The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/hamas/page/2/)
Chairman Jason Smith (R-M.O.) of the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Cornell President Martha Pollack that called into question the University’s tax-exempt status, citing what he deemed as Cornell’s “failure to adequately protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment.”
Around 200 students staged a die-in in Klarman Hall to mourn the lives of those killed in Gaza and demand the University acknowledge Palestinian suffering.
As a professor at Cornell and living in Israel with my wife and kids, I keep asking: If a couple of hundred armed men decide at dawn to go on a rampage of bloodshed, they would likely succeed, so why dont they?
Just over a week later, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority condemned Hamas’ actions, stating that they do not represent the Palestinian people. The same day, on Sunday, Oct. 16, Cornell University Prof. Russel Rickford, history, called Hamas’ actions “exhilarating” and “energizing.” Instead of condemning acts of terrorism, Professor Rickford celebrated Hamas’s actions as they “changed the balance of power” in Israel. Professor Rickford’s words stand in stark contrast to the values of Cornell University’s ideal of “free and open inquiry and expression.” We cannot stand idly by as students are traumatized by hateful speech from a professor, as this creates a culture of fear of presenting alternative perspectives, lest their academic standing suffer.
As a scholar, a teacher, an activist and a father, I strive to uphold the values of human dignity, peace and justice.
If SJP cared about Palestinian values, they would condemn Hamas’s intentional slaughter of innocent civilians rather than suggest that Palestinians’ “right to resistance” includes gang-raping women and burning children. If SJP cared about Palestinians’ welfare, they would call upon Hamas to stop using Gazans as human shields and allow civilians to flee Hamas strongholds.
I teach and write about the Holocaust. I have always been somewhat stuck on an island when it comes to Israel: not willing to sign petitions endorsing illegal settlements in Palestine territory and concerned that Israel respect the rights of its Arab citizens, but also unwilling to condemn Israel for defending itself.
At a rally for Palestine in the City of Ithaca on Sunday, Prof. Russell Rickford said he was “exhilarated” by Hamas’s attack on Israel, which provoked outrage.