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Columbia professor who praised Oct 7 massacre tapped to teach course on Zionism

Israel supporters had immediately called on the university to fire him, but Columbia issued no statement nor took any action.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A political science teacher at Columbia University who has proven anti-Israel credentials is set to teach a course on Zionism in the upcoming spring semester, prompting an Israeli protest and the resignation of a colleague from the faculty.

Professor Joseph Massad’s new undergraduate class is called “History of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) in 19th century Europe and the development of Zionism,” which will include “a historical overview of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict.”

According to the course description, it will also cover current events, such as the peace process between Israel “and the Arab states and the Palestinian national movement.”

One day after the Hamas-led invasion last October 7 in which the terrorists slaughtered and burned to death 1,200 people, including infants, and took 251 hostage, Massad had written an article for anti-Israel outlet Electronic Intifada.

In it, among other praise, the teacher of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History called the Hamas attacks “innovative” and “awesome,” and characterized the terrorists who para-glided into Israel to commit mass rape and murder as “the air force of the Palestinian resistance.”

Israel supporters had immediately called on the university to fire him, but Columbia issued no statement nor took any action against Massad.

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The school administration has long known his anti-Israel views, as Massad began teaching at Columbia in 1999, and in 2003 he wrote a paper entitled “The Ends of Zionism, Racism and the Palestinian Struggle,” in which he called Zionism a “colonial movement, constituted in ideology and practice by a religion-racial epistemology.”

International and public affairs adjunct professor Lawrence Rosenblatt tendered a letter of resignation in response to the course offering.

“Columbia has lost not only its moral compass but its intellectual one,” he wrote, comparing Massad lecturing about Zionism to “having a White nationalist teach about the US Civil Rights movement and the struggle for Black equality, having a climate denier teach about the impact of global warming or a misogynist teach about feminism.”

“While Massad has a right to think what he thinks and speak what he believes, Columbia has a responsibility to teach objectively and fairly,” he added.

A Columbia spokesperson responded by defending the school as having “consistently condemned any celebration or promotion of violence or terror” and seeking “classrooms that promote intellectual inquiry and analytical thinking along with civility, tolerance, and respect.”

The only criticism offered of Massad was that his “statements following the terrorist attack on October 7 created pain for many in our community and contributed to the deep controversy on our campus.”

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The spokesperson indicated that the school was balanced in its course offerings, stating that there would be two others taught about Zionism and Israeli history in the same semester, through its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.

The statement added that Massad’s course was not a required one and would be limited to 60 students.

Israel’s U.S. embassy had protested that the class should not be taught by one “who celebrated the events of October 7,” adding, “How many people has he already managed to indoctrinate?”