Yale University professor Zareena Grewal is facing backlash for tweeting in support of Palestine and calling Israel a “murderous, genocidal settler state”.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Grewal wrote, “My heart is in my throat. Prayers for Palestinians. Israel is a murderous, genocidal settler state and Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle, solidarity.”
She published the post on the very day the Hamas launched over 5,000 rockets at Israel and unleashed a brutal terrorist attack on civilians, killing over 1300 people and taking hundreds of hostages.
Zareena Grewal has since been facing calls to be ousted from her position at Yale where she works as an associate professor of American studies, ethnicity, race, migration, and religious studies. Her biography on the Yale University website describes her as a historical anthropologist and a documentary filmmaker.
She describes herself as a “radical Muslim” on her X profile. According to the New York Post, Grewal followed up her post with a series of tweets that “appeared to applaud” the brutality of Hamas. At least 1,300 people were killed including women, babies, and the elderly. Many have also been abducted and taken hostage.
In one such tweet, the Yale professor wrote, “It’s been such an extraordinary day!” In a reply to journalist Rachel Sabhi’s tweet that read “Civilians are civilians are civilians, doesn’t matter where”, Grewal wrote, “Settlers are not civilians. This is not hard”.
She also wrote in another post that “no government on earth is as genocidal as this settler colonial state”, referring to Israel.
Now, a petition has been initiated on Change.org titled “Remove Zareena Grewal from the Yale Faculty for Promoting LIES and VIOLENCE”. The petition has been launched by Yale student Netanel Crispe.
Crispe wrote, “She has unequivocally proven that she has no right being in her current role or in the field of education if she considers war crimes against civilians to be acts of resistance.”
More than 28,000 people have signed the petition calling for Grewal’s immediate removal. Her account is now protected limiting the viewership on the same.
Meanwhile, the University seems to be unwilling to take any action. A spokesperson for the University defended Grewal’s right to free speech saying, “Yale is committed to freedom of expression, and the comments posted on Professor Grewal’s personal accounts represent her own views,” the spokesperson, Karen Peart, told the student newspaper Yale Daily News.
Meanwhile, president of Yale University Peter Salovey has condemned the terrorist attack on Israel.
The development comes as some student groups at Harvard University faced widespread backlash for supporting and justifying the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7th October. After their letter blaming Israel was highlighted and several CEOs made it clear that they wouldn’t be hiring the terror sympathizers, the students started to backtrack, some apologizing and some pleading that they did not sign the letter knowingly.
