Yale Professor Under Fire

Hat tip Algemeiner

Yale's seal

“Prayers for Palestinians. Israeli [sic] is a murderous, genocidal settler state and Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle, solidarity #FreePalestine,” Grewal tweeted on Oct. 7, when Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 240 others to Gaza as hostages."

"The professor seemed to justify the onslaught, arguing that “settlers are not civilians” and later posting, “No government on earth is as genocidal as this settler colonial state,” referring to Israel."

"Grewal continued to defend and seemingly delight in Hamas’ violence, saying at one point: “It’s been such an extraordinary day!” In the ensuing days, she compared Israel’s military response to the Hamas atrocities to the Holocaust."

-Algemeiner

Like so many other universities across the nation, Yale University, one of the most prestigious Ivy League schools, is experiencing a wave of anti-Semitism on campus. Like other schools, it is not just students who are causing the problems, but professors as well., In the case of Yale professor Zareena Grewal, there are rising demands that she be fired for comments she made on social media (X) celebrating the horrific Hamas attack upon Israeli civilians on October 7.  

As is my custom when looking into controversial events on campuses, I have referred myself to the Yale Daily News, the campus newspaper of Yale. There are two articles I have found of particular note.

On October 12, the Yale Daily News reported that a petition to fire Grewal had reached 25,000 signatures.

Subsequent to the disastrous congressional testimony of the presidents of Harvard, M.I.T., and the University of Pennsylvania on December 5, the Yale Daily News posed similar questions to Yale President Peter Salovey on December 6.  He was specifically asked if calling for the mass murder of Jews at Yale would be met with disciplinary measures. Unlike the three aforementioned presidents, Salovey's answer was a direct and unequivocal condemnation of such speech. (He had previously condemned the attack itself). In the same article, a university spokesperson was reported as having defended Grewal's freedom of speech. 

Mixed messages?

Of course, it can be argued that Grewal's despicable comments were outside the scope of her position at Yale and that they were protected speech. I get all that. I would also add that during the time I was teaching part-time at UC Irvine, I was also operating this blog, which some Muslims, like the folks at CAIR,  consider Islamophobic, according to however they choose to define the term. I must say that even though I was openly critical of the Muslim Student Union, Students for Justice in Palestine, the UC Irvine administration, and the entire UC system when it came to anti-Semitism, the administrators of the university always respected my freedom of speech. Of course, I never called for the mass killing of any group of people. Even now, I am not celebrating the reports of thousands of Palestinians being killed in the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza. Will I celebrate the destruction of Hamas after what they did on October 7? Absolutely, but considering the horrific atrocities they carried out that day against innocent people, including infants, beheaded and burned alive, my feelings are understandable, quite in contrast to Grewal, who celebrated October 7.

The open celebrations of October 7 by Hamas supporters on university campuses should cause all university presidents, including Yale, to ask themselves what kind of students-and professors- they have representing them.