Cornell University students call for action against professor Russell Rickford who said he was ‘exhilarated’ by Hamas’ terror atrocity that killed 1,400 Israelis – but he doubles down on his comments

Students at Cornell University are calling on the Ivy League school’s administration to take action against the controversial professor who passionately declared himself “excited” by Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel that killed 1,400 people.

Russell Rickford is an associate professor of history and, according to his Twitter bio, a “historian of the black radical tradition.”

He spoke of the attacks in terms of geopolitics, saying they “shifted the balance of politics and shattered Israel’s illusion of invincibility and gave Palestinians hope as he made his most incendiary statements.”

‘It was exciting. It was exciting, it was energizing. And if they weren’t excited by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, the shift in power, they wouldn’t be human. I was excited,” he told the crowd at a rally in support of Gaza.

At least two students, both with families in Israel, signed up for the student run Cornell Daily Sun to express concerns about their safety on campus and to accuse Rickford of inciting more violence.

While Rickford’s shocking comments made headlines around the world, the professor appeared to double down on his statement when approached for comment by the Daily Sun.

‘As I said in that video: I abhor the killing of civilians. If we in the West actually believe in the rhetoric we express about equality, about human rights, then we must recognize the enormous disproportionality, the enormous inequality, the injustice and hypocrisy of Western support in celebrating Israeli war crimes, and the comparison of any form of Palestinian resistance to terrorism,” Rickford said.

While student Netanel Shapira, who has family in Israel and friends in the Israeli military that he is concerned about, said Rickford should not be on campus.

“You can’t be in a situation where you have a professor on campus… making comments like it should be exciting to slaughter civilians and kill babies. And that it made him happy. That’s the first step.

Shapira said he was among those who filmed Rickford’s original comments.

Another student, Ethan Glezen, accused the professor of encouraging more violence with his words.

‘His words directly supported the violence. It was the next level where things started to feel uncomfortable,” said Glezen, who said he was at the meeting to hear more from the other side of the conflict.

“I never felt that my personal safety was in danger until we started hearing that the actions of Hamas are cheering up another person, because those actions are totally and completely focused on one goal, which is equal parts suffering, equal amounts of terror, and equal amounts of horror caused. for Jewish citizens, the Jewish people is possible.’

A member of the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine told the newspaper that even he did not fully support Rickford’s statements.

“The excitement people feel is connected to Hamas. Hamas had essentially done what the Palestinians wanted to do almost ideologically. They wanted their shackles removed,” Hasham Khan said.

“Can your chains be removed by killing civilians? No. Can your chains be removed by engaging in terrorism? No. But the excitement and liberation you feel when you attack the oppressor is just a common theme in the revolution,” Khan added.

There was some approval and applause from the crowd as Rickford made his comments.

“That’s what they did. You don’t have to be a Hamas supporter to recognize it,” he added.

The people who filmed the video would not say whether the meeting took place on the New York campus.

In response to the speech, the crowd began chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Many Jewish groups believe the chant is anti-Semitic and intended to completely eliminate Israel.

Rickford has not tweeted since June, and neither he nor Cornell responded to requests for comment.

He was previously part of an effort to revamp policing on Ivy League campuses in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Rickford opposed Ithaca’s attempt to consider an ambitious – and controversial – plan to rebuild its military force ‘from the ground up’, feeling it did not go far enough.

The proposal would have replaced the 63-officer Ithaca Police Department with a new Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety, made up of both armed officers and unarmed “community solutions officers” to handle nonviolent calls such as petty thefts.

Some social justice activists dismiss it as a watered-down version of what they call “defunding the police.”

Rickford, who focuses on the Black radical tradition, said he and members of the Tompkins County Antiracist Coalition are “deeply skeptical” of the plan.

“We fear it is an attempt to rebrand the police while suppressing or erasing the fundamental demand for mass police disengagement that arose in the context of the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor uprisings,” he wrote in a e-mail.

Academia has played a major role in the pro-Palestinian movement in the aftermath of the attacks.

Harvard’s Arab Alumni Association has appealed for donations to help students’ mental health after they were subjected to “relentless bullying and intimidation” for blaming Israel for the October 7 Hamas attacks.

The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee released a letter on October 7, co-signed by 33 other Harvard student organizations, stating: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime fully responsible for all the unfolding violence.”

The students leading the 33 organizations and the Solidarity Committee were singled out and faced calls to be blacklisted from future jobs.

On the day of the attacks, a letter was sent from more than thirty Harvard student groups, informing Hamas terrorists of launching an attack from Gaza on a music festival near the border and nearby villages. Women and children were murdered in their beds and an estimated 200 people were taken hostage.

Claudine Gay, Harvard’s president, said days later that the letter does not speak for the educational institution as a whole or its leadership. Her comments came after some criticized Harvard’s administration for taking too long to denounce the student letter.