Columbia professors slam Israel and Zionism

Members of Columbia University’s faculty haven spoken out against Israeli policies and against Zionism. The faculty members addressed several hundred students and other members of the university community at a campus event on Monday billed as supporting academic freedom. The event came after a faculty committee had issued a report last week on charges that professors had bullied pro-Israel students. The committee found only one such charge credible. “If some Columbia faculty are going to be stigmatized for being anti-Zionism, then let me be among them,” said Noha Radwan, an assistant professor in the Middle East & Asian Languages & Cultures department. “I am anti-Zionism.” Radwan expressed solidarity with Professor Joseph Massad, who the committee report said had “exceeded commonly accepted bounds” when responding to a student’s question. At Monday’s meeting, Massad offered a point-by-point critique of the report, pointing out that he does not view the committee that issued it as legitimate and that it did not find the charge against him necessarily true, but merely credible.