More than 100 Columbia University professors sign letter defending students who supported Hamas' 'military action' against Israel

More than 100 professors at Columbia University signed a letter on Monday that defended students who supported Hamas' terrorist tactics against Israel on October 7.

The professors in question have reportedly called on administrators at the university to protect student demonstrators from getting doxxed from a truck that has apparently showed signs referring to them as "Columbia's Leading Antisemites," according to the New York Post.

The development comes as donors to the university have vowed to stop giving money to the institution after pro-Palestinian sentiment has erupted on campus. The professors who signed the letter have also called on the administration to "cease issuing statements that favor the suffering and death of Israelis or Jews over the suffering and deaths of Palestinians.”

The letter states: "As scholars who are committed to robust inquiry about the most challenging matters of our time, we feel compelled to respond to those who label our students anti-Semitic if they express empathy for the lives and dignity of Palestinians, and/or if they signed on to a student-written statement that situated the military action begun on October 7th within the larger context of the occupation of Palestine by Israel. We have read that statement carefully, and it is worth pointing out that the arguments it makes echo those made by both governmental and non-governmental agencies and institutions at the highest level for a number of years."

“In our view, the student statement aims to recontextualize the events of Oct. 7, 2023, pointing out that military operations and state violence did not begin that day, 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," the letter added.

Though the letter suggested that it was important for the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel to be put in historical context, the letter did not specifically draw out how torturing, raping, and slaughtering non-military Jews was permissible amid the ongoing political tension between the two groups.

The letter comes after a student-written statement was posted online that declared: "As we mourn the loss of lives, let us come together as a Columbia community and fervently advocate for the universal human right to live in peace and seek justice. We also affirm that there can be no future of safety and freedom for all Israelis and Palestinians without holding the Israeli occupation accountable for its actions and putting an end to the untenable status quo of Israel's apartheid and colonial system."

The faculty members at Columbia ended their letter by claiming that "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."

“As faculty, we are committed to the project of holding discomfort and working across difference[s] with our students."

“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 Post reported that administrators from the university refused to comment on the letter, though a spokesman apparently told the outlet last week that “anti-Semitism or any other form of hate will never be tolerated in our community."

The statement came after officials canceled an on-campus student group event that had disinvited Zionists.

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