A Cornell University professor was caught on camera telling students the Hamas terror attack on Israel – which has left more than 1,400 people dead – was “exhilarating” and “energizing.”
The remarks were made at a pro-Palestinian protest by Russell Rickford, a history professor at the top Ithaca, New York, school, and were posted online on Sunday by a student who called them “disgraceful.”
Footage of Rickford’s fiery speech was also shared with The Post by two other tipsters. They declined to say when and where exactly the rally took place, but both said they were shocked by the brazen remarks.
The professor said the coordinated October 7 attack, in which militants broke through a concrete wall and slid into Israel to indiscriminately kill civilians “shifted the political balance and punctured the illusion of invulnerability” of Israel, which has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since the terrorist group Hamas seized power there in 2007.
“That is what they have done. You don’t have to be a Hamas supporter to recognize that,” he said.
Rickford later claimed that many Palestinians born into violence and oppression “were able to breathe for the first time in years” in the hours after the brutal massacre.
“It was very exciting. It’s exhilarating, it’s energizing. And if they are not excited by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, the transition of power violence, then they are not human. I’m so excited,” Russell said to a small round of applause from the students, the video shows.
A Cornell University professor was recorded telling students that the Hamas attack was “exhilarating” and “energizing.” Getty Images
The crowd then chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a general call for pro-Palestinian supporters to eliminate Israel and establish their own state. The phrase is considered antisemitic by the American Jewish Committee.
Rickford did not respond to an interview request from The Post and Cornell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cornell University Professor Russell Rickford talks about Hamas terrorist attacks.@samaberman / X
His outburst came after the director of diversity and inclusion at Cornell University was criticized for calling the Hamas attack a “fight.”
“F–k your fake anger at the Palestinians when you are completely silent about the violence that Israel perpetrates on the Palestinians every day,” Derron Borders, of the Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management wrote on Instagram the day of the attack.
On Saturday morning last week, fighters from the Israeli Navy’s southern command were alerted following a notification of an attempted infiltration by sea. Israel Defense Forces
Borders later condemned the violence, but said it was comparable to Israel’s “state-sanctioned violence” against Palestinians.
Cornell’s Ivy League rival, Harvard University, made headlines last week when more than 30 student organizations signed a letter distributed by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups that held Israel “solely responsible” for the terror attack.
Harvard’s president defended students’ right to free speech, but several groups tried to withdraw their support for the order after the business giant threatened to blacklist them from Wall Street.
The nonprofit news watchdog group Accuracy in Media drove a billboard truck around the Cambridge, Mass., campus. to denounce the students who supposedly signed the letter, labeling them “Harvard’s Major Antisemites.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
