A controversial and anti-Israel Columbia Professor who once praised the Oct. 7 massacre will reportedly teach a class about Zionism, prompting the resignation of another professor.
“Columbia University professor Lawrence Rosenblatt announced he is resigning after learning that @Columbia will allow an academic who praised the October 7 massacre to teach a course on Zionism,” wrote Aviva Klopas, the Co-Founder and CEO of the non-profit Boundless Israel, on X on Monday.
“In his letter, Rosenblatt wrote that having Prof. Joseph Massad teach a course on Zionism was ‘akin to having a White nationalist teach about the US Civil Rights movement and the struggle for Black equality,’ she continued.
Massad, who teaches Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History, stirred controversy when he wrote an article speaking glowingly of the Oct. 7 massacre on the very day after the attack.
That article, titled “Just another battle or the Palestinian war of liberation?” was published on the anti-Israel site Electronic Intifada.
“What can motorized paragliders do in the face of one of the most formidable militaries in the world?” Massad began his article. “Apparently much in the hands of an innovative Palestinian resistance, which early on Saturday morning launched a surprise attack on Israel by air, land and sea. Indeed as stunning videos show, these paragliders have become the air force of the Palestinian resistance.”
“The consensus of many Arab media commentators is that the resistance has effectively obliterated the myth of Israeli military might and the undeserved reputation of its intelligence apparatus, whose failures – judging from the shocking success of the Palestinian offensive – are staggering. No less astonishing was the Palestinian resistance’s takeover of several Israeli settler-colonies near the Gaza boundary and even as far away as 22 kms, as in the case of Ofakim,” he continued.
Massad also rejoiced in the supposed terror that Israeli civilians would feel at the prospect of being defenseless, writing that Hamas’s massacre accomplished the “major achievement” of delivering a “death blow to any confidence that Israeli colonists had in their military and its ability to protect them.”
Massad’s controversial comments provoked widespread outrage, with almost 41,000 individuals calling for his firing, shortly after he wrote his article. Massad, however, still remains employed by Columbia.
Campus Reform has reached out to Columbia and Joseph Massad for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
