Columbia Professors Defend Students Supporting Hamas

Over 100 Columbia University professors have signed onto a letter defending students who appeared to back the deadly attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 by Hamas.

In the letter published this weekend, professors demanded that administrators cease issuing statements that allegedly trivialize the Palestinian dead and protect protesters from efforts to leak their personal information.

The leaking of personal information has come primarily from trucks passing through the protests featuring the names and pictures of anti-Israel demonstrators dubbed “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites” on a billboard.

“We feel compelled to respond to those who label our students antisemitic if they express empathy for the lives and dignity of Palestinians and/or if they signed a student-written statement that situated the military action begun on Oct. 7 within the larger context of the occupation of Palestine by Israel,” the letter read.

Some students and organizations had signed a statement earlier in the month that attempted to downplay the Oct. 7 attacks – where over 1,000 civilians in Israel were killed – as the result of Palestinian occupation.

The professors said they disagreed with claims from media organizations, commentators, and even some of the university’s donors that the statement was antisemitic.

Instead, they argued it “aims to recontextualize the events” by “pointing out that military operations and state violence did not begin that day.”

The Oct. 7 attack “represented a military response by a people who had endured crushing and unrelenting state violence from an occupying power over many years.”

Professors further characterized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as “apartheid,” citing similar accusations by the non-governmental organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The statement comes as university administrators nationwide struggle to balance how they treat pro-Palestinian students with their pro-Israel donors.

Millions of dollars have been withheld by donors from universities over the past month as a result of university support for Hamas and antisemitic causes, or lack of support for Israel, according to Financial Review.