‘Strong punch to the face’: Professors targeted by pro-Hamas mobs in Italy

Prof. Rino Casella said he no longer feels safe at the University of Pisa. Polytechnic University of Turin “immediately ended cooperation” with Israeli Prof. Pini, who defended his country.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A professor at the University of Pisa was attacked during a lecture Tuesday by a Students for Palestine group that broke into his classroom in a pro-Gaza protest.

“I was the victim of fascist squadrism by a group of students who interrupted my lecture. They accuse me of being a Zionist just because I’m not pro-Pal,” Rino Cassella, a professor of Comparative Constitutional Law, told the local press.

About 20 minutes into his first class of the year, he said, “about 10 people entered and violently interrupted the lesson: they threw my book away, pushed me, and climbed on the desk, shouting, ‘Dirty imperialist’ at me because I have a notebook with an American flag on it that I use for notes.”

The violence did not end with him, Casella noted.

When one of the 200 students in his class, who were all “shocked” at the invaders’ behavior, tried to snatch a protester’s Palestinian flag, “he was kicked and punched. I stood in front of him to protect him,but was hit in return,” he said, describing a “strong punch to the face.”

A video of the incident shows the protesters shouting, “People like this don’t deserve to be in our classrooms,” and “We can’t promote war … genocide … and Zionism” into the professor’s microphone, which they had grabbed when they stormed in.

Casella said he was targeted because, along with a colleague, he opposed the university’s recent decision “not to remain neutral” on the conflict in Gaza and to cut all academic links with Israel.

The professor, who is not Jewish, said that simply stating his belief that Israel is not committing genocide was enough for flyers to circulate on campus calling him a “Zionist.”

He charged that the school administration is not doing enough to guarantee teachers’ security in a place that should be “sacred” and nonviolent.

“I myself don’t feel particularly safe,” he added.

Casella filed a police complaint after being treated in the emergency room for bruises from the attack.

Minister of Universities and Research Anna Maria Bernini condemned the assault.

“Universities are not free zones where it is permissible to disrupt classes or attack professors,” she stated. “What happened at the University of Pisa is intolerable for a society that recognizes the values ​​of democracy and unacceptable for an academic community like that of Pisa and Italy as a whole — open, free and inclusive.”

She did not mention an earlier incident the same day, when visiting Israeli engineering professor Pini Zorea was interrupted at the Polytechnic University of Turin by pro-Palestinian students.

The protesters accused him of supporting Israeli “apartheid” through the use of facial recognition technology.

Zorea tried to engage with them, but when he defended the IDF as “the purest army in the world,” acting with professionalism and restraint, they erupted in anger.

They also objected when he responded to chants of “Free Palestine” by agreeing but saying that it should be “free of Hamas.”

In this case, university rector Stefano Cornietti called Zorea’s remarks “unacceptable” and said that he “immediately ended the cooperation with the lecturer,” noting that his school “has always strongly condemned all acts of violence in this war and protested against the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Gaza.

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