Columbia Professor Says Israel Is Almost Identical To Islamic State
Image by wikicommons
(JTA) — A Columbia University professor wrote on Facebook that the only difference between Israel and the Islamic State is that Zionist columnists defend the Jewish state’s “terrorist cause.”
Hamid Dabashi, a professor in the university’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, wrote this last week, triggering an outcry by pro-Israel students.
The “murderous thugs” of the jihadist group “conquered parts of Syria and declared a ‘caliphate,’” Dabashi wrote. “Their ISRAELI counterparts meanwhile conquered parts of Syria and declared it part of their Zionist settler colony.”
He added: “The only difference: ISIS does not have a platoon of clean shaven and well coiffured [sic] columnists at the New York Times propagating the cause of the terrorist outfit as the Zionists columnists do on a regular basis.”
The university chapter of Students Supporting Israel wrote in a statement Thursday: “This kind of utterly despicable and repugnant statement is not to be expected from a tenured faculty holder in an Ivy League institution.” Fox News and other media reported that the university did not immediately reply to queries on Dabashi.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
