BUZZ
Professor ‘failed to establish defamation claim,’ judge rules
A New York judge threw out a lawsuit brought by a pro-Hamas professor against Columbia University, finding that the school and former president did not discriminate against him when they criticized his remarks.
Kathleen Waterman-Marshall determined this week that former visiting professor Mohamed Abdou “failed to establish a defamation claim” or prove he was subjected to a hostile work environment, Jerusalem News Syndicate reported.
Abdou, who taught at Columbia’s Middle East Institute during the spring 2024 semester, drew national attention after expressing support for anti-Israel militant groups following the October 7, 2023 terror attacks.
“I’m with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad,” he said on social media.
During a congressional hearing in April 2024, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik pressed then-Columbia University president Minouche Shafik about the comments.
Shafik condemned the remarks and said Abdou “will never work at Columbia again,” The College Fix previously reported.
Abdou filed the lawsuit in August 2024, alleging that Shafik’s testimony harmed his academic career and claiming the congressional hearing was “chock full of racism,” according to The Times of Israel.
The judge disagreed, stating, “Abdou provides no authority which stands for the proposition that expressing disapproval of a foreign terrorist organization in a Congressional hearing amounts to discrimination.”
Abdou has appealed the decision.
Since leaving Columbia, the former professor has doubled down on his Palestinian advocacy and even called for the destruction of the U.S.
Earlier this year, Abdou spoke to Virginia Tech students, advocating for “a total end to U.S. empire,” The College Fix reported.
Abdou hailed the students as “a branch of the resistance,” but criticized them for failing to move beyond rhetoric to militant action.
“You won’t blow up ports. You won’t engage in Palestine Actions … You won’t halt the weapons industry. You won’t destroy locally where you are at,” he said.
“Death to America … means the death of this evil regime,” he told the students.
The former professor “is a self-identifying Muslim anarchist and diasporic settler of color,” according to his website.
As a visiting professor at Columbia’s Middle East Institute, he taught a course called “Decolonial-Queerness & Abolition in [Southwest Asia and North Africa],” according to The Times of Israel.
This ruling comes amid more accusations of discrimination against the school.
Five Palestinian students and faculty members sued Columbia this month, alleging discrimination based on their Palestinian identity, The Times of Israel reported.
The lawsuit claims the university failed to protect them, created a hostile campus environment, and encouraged harassment against Palestinians amid anti-Israel protests.
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