US Colleges Under Pressure to Fire Hamas-Praising Professors as Middle Eastern War Intensifies

Student-led campaigns calling for their firing are attracting tens of thousands of supporters.

Columbia University students participate in a rally in support of Palestine at the university on Oct. 12, 2023. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

As the war in Israel rages on, some of the top universities in the United States are facing increasing pressure to punish their faculty members who are openly condoning the terror attacks that rekindled the deadly conflict.

The large-scale surprise attack Hamas unleashed on Israel last week has prompted a slew of college professors to express solidarity and sympathy with the attackers on social media. Some now find themselves targets of student-led campaigns calling for their ouster.

Yale Students: ‘Freedom of Speech Cannot Be Abused’

One such petition is directed at Zareena Grewal, a Yale University professor of “American Studies, Ethnicity, Race, Migration, and Religious Studies.” On Oct. 7, shortly after the Hamas attack unfolded, Grewal posted on X a series of messages praising what she called a Palestinian “resistance.”