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Carleton University faces backlash for employing professor convicted in 1980 Paris synagogue bombing
Carleton University is under significant scrutiny from Israeli universities and Jewish advocacy groups for employing Hassan Diab, a professor convicted in absentia by a French court for a 1980 synagogue bombing in Paris that killed four people and injured 46.
Diab, 71, who has taught at Ottawa’s Carleton University since 2006, is currently teaching a class on social justice in the university’s sociology department.
In November, a letter signed by all nine of Israel’s public research universities, coordinated through the Association of University Heads of Israel, called on Carleton to immediately terminate Diab’s employment, describing the hiring decision as a betrayal of academic values and a failure to uphold justice.
“While we respect Carleton’s commitment to social justice and diversity, the continued employment of an instructor convicted of multiple murders by the judicial system of a democratic nation raises profound questions about the university’s values,” the letter states.
“How can an institution dedicated to instilling moral principles in its students justify appointing someone convicted of such serious crimes to a teaching position? While we fully support academic freedom and the expression of diverse viewpoints, these principles do not extend to employing individuals convicted of hate-motivated acts of terror.”
The letter emphasizes the obligation of academic institutions to ensure their hiring practices reflect the values of justice and accountability, saying that the hiring decision crosses a “clear ethical line.”
The letter, signed by presidents of Israeli universities such as University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University, and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, emphasizes the obligation of academic institutions to ensure their hiring practices reflect the values of justice and accountability, saying that the hiring decision crosses a “clear ethical line.”
The Canadian Jewish News emailed the communications office of Carleton University for comment about Diab’s employment and the letter, but did not receive a response.
The Rue Copernic bombing
The Rue Copernic bombing occurred on Oct. 3, 1980, when a bomb exploded outside the synagogue during Shabbat services. The attack killed four people, including Israeli television producer Aliza Shagrir, and injured 46 others.
French authorities attributed the bombing to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a militant group and terrorist organization. Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian citizen, was identified as a suspect decades later and extradited to France in 2014. He spent three years in jail, awaiting trial.
In 2018, French courts released Diab, citing insufficient evidence. However, prosecutors reopened the case, and in 2023, Diab was convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Diab has denied involvement, maintaining that he was in Lebanon at the time of the attack. His defense team has argued that evidence used against him, including handwriting analysis, is unreliable.
Students demand answers
One student at Carleton, involved with Jewish advocacy on campus who chose to remain anonymous, said that the university’s lack of transparency on this issue has left students feeling frustrated and disappointed.
“We deserve, at the very minimum, an explanation as to how the employment decision was made and why it was deemed appropriate considering his conviction in absentia in France.”
As a member of the Jewish community on campus, he said the situation is deeply troubling. “The Jewish community deserves better. There’s been a lid put on this, and it seems like there’s little accountability.
“Time and time again, it feels like Jewish students are left to fight these battles alone. We deserve better, he said. “When it comes to (protecting) the Jewish community, there always seems to be a higher burden of proof required for things to be taken seriously.”
CIJA calls for accountability
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has also been outspoken in its criticism of Carleton’s decision, describing it as a failure of institutional responsibility and a dangerous precedent for Canadian academia. In a statement sent to The Canadian Jewish News, Judy Zelikovitz, vice-president of university and local partner services, emphasized the broader implications of Carleton’s choices.
“The incident at Carleton University highlights a glaring oversight: the lack of effective background checks at institutions of higher education,” Zelikovitz wrote. “While Canadian universities claim to prioritize the safety and well-being of their faculty, staff, and students by implementing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) policies, the absence of rigorous vetting for educators undermines these commitments.”
CIJA also pointed to concerns about how Diab’s employment affects the accessibility of education for students. “A classroom environment cannot reasonably be considered accessible to those who oppose terrorism if an individual with a conviction in a democratic state is present,” Zelikovitz said.
She also called for a stronger approach to academic hiring practices, arguing that academic freedom must come with responsibilities. “Ensuring rigorous evaluations of proposed curriculum content and upholding academic integrity must be a standard practice in all academic institutions,” she wrote.
