A tenured economics professor at the University of Southern California has been barred from teaching on campus for making anti-Hamas comments at a pro-Palestine event earlier this month.
Professor John Strauss says his comments were misrepresented in an online video that omitted his reference to Hamas, giving the impression he had called for death to all Palestinians.
The video went viral:
The online mob calling for Strauss’s head spread to Instagram, where users now claimed the professor “threatened” and “harassed” the students and that he “hoped” they—or the residents of Gaza—would “get killed”:
But Strauss says his comments at the rally for Gaza were ripped out of context.
The November 9 event was planned as part of the nationwide “Shut it Down for Palestine” Day, led by the Palestinian Youth Movement.
As usual, what began as a campus-wide walkout in support of Palestine ended up as a massive protest against Israel, Annenberg Media reported. Strauss, who is Jewish, told NBC News that as he walked to class that day, the furious crowd shouted “death to Israel”:
The conflict became personal after the protesters accused Strauss of desecrating the memory of Palestinians killed in Gaza. Rows of paper listing their names had been taped to the ground in preparation for the event, and they claimed he intentionally walked on them. Strauss says he certainly didn’t mean to.
On his way back from class, one of the protesters called him out by name: “Shame on you, Professor Strauss.” Strauss says he responded in kind: “Shame on you.” He continued:
“You people are ignorant, really ignorant.” “Hamas are murderers. That’s all they are. Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are.”
Those remarks including the Hamas reference are captured in a reportedly unedited version of the exchange posted at Annenberg Media:
The calls to cancel Strauss came the same day. Within hours of the rally, the campus community reportedly filed multiple complaints against him with the Office for Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX for discrimination on the basis of national origin and hate speech.
And the following Monday, USC Provost Andrew Guzman sent a formal letter to Strauss banning him from campus for the rest of the semester. According to the student newspaper, Guzman wrote that “all interactions with students would have to take place ‘remotely and not in person.’” The Provost says the move is not meant to punish Strauss.
But pressure is mounting for the administration to do exactly that: fire him.
A petition calling for his termination has nearly 7,000 signatures:
The petition repeats the out-of-context comments that ignited the controversy:
His racist, xenophobic behavior, including stepping on names during a memorial service at USC for over 10k innocent civilians that lost their lives in Palestine, is unacceptable. His remarks – “everyone should be killed, and I hope they all are” – are not only offensive but also promote and incite violence.
Those comments could damage the students’ delicate psyches, the petition warns:
The impact of such behavior on students can be detrimental. Studies have shown that exposure to racial discrimination can lead to negative mental health outcomes (American Psychological Association).
The student who organized the rally agrees. She told Annenberg Media that Strauss’s comments “threatened us as students … making us feel unsafe in our academic environment.” She reportedly withheld her own name out of fear for her safety.
But it is the 72-year-old professor who is getting the actual threats, including death threats. Strauss told NBC News:
I started receiving many vitriolic emails: ‘Death to Professor Strauss. Professor Strauss should be fired.’
And while Strauss says he’s encouraged by the support he’s received from faculty and students—including a petition to reinstate him—the calls to remove him come amidst a surge in campus antisemitism. As we wrote here, campus “pro-Palestine” rallies inevitably devolve into attacks on Jews, including actual violence. It’s the Jewish campus community that has reason to feel “unsafe.”
As his supporters wrote in their petitition, even if the administration banned Strauss from campus out of concern for his safety, the logic is perverse: “We should not revert to the days of the Holocaust. Jewish people should not have to hide for our safety. Violent people who make threats and spread false accusations are the ones who should be expelled, not the victims of their abuse.”
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