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Anti-Zionist Yale Professor Who Legitimized Hamas Massacre Should Be Removed From Classroom, Nonprofit Says

Palestinian terrorists ride an Israeli military vehicle that was seized by gunmen who infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot

A leading nonprofit that promotes education about Israel has implored Yale University President Peter Salovey to remove from the classroom and investigate a professor who praised Hamas’ atrocities in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

“We urge you to investigate this matter fully, remove Professor Grewal from the classroom pending the outcome of the investigation, and, if any violations of university values or policy are found, to impose immediate consequences,” StandWithUs said in a letter sent to Salovey on Tuesday, explaining that such a step would protect Jewish and Israeli students from academic bias.

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Zareena Grewal — an associate professor of American Studies, Ethnicity, Race & Migration, and Religious Studies at Yale who describes herself as a “radical Muslim” — called Israel “murderous” and “genocidal” on the day of the Hamas massacre.

“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.

The disturbing tweets prompted over 55,000 people, including Yale affiliates, to sign a petition demanding that she be fired.

In Tuesday’s letter, StandWithUs (SWU) criticized Yale University’s response to Grewal’s tweets, which the school only commented on in a statement that affirmed its commitment to free speech and noted that Grewal had spoken for herself on her “personal” social media accounts.

“This entirely misses the point, and more importantly, attempts to abdicate Yale of responsibility,” the letter continued, arguing that declining to punish hateful rhetoric aimed at Jews while forcefully doing so when other minority groups are targeted constitutes a civil rights violation. “Instead of pretending that principles of free speech and academic freedom require it to shield Professor Grewal from accountability, Yale, as a private institution, can and should take action here to address the abhorrent and antisemitic rhetoric of this professor.”

The group also suggested that Grewal is benefiting from a left-wing bias, referencing how in 2018, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua was subjected to investigations and rumor-mongering after she expressed approval of then-US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanuagh in a Wall Street Journal column.

“Your administration’s failure to treat this matter with the appropriate level of seriousness unfortunately speaks volumes about Yale’s lack of concern for the Jewish and Israeli members of its campus community,” the letter concluded. “We urge you to send a clear message to your community that you protect your Jewish and Israeli students, that there is no place for discrimination or bigotry at Yale, and that all members of your community are valued and protected equally. The best way to start is through action and enforcement of your own policies and applicable legal provisions.”

SWU’s missive to Salovey comes amid a surge in antisemitism on college campuses across the West. Universities have been hubs of such antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, with students and faculty both demonizing Israel and rationalizing the Palestinian terror group’s onslaught. Incidents of harassment and even violence against Jewish students have also increased. As a result, Jewish students have expressed feeling unsafe and unprotected on campuses.

Grewal is not the first faculty member employed by an elite American university to make public statements that have drawn accusations of antisemitism, and responses to such utterances have varied.

In October, Cornell University President Martha Pollack condemned history professor Russell Rickford for saying during a rally held on campus that Hamas’ violence on Oct. 7 “exhilarated” him, describing his remarks as “reprehensible” and “showing no regard whatsoever for humanity.” Rickford later requested and was granted a leave of absence.

Columbia University, however, issued no statement nor took any action after professor Joseph Massad, said in a column published in Electronic Intifada that Hamas’ invasion was “awesome” and that the terrorists who para-glided into a music festival in Israel to rape and murder the young people there were “the air force of the Palestinian resistance.” Neither did the University of California, Berkeley after Gender and Women Studies Department lecturer Brooke Lober falsely claimed during a city council meeting in Oakland, California that Israel fabricated accounts of Hamas’ atrocities and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), not Hamas, murdered Israeli civilians.

“The notion that this was a massacre of Jews is a fabricated narrative,” Lober said. “Many of those killed on Oct. 7, including children, were killed by the IDF.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Anti-Zionist Yale Professor Who Legitimized Hamas Massacre Should Be Removed From Classroom, Nonprofit Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians

US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk in the midst of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Israeli officials have suggested the establishment of a Palestinian state on Saudi territory. Netanyahu appeared to be joking on Thursday when he responded to an interviewer on pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 who mistakenly said “Saudi state” instead of “Palestinian state,” before correcting himself.

While the Saudi statement mentioned Netanyahu’s name, it did not directly refer to the comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.

Egypt and Jordan also condemned the Israeli suggestions, with Cairo deeming the idea as a “direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty.”

The kingdom said it valued “brotherly” states’ rejection of Netanyahu’s remarks.

“This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land,” it said.

Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been upended by Tuesday’s shock proposal from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.

Arab states have roundly condemned Trump’s comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the terrorist group Hamas, which controls the narrow strip.

Trump has said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalizing ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statements, saying it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.

The post Saudi Arabia Rejects Israel PM Netanyahu’s Remarks on Displacing Palestinians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on 27 February to discuss what it described as “serious” developments for Palestinians, according to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday.

The summit comes amid regional and global condemnation of US President Donald Trump’s suggestion to “take over the Gaza Strip” from Israel and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.

The post Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on 27 February to Discuss ‘Serious’ Palestinian Developments first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home

Relatives hug a released Thai hostage, who was kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and held in Gaza, as the hostages arrive in Thailand following their release, at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Samut Prakan, Thailand, February 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

When Surasak Rumnao, 31, left his home in Thailand’s rural Udon Thani province three years ago to go across the world to the southern Israeli town of Yesha for agriculture work, his family never imagined they would lose touch with him for over a year when he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in October 2023.

He and four others were reunited with their families this weekend after their release from captivity in Gaza.

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists abducted more than 250 people, including Israelis and foreign nationals, in their October 2023 attack on Israel.

During the attack, Hamas terrorists killed more than 40 Thais and kidnapped 31 Thai laborers, some of whom died in captivity, according to the Thai government. Later that year, the first group of Thai hostages was returned.

Surasak’s mother, Khammee Rumnao, was relieved that her son was not mistreated and has returned to his home, about 620 km(385 miles) northeast of the capital, Bangkok.

“He mainly got to eat bread, he was looked after well and was fed all three meals (each day). He got to shower, he was looked after well,” Khammee said, and that he ate whatever his captors had.

Her son does not plan to go back and wants to use the knowledge he gained in his agricultural work in Israel at their home, she said.

His grandparents and other relatives came to their home to welcome him home.

His stepfather, Janda Prachanan, was elated.

“I couldn’t find the words to describe how happy I am, that my son is safe and finally home,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, the other returnees, dressed in winter jackets, were met with tears of joy from their families who were waiting for their arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

“We are all deeply touched to come back to our birthplace … to be standing here,” said Pongsak Thaenna, one of the returnees said. “I don’t know what else to say, we are all truly thankful.”

Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa, who met the hostages in Israel after their release last week, expressed relief.

“This is emotional … to come back to the embrace of their families,” he said. “We never gave up and this was the fruit of that.”

Before the conflict, approximately 30,000 Thai laborers worked in Israel’s agriculture sector, making them one of the largest migrant worker groups in the country. Nearly 9,000 Thais were repatriated following the October 7 attacks.

The workers primarily come from Thailand’s northeastern region, an area comprising villages and farming communities that is among the poorest in the country.

Thailand’s foreign ministry said a Thai national is still believed to be held captive by Hamas.

“We still have hope and continue to work to bring them back,” Maris said, adding that this includes the bodies of two deceased Thai nationals.

The post Thai Nationals Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Return Home first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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