'Palestinian' prof who terrorized students gets tenure at Columbia?
The New York Daily News reports that Columbia College would neither confirm nor deny reports that Joseph Massad, a 'Palestinian' professor who terrorized students in his classroom, has been granted tenure by the university. In a message addressed "to all the Zionist hoodlums out there," As'ad AbuKhalil wrote that "dear Joseph Massad deservedly received his tenure." This happened, he went on, despite "dirty tricks" and "sinister propaganda" by said Zionist hoodlums.The Daily News explains why Massad has no place on an American university campus.
Columbia would not confirm or deny AbuKhalil's report.
Massad is a Jordanian-born Palestinian who teaches in the department of Middle East and Asian languages and cultures. That he does not belong in Morningside Heights became clear in 2005, when a university investigation concluded he "exceeded commonly accepted bounds" of teaching.And you thought he was 'only' anti-Israel and not an anti-Semite. No, that excuse won't work this time either.
How? By threatening to banish a student who had asked a question that challenged Massad's Israel-is-evil point of view. "If you're going to deny the atrocities being committed against Palestinians, then you can get out of my classroom," he said.
On another occasion, Massad demanded that a student, a former Israeli soldier, tell him how many Palestinians he had killed.
Said to be a scholar of contemporary Arab politics and culture, Massad crosses into lunacy regarding Jews. In one article, he proclaimed that Jews are infected by a mass psychosis that drives them to persecute Palestinians, put Israel's record on a par with Nazi mass murders and said Palestinians are the "real Jews" while Jews are the real anti-Semites.
For those of who wonder why Khaled Abu Toameh writes that American college campuses are more pro-Hamas than the 'Palestinians' themselves, mentors like Massad are a reason why.
As many of you know already, I am an alumnus of Columbia College. If Massad has been granted tenure, it's disgraceful. Yesterday, I had an email from a college classmate who lives in Israel bemoaning the fact that for the second year in a row, no Israelis (or 'Palestinians' from the 'Palestinian Authority') were accepted to Columbia College.
Columbia enjoyed another record increase in applications, and an exponential increase in applications from overseas students. Acceptance rate hovered at the previous record rate of 7%, once again representing the most selective rate of applicants/acceptances in the Ivy League.While there is much that could be improved in Israeli education, I am happy that no Israelis will be attending Columbia. There are enough anti-Israel professors on our own campuses without sending our best and brightest to study under the likes of Massad.
Nevertheless, the steep descent of educational quality in Israel, measured in terms of acceptances at the primary Ivy League institutions, need sound an alarm for all concerned with prospects for the next generation. Japan, Korea, India, the UK, France, Italy, Argentina, Brasil, Canada, Australia and Switzerland all maintained prior levels of candidate acceptances or rose slightly.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:31 PM
3 Comments:
Israeli higher education is disgraced with the likes of Neve Gordon at Ben Gurion University, who hates Israel and lauds terrorists. The disease of political correctness afflicts institutions like BGU in Israel and Columbia University abroad. As it is, the next generation is being indoctrinated to hate Israel and the West.
What a terrifying thought. In my day, universities were institutions that promoted open thinking and a liberal education. Today, they promote stultifying conformity and indoctrination in whatever happen to be the fashionable fads of the day, week, month, year or decade.
That's how pseudo-scholars like Gordon and Joseph Massad at Columbia get away with it.
Greetings:
Quoting: "On another occasion, Massad demanded that a student, a former Israeli soldier, tell him how many Palestinians he had killed."
In January 1970, I returned from my tour as an infantryman in Viet Nam. My father, who had been a n infantryman in the Pacific in WWII, asked me how many Commies I had killed.
"Not enough," I replied.
I would like to think that I would have answered such lies with facts, or at least a challenge to prove the lies. My suspicions are that, as an undergraduate, I might have been too intimidated to speak out - initially. I would have gone to the Dean afterwards, feeling cowardly. I see I will have to teach my children to be even more strong than I.
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