An economics professor at the University of Southern California is suspended from teaching in person after angry words to a group of pro-Hamas demonstrators, prompting an academic freedom group to demand his full reinstatement. He is now required to teach by Zoom for the rest of the semester.
Tenured Professor John Strauss, who is Jewish, “will be teaching his two classes remotely for the rest of the semester,” announced USC.
Earlier this month, the professor encountered a students engaged in a pro-Hamas protest. In the unedited video of the exchange, Strauss can be heard saying “people are ignorant” as he walked by, adding “Hamas are murderers. That’s all they are. Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are.”
Instagram accounts of the protesters posted a shorter, misleadingly edited video to their accounts on Nov. 9 with student faces blurred. In the video, Strauss’s comments about Hamas were edited out, leaving only his words, “every one should be killed, and I hope they all are,” suggesting that he wanted to kill all Palestinians.
That misleadingly edited video, which has now attracted over 2 million views on X, was posted by activist Tara Alami, according to the Forward. The edited version was also posted by larger pro-Palestine accounts. (It was also posted by the “criminal justice reform” grifter Shaun King, who was recently exposed for lying about supposedly helping free two Hamas hostages, when he had nothing to do with their release, as their families pointed out. King has never made any efforts to help any hostage).
As one tweet put it, citing the misleading video,
here is @USC professor John Strauss saying “every one of them should be killed, and I hope they all are” while passing by students who organised a memorial for 10,000+ Palestinian martyrs killed in the past month pic.twitter.com/Iuox2laMKL
— tara (@taraxrh) November 10, 2023
Strauss clarified his comments in an interview posted to YouTube on Nov. 14 with Annenberg Media in which he said their initial coverage of the incident misrepresented what occurred.
“Every one of them, of course, referred to Hamas,” Strauss said. “Then that later was changed to, in the video that was released publicly that was heavily doctored, to Palestinians should be murdered. And that’s not what I said at all.”
“The video that was put out there by the pro-Palestinian students was doctored and claimed I said things that I never meant,” Strauss said. “I’ve asked the administration and the provost’s office to make a statement to that effect.”
Two petitions have gained momentum on social media, one in support of Strauss, which currently has over 9,000 signatures, and one demanding his termination, with over 6,500 signatures.
The petition in support of Strauss demands a complete review of the incident, and reexamination of university policies regarding professor suspensions.
In the interview, Strauss said he first encountered the protest on the way to teach his class, when he heard the students shouting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” which he said is code for the destruction of Israel. (Israel is found in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, so for Palestine to include all the area “from the river to the sea” necessary means Israel would no longer would exist and all Israelis would have to leave).
He said he responded by yelling back, “Israel forever. Hamas are murderers.”
Following this interaction, USC put Strauss on paid administrative leave on November 10. But the university later allowed him to continue teaching his graduate course via zoom, and then to teach his undergraduate course online as well.
A university statement to the Daily Trojan says Strauss is no longer on administrative leave, just teaching remotely.
The Academic Freedom Alliance, a coalition of academics devoted to protecting freedom of expression, wrote to USC’s Provost Andrew Guzman, calling for Strauss’s full reinstatement.
The letter says Strauss’s remarks were “fully in bounds of protected First Amendment speech” and that “the university’s actions represent an egregious violation of the principles of freedom of expression and due process which the University of Southern California has contractually committed itself.”
