{"id":2224631,"date":"2024-04-18T19:02:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T23:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/columbias-joseph-massad-calls-bs-on-university-president-minouche-shafiks-testimony\/"},"modified":"2024-04-18T19:02:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T23:02:51","slug":"columbias-joseph-massad-calls-bs-on-university-president-minouche-shafiks-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/columbias-joseph-massad-calls-bs-on-university-president-minouche-shafiks-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Massad challenges Minouche Shafik&#8217;s testimony at Columbia"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcolumbias-joseph-massad-calls-bs-on-university-president-minouche-shafiks-testimony%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2224631&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Columbia University professor Joseph Massad refuted President \u200bShafik&#8217;s testimony, denying any investigation\u2062 or removal from his post as chairman. \u200bThe\u2063 discrepancies could have implications for Shafik as the House committee \u200bprobes Columbia&#8217;s response to\u2064 campus anti-Semitism. Massad\u2062 received support from university officials regarding his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/teachers-union-leader-praises-op-ed-that-falsely-claimed-parents-have-no-right-to-shape-their-kids-school-curriculum\/\" title=\"Teachers Union Leader Praises Op-Ed That Falsely Claimed Parents Have No Right To \u2018Shape Their Kids\u2019 School Curriculum\u2019\">controversial op-ed<\/a>. He remains as the chairman of the Academic\u2063 Review Committee.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Columbia University professor Joseph Massad emerged on Wednesday contradicting claims made by the school&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/as-pandemic-surges-in-india-us-offers-oxygen-and-related-supplies\/\" title=\"As Pandemic Surges in India, US Offers Oxygen and Related Supplies\">president earlier<\/a> that day before a congressional panel.<\/p>\n<p>Massad <a href=\"https:\/\/electronicintifada.net\/blogs\/ali-abunimah\/joseph-massad-responds-fabrications-and-lies-about-him-congress\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told the <em>Electronic Intifada<\/em><\/a>  that, contrary to Shafik&#8217;s claims, he is not to his knowledge under any investigation by university officials, nor has he been removed from his post as chairman of the school&#8217;s Academic Review Committee.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remain the chair of the Academic Review Committee, a one-year position, for the next few weeks, which is the normal end of my chairmanship,&#8221; Massad said. &#8220;Indeed, I just had a meeting with the committee staff yesterday [16 April] and informed them that I will miss the next and final meeting on 8 May, due to my travel schedule. No one has contacted me at all from the university with regards to my current chairmanship. I will also remain a member of the Academic Review Committee next year, which is a three-year appointment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Massad&#8217;s statement contradicts Shafik&#8217;s testimony to the committee, during which the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/community-remembers-yale-student-killed-in-conn-2\/\" title=\"Community remembers Yale student killed in Conn.\">university president<\/a> said Massad is &#8220;under investigation&#8221; and was &#8220;spoken to&#8221; over an Oct. 8 <a href=\"https:\/\/electronicintifada.net\/content\/just-another-battle-or-palestinian-war-liberation\/38661\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">op-ed<\/a> he published in the <em>Electronic Intifada<\/em>. Massad in the op-ed lauded Hamas&#8217;s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel as &#8220;incredible&#8221; and &#8220;awesome.&#8221; Shafik said that she was &#8220;appalled&#8221; by the op-ed and that Massad was told the language in his piece was &#8220;unacceptable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Shafik also suggested Massad was removed from his role as the chairman of the Columbia Arts and Sciences Academic Review Committee, which <a href=\"https:\/\/fas.columbia.edu\/content\/academic-review-committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conducts<\/a> reviews of the school&#8217;s departments and guides &#8220;administrative decisions.&#8221; After Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) informed Shafik that Columbia&#8217;s website still listed Massad as the chairman of the committee, Shafik backtracked from the claim and pledged to remove Massad from the chairmanship.<\/p>\n<p>The discrepancies could spell trouble for Shafik, given that the House committee&#8217;s Republican members said they would not hesitate to hold another hearing should they deem one necessary. The committee is in the process of obtaining <a href=\"https:\/\/edworkforce.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=410117\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">internal documents<\/a> related to Columbia&#8217;s response to campus anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n<p>In his interview with the <em>Electronic Intifada<\/em>, Massad said he has not been informed of any university investigation into him and met last week with Columbia&#8217;s provost, Angela Olinto, who &#8220;conveyed to me her support.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Massad also said that Columbia administrators did speak to him about his op-ed\u2014but that they offered him support. According to Massad, Gil Hochberg, Columbia&#8217;s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies chairwoman, told Massad she found his op-ed &#8220;descriptive&#8221; and determined it &#8220;did not contain praise for the 7 October attack.