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Decolonization is ‘ethnic cleansing, but woke,’ conservative professor wrote

Academics took to social media in support of Palestine’s “decolonization” in the wake of Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, including babies.

Texas Tech University education Professor Jairo I. Fúnez-Flores wrote on X hours after Oct. 7 attacks that “decolonization is not a metaphor. It’s about a free Palestine.”

The professor, who specializes in “decolonial theory” and “activist research,” wrote “decolonization is about dreaming and fighting for a present and future free of occupied Indigenous territories.”

Politics Professor Uahikea Maile of the University of Toronto told X users in the immediate aftermath of the attacks that Israeli “occupation is a crime.”

Maile is a “professor of Indigenous politics” according to his X bio and a “scholar, activist, and practitioner” whose interests include “indigenous critical theory; settler colonialism; political economy; feminist and queer theories; and decolonization,” according to his university page.

He urged solidarity with the Palestinian cause: “a lāhui [group] that stands for decolonization and deoccupation should also stand behind freedom for Palestine.”

Decolonization is about dreaming and fighting for a present and future free of occupied Indigenous territories. It’s about a Free Palestine. It’s about liberation and self-determination. It’s about living with dignity. DECOLONIZATION IS NOT A METAPHOR

— Jairo I Fúnez-Flores (@Jairo_I_Funez) October 7, 2023

As Hawaiians wake up to the news of Palestinian anticolonial resistance in Gaza to Israeli settler colonialism, remember that—from Hawaiʻi to Palestine—occupation is a crime. A lāhui that stands for decolonization and deoccupation should also stand behind freedom for Palestine.

— Uahikea Maile (@uahikea) October 7, 2023

In a video posted Tuesday to X, NYU Professor Amin Husain told a pro-Palestine crowd that the NYPD is “our enemy” and “an impediment to the liberation of Palestine.”

The College Fix could not immediately verify when the video was taken.

Husain’s research interests include “cultures of resistance” and “postcolonial theory,” according to his faculty bio.

Husain is also a co-cofounder of Decolonize This Place, a movement supporting “Indigenous struggle, Black liberation, free Palestine, global wage workers, [and] degentrification,” according to its Instagram.

The Fix reached out to Fúnez-Flores and Maile on Wednesday and to Husain on Thursday via email, asking them what they viewed as legitimate action in pursuit of decolonization. They have not responded.

University students have joined professors in support of Palestinian “resistance.” Multiple chapters of the National Students for Justice in Palestine have pledged to participate in an October 12 “Day of Resistance,” The College Fix reported.

NSJP has “celebrated Hamas’s attacks” and provided a “Day of Resistance Toolkit” to local chapters that called the invasion “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance,” according to The Washington Free Beacon.

Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo spoke out against advocates of “decolonization” and “resistance” against Israel, writing on Oct. 9, “in practice, decolonization means Gaza-style violence.”

Rufo also described a nexus between “decolonization” ideas and other leftist academic theories like “intersectionality.”

He posted information on current Harvard courses on decolonization, one of which teaches “how BIPOC communities forged [intersectional] solidarities against global white supremacy,” according to the syllabus Rufo posted.

Here are some of the current Harvard courses on "decolonization," promoting theories of "anticolonial struggle" and "how BIPOC communities forged [intersectional] solidarities to rebel against global white supremacy."

In practice, decolonization means Gaza-style violence. pic.twitter.com/jygas8Pqox

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 9, 2023

Rufo also wrote Oct. 10 that Angela Davis and the BLM movement have always made excuses for the violent “decolonization” of their enemies, “from Ferguson to Palestine.”

Political scientist Wilfred Reilly of Kentucky State University referred to “decolonization” as “just ethnic cleansing, but woke.”

The professor said that “actually ‘de-colonizing’ the USA would mean deporting or killing 96% of the population.”

However, “the hard left is never going to fully succeed in this country” in carrying out such a plan, he wrote.

The Fix asked Reilly on X whether he had seen any examples of “decolonization” as violence being taught in universities.

“This varies,” Reilly responded. “Obviously, there are many staffed Departments of Post-Colonial Studies and the like.”

“How explicit the revolutionary message is within them varies – but widely taught thinkers from Fanon to Malcolm X to Che are quite open about their goals,” he said. “Phrases like “BAMN” [‘by any means necessary’] and ‘the right to violent resistance cannot be denied’ are de rigeur.”

MORE: UC Berkeley ‘decolonization’ column argues in favor of ‘violent resistance’

IMAGE: Fox News/YouTube

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