USC Professor Put on Remote Teaching After Saying Hamas Should Be Killed

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) (Jessie Appleby) wrote about this last week (as did the Academic Freedom Alliance):

The University of Southern California has barred economics professor John Strauss from teaching on campus for the rest of the semester in response to anti-Hamas remarks he made to pro-Palestinian protesters last week. Strauss will finish out the semester teaching courses on Zoom.

On Nov. 9, students held a protest on the USC campus as part of a worldwide "Shut it Down for Palestine" movement. While walking past a group of protesters gathered at the Tommy Trojan statue, Strauss engaged with them over what he perceived to be anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments.

The kerfuffle started when protesters accused Strauss of stepping on a printed list of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes. (Strauss says that stepping on it was unintentional.) When Strauss passed the protest again later, he said one of the protesters yelled "Shame on you, Professor Strauss. Shame on you." In response, he yelled "No, shame on you. You people are ignorant. Really ignorant. Hamas are murderers. That's all they are. Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are."

A viral video circulated on social media in which Strauss can be heard saying, "Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are." But the clip was shortened in a way that left out the important context that Strauss's full comment made clear he was referring only to Hamas, not all Palestinians, when he said "every one should be killed."

More than a dozen students and faculty filed complaints with the university about Strauss's comment. Some protesters said they felt threatened, while one student organizer said the comment was hate speech. He "threatened us as students," she claimed to USC Annenberg Media, "making us feel unsafe in our academic environment."

On Nov. 10, USC issued a brief statement that it was aware of the video on social media and was looking into the situation. But that same day Strauss received a call from the associate dean of the college, who told him the provost had placed him on paid administrative leave for the rest of the semester.

Initially, the associate dean told Strauss he would only be able to teach his doctoral-level course remotely while on leave, but not his undergraduate course. By Monday, the university backtracked, allowing him to teach both courses remotely. On Tuesday, Nov. 14, the university told the student newspaper Strauss was not on administrative leave but would be teaching his courses remotely for the remainder of the semester.

The "bedrock principle" underlying freedom of expression is that speech may not be restricted on the basis that others find it offensive.

A petition demanding Strauss's termination for "racist and xenophobic behavior" had more than 6,200 signatures as of Nov. 17. A competing petition demanding his reinstatement had garnered more than 8,100 signatures.

On November 20, FIRE wrote USC, calling on the university to allow Strauss to return to his normal in-person teaching duties on campus.

USC may be a private university not bound by the First Amendment, but its policies commit to protecting faculty speech, so "[w]hen they speak or write as citizens, [faculty] should be free from institutional censorship or discipline[.]" As we explained in the letter, the "bedrock principle" underlying freedom of expression is that speech may not be restricted on the basis that others find it offensive: "As a Nation we have chosen … to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate." Nowhere is upholding this principle more important than on a university campus, where debate, and consequently dissent and conflict, are common.

The fact that some protesters characterized Strauss's comments as "hate speech," or even threatening to students, does not deprive them of protection under USC's policies. The standards for punishing speech as a true threat or harassment are high, and Strauss's remarks to a group of protesters fall far short.

Saturday's L.A. Times (Matt Hamilton) reports on the situation, and essentially confirms FIRE's factual account of Strauss's actual statement:

The economics professor's interactions with students that day ended with the 72-year-old Strauss, who is Jewish, declaring: "Hamas are murderers. That's all they are. Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are killed."

As his remarks raced across the internet, his condemnation of Hamas was often excised, leaving only his "hope" for "all" to be killed. Captions and comments online framed his demand for "every one" to be killed in myriad, at times deceptive, ways. One Instagram post shared to millions of users claimed falsely that Strauss told the students, "[I] hope you get killed…."

PEN America, a writers' freedom group, also criticized USC's actions:

Totally barring a professor from campus because of a passing comment like this is a shocking overreaction. Regardless of Professor Strauss's intent, he is entitled to his views and the right to share them. It is no doubt a challenging time for campuses and we recognize that words may feel especially menacing in this environment. But it is exactly because of rising tensions that universities must resist the urge to place limits on speech or dole out punishments for comments that do not rise to the level of clear threats or incitement. Censuring professors for their political views is highly inappropriate and runs the risk of chilling free expression in higher education, for all. What USC has done runs counter to the university's obligation to foster dialogue and debate.