The College Fix

Someone commented to ask if the shark was okay, and he responded by saying he ‘heard [the] shark contracted cancer’

San Diego State University recently fielded some concerns by observers regarding a high-profile professor who posted extreme anti-Israel comments on his Facebook page. Administrators met with the professor but will take no action, according to the scholar’s social media posts.

Chicano studies Professor Roberto Hernández shared an article on his personal Facebook page with the title “Former Israeli Soldier From the 8207 Battalion is Eaten by a Shark in Occupied Palestine.” Alongside the late-April post he wrote, “Shark Oyate for the win!! #solidarity #FreePalestine.”

Someone commented to ask if the shark was okay, and Hernández responded by saying he “heard [the] shark contracted cancer,” according to screenshots obtained by The College Fix.

The professor describes himself on Facebook as “an unapologetic anti-Zionist, AND a proud pro-Semite in that … [he supports] the Semitic Palestinian people and Semitic original Jewish peoples of Palestine.”

Although it’s his personal Facebook page, his profile states he is a professor at SDSU.

Hernández is also chair of the University Senate’s 2024-25 DEI committee, chaired the search committee for the College of Arts and Letters provost search and for a cluster hire on “border studies,” and served on the SDSU Press editorial board.

Comments on his original post were divided, with some people agreeing with him, and others calling it “despicable behavior,” especially for a professor.

Hernández defended himself by saying that it is “hilarious how you keep trying to imply that my social media is how I am in the classroom.” He then invited the commenter to come to his classroom along with cursing at the commenter for being “uninformed” and “insinuating.”

When the commenter responded and said, “how you conduct yourself in and out of the school environment is linked” he cursed, called her a Karen, and told her to “get off my wall.”

Later, he told the same commenter that she was deluded for disagreeing with him, and said that he has “been keeping up with at least 4-5 sides of this situation.”

Another person commented that they hoped he (the Israeli man) “was aware of what was happening” and that “it was tortuous.” Hernández reacted by liking the comment.

The College Fix reached out to Hernández and requested comment on his views. He responded by posting on Facebook that “of course… [he] will not be responding to such a trap that is clearly fishing for dirt” and claimed that the situation is an “orchestrated… manufactured crisis.”

In the comments, Hernández said that he had a meeting with SDSU administration. Later, he posted an update saying, “Admin can’t and won’t pursue any disciplinary action because there is nothing to discipline me about!”

“Complaints are about social media posts and wild insinuations that if I post what I do on social media that I then must be engaging in indoctrination in the classroom, allegedly,” Hernández wrote. “However, one thing is clear: no evidence, therefore no basis for any disciplinary action.”

“All my students will tell you my classes are about critical thinking and rigor in ones’ analyses,” Hernández wrote. “We are indeed in different times folks, when those that justify genocide then claim victim when they are challenged on it.”

The College Fix reached out to the Hillel of San Diego for comment.

“Hillel San Diego condemns the dehumanizing social media post by an SDSU professor celebrating the death of an Israeli by a shark attack. It’s abhorrent,” Executive Director Karen Parry said.

“We also commend President de la Torre for her clear moral leadership in affirming that such rhetoric violates SDSU’s core values,” Parry told The Fix. “We share President de la Torre’s commitment to ensuring SDSU remains a welcoming environment for Jewish students and all members of the campus community.”

President de la Torre threw her public support behind Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

SDSU’s media relations department did not respond to a request for comment from The College Fix.

On May 6, Hernández shared a quote by Luigi Mangione, the suspected murderer of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, that stated: “Normalize direct action when protesting doesn’t work.”

On Feb. 5, he shared a quote stating: “Trump is a 19th century colonial white supremacist. He is what made the U.S. and Western Europe [and] is partially why he is hated so much by cosmopolitan liberals – they don’t want to be reminded of the barbarism they benefited from, including the support given to Israel.”

Hernández teaches classes at SDSU on “US/Mexico border history, theory and contemporary issues, Chicana/o and border folklore, Community Studies, and racialized/gendered captivity and incarceration from colonialism and slavery to the prison industrial complex and migrant detention centers,” according to his SDSU bio.

Editor’s note: Professor Hernández’s Facebook profile is public and posts cited in this article remain published and visible. 

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