On behalf of CIJA, Zelikovitz demanded immediate action, urging Carleton to terminate Diab’s employment and for the Canadian government to act on France’s extradition request.
“We call on Carleton University to immediately sever its relationship with Hassan Diab and to ensure no other academic institution offers him a position. Furthermore, CIJA urges the Canadian government to respond promptly to France’s request for Diab’s extradition. It is imperative that our educational institutions and government leaders prioritize safety, accountability, and justice in their decisions.”
Condemnation from B’nai Brith
B’nai Brith Canada has been vocal as well in its opposition to Carleton’s decision to employ Diab. In a post on social media, the organization wrote:
“Despite being handed a life sentence by a French court, Hassan Diab continues to live freely in Canada, while Carleton University, unconscionably, continues to allow him the privilege of teaching at a Canadian institution.”
B’nai Brith Canada added that Canadians “cannot stand by while a convicted terrorist, affiliated with a listed terrorist group, teaches on our campuses! The university has ignored B’nai Brith’s formal request to terminate his position, allowing Diab to remain in a position of authority over students.”
B’nai Brith says Carleton’s employment of Diab “not only presents a danger to the well-being of its students, but it is an insult to the memory of the innocent victims of his heinous crime and an affront to all Canadians who value law and order.”
B’nai Brith Canada has intensified its opposition to Hassan Diab’s employment through launching a public letter-writing campaign on its website. The campaign, addressed to Jerry Tomberlin, interim president and vice-chancellor of Carleton, calls for the immediate removal of Diab and highlights concerns over Carleton’s decision to retain Diab as a professor.
The letter further criticizes Carleton for ignoring its previous formal requests to terminate Diab’s employment, raising inquiries about the university’s commitment to ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment.
Support for Hassan Diab
While Hassan Diab’s employment at Carleton has drawn significant criticism, he has also received support from advocacy groups, academics, and members of his department. Supporters argue that he has been unfairly targeted and that his conviction in absentia by a French court lacks credible evidence.
The Hassan Diab Support Committee, which has campaigned on his behalf for over a decade, describes the accusations against him as a miscarriage of justice.
“Dr. Diab is a victim of wrongful allegations based on discredited evidence and unfair legal proceedings,” the committee states on its website. They also highlight that Canada’s courts previously deemed the evidence insufficient to justify his extradition to France in 2018.
Carleton’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology has publicly defended Diab in the past. In a 2021 statement, department chair Blair Rutherford expressed solidarity with Diab, calling the French court’s decision to pursue a trial “shocking” and based on “discredited evidence.” The department further urged the academic community to support Diab against what they described as an unjust prosecution.
In November 2022, the department promoted a rally calling on the Canadian government to protect Diab from what they described as “baseless prosecution” and to reject further extradition requests. The event was attended by supporters advocating for academic freedom and justice for Diab.
Supporters also argue that employing Diab reflects Carleton’s commitment to inclusivity and the presumption of innocence. “Dr. Diab’s return to teaching is an important step in restoring his career and reputation after years of legal persecution,” wrote one supporter on a public forum.
Calls for accountability
Israeli officials have also expressed dismay with Carleton’s hiring decision. Idit Shamir, Israel’s consul general in Toronto, described the university’s decision as “unconscionable,” highlighting her personal connection to the terrorist attack that Diab faced conviction for.
“[T]he terrorist who murdered my friend’s mother, Aliza Shagrir, before his eyes in the 1980 Paris synagogue bombing still lectures at Canada’s @Carleton_U,” Shamir posted on social media in November. “A French court gave him life for murdering four souls and maiming 46. Yet Carleton University rewards him with a teaching position?”
“Every class this convicted terrorist teaches dishonors the lives he destroyed,” Shamir added. “This isn’t just a failure of justice—it’s spitting on the graves of Jewish victims. Shame on those who enable this.”
The post Carleton University faces backlash for employing professor convicted in 1980 Paris synagogue bombing appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.