University of Southern California (USC) economics professor John Strauss, who is Jewish, has been barred from campus because of a doctored video circulated by anti-Israel activists who claim he said all Palestinians should be killed.
In fact, as the full video (clumsily included here by an anti-Israel activist) shows, Strauss was referring specifically to the Hamas terrorist organization.
Video 1: ” … should be killed, and I hope they are.”
Video 2: ” You people are ignorant. Really ignorant. Hamas are murderers. That’s all they are. Every one of them should be killed, and I hope they are.”
Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian, and Muslim activists only cited the former video in pushing for USC to take against Strauss.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday:
As [Strauss’s] remarks raced across the internet, his condemnation of Hamas was often excised, leaving only his “hope” for “all” to be killed. Captions and comments online framed his demand for “every one” to be killed in myriad, at times deceptive, ways. One Instagram post shared to millions of users claimed falsely that Strauss told the students, “[I] hope you get killed….”
Within a day, an associate dean told Strauss that he was on paid administrative leave, barred from campus, and that he would no longer teach his undergraduates this semester.
Within the week, a petition demanding that USC fire Strauss for his “racist, xenophobic behavior” and comments that “promote and incite violence” had collected more than 6,500 signatures.
The UK Daily Mail noted:
Strauss said he was provoked by what he felt were anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments overheard while walking to class.
‘I’m Jewish, I’m very pro-Israel,’ he told USC Annenberg Media. ‘And so I yelled out ‘Israel forever. Hamas are murderers.’
USC’s free speech policy states: “The legitimate expression of differing opinions and concerns, including unpopular, controversial or dissident viewpoints, is an essential element of the academic process.”
