘unsubstantiated’, he continued: ‘So-called Israel is a white supremacist, settler-colony, that only exists through its ongoing dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and incremental genocide of the Palestinian people.’
Ahmad declined to answer AlertContent.com’s questions about his comments or whether he was still employed.
Instead, he called AlertContent.com ‘predatory’ and the coverage of his remarks an ‘effort by mass media to silence anti-Zionist discourse’ which he says has inspired death threats.
‘I choose not to answer questions that will continue to dehumanize and cause harm to me, my family, and those like us,’ he said.
Around 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the Hamas attack earlier this month, while the Gaza health ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in retaliatory strikes in Gaza.
Pro-Palestine protests have sprung up across the country in the wake of the conflict, including at universities which have garnered criticism for allowing them to go ahead despite some Jewish students asking for them to be canceled.
Many campuses have also reported a rise in anti-Semitic incidents amid the protests, while the police have been put on alert for increased threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities amid the tension.