&#8221; The school&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/flashback-former-ag-barr-initiated-spying-program-on-americans-back-in-1992\/\" title=\"FLASHBACK: Former AG Barr Initiated Spying Program on Americans Back in 1992\">executive vice president<\/a>, Amy Hungerford, also met with Massad roughly three weeks after his op-ed was published to express &#8220;her concern about my safety and well-being, as I was the target of much hate mail and many death threats,&#8221; Massad said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;President Shafik misconstrued what happened,&#8221; Massad wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Massad remains the chairman of the Arts and Sciences Academic Review Committee, according to Columbia&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/fas.columbia.edu\/content\/academic-review-committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a>, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/fas.columbia.edu\/content\/academic-review-committee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">quietly amended<\/a> in the wake of the hearing to refer to Massad as the committee&#8217;s &#8220;outgoing chair.&#8221; According to Massad, the school did not force him out of his leadership role, and the professor says he will remain a member of the committee going forward.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remain the chair of the Academic Review Committee, a one-year position, for the next few weeks, which is the normal end of my chairmanship,&#8221; Massad wrote in his statement. &#8220;No one has contacted me at all from the university with regards to my current chairmanship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I will also remain a member of the Academic Review Committee next year, which is a three-year appointment,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>A Columbia University spokesman said Massad &#8220;has chaired his final meeting of the academic review committee,&#8221; though Massad said that&#8217;s due to his &#8220;travel schedule&#8221; rather than action taken by the school.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Indeed, I just had a meeting with the committee staff yesterday [16 April] and informed them that I will miss the next and final meeting on 8 May, due to my travel schedule,&#8221; he wrote in his statement.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to her claims on Massad&#8217;s chairmanship, Shafik testified Wednesday that professors who &#8220;behave in any discriminatory fashion&#8221; are taken &#8220;out of the classroom if necessary.&#8221; Columbia&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/doc.search.columbia.edu\/classes\/+?instr=jam25&#038;name=Joseph%20A%20Massad&#038;days=&#038;semes=&#038;hour=&#038;moi=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">class directory<\/a> shows Massad is scheduled to teach a summer course on the &#8220;history of Zionism&#8221; and two courses during the fall semester on culture and nationalism in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>Massad received his doctorate from Columbia in 1998 and was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.columbiaspectator.com\/2009\/08\/28\/massad-tenured-earlier-summer-sources-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">granted tenure<\/a> at the school in 2009. The decision generated controversy at the time, given Massad&#8217;s long history of disparaging both the Jewish state and pro-Israel students.<\/p>\n<p>The professor &#8220;has long argued in his scholarly and journalistic work that Israel is a &#8216;racist Jewish state&#8217; and a &#8216;colonial settlement&#8217; whose &#8216;ultimate achievement&#8217; is the &#8216;transformation of the Jew into the anti-Semite, and the Palestinian into the Jew,'&#8221; according to a 2009 <em>Minding the Campus<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindingthecampus.org\/2009\/09\/18\/massad_got_tenure_dont_tell_an\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a>.\t<\/p>\n<p>In 2004, a female student accused Massad of threatening to kick her out of class over her pro-Israel views. A Columbia academic panel found the allegation &#8220;credible&#8221; and said Massad &#8220;exceeded commonly accepted bounds&#8221; as a professor by failing &#8220;to show respect for the rights of others to hold opinions differing from his own.&#8221; In 2009, Massad compared Israel to Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Tenured professors at Columbia can be terminated if they are &#8220;found to be professionally unfit, as demonstrated, for example, by gross inefficiency, habitual and intentional neglect of duty, other serious breaches of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/this-is-definitely-plagiarism-harvard-university-president-claudine-gay-copied-entire-paragraphs-from-others-academic-work-and-claimed-them-as-her-own\/\" title=\"Harvard President Claudine Gay plagiarized entire paragraphs from others' academic work and passed them off as her own\">academic conduct<\/a>, or serious personal misconduct,&#8221; according to the school&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/facultyhandbook.columbia.edu\/content\/officers-instruction\/end-appointment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">faculty handbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joseph Massad disputed Columbia University president&#8217;s testimony at a congressional panel. Massad clarified to the Electronic Intifada that he is not aware of any investigation by university officials or his removal as chairman as claimed by Shafik<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2360,"featured_media":2314708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/image-asset-2_736x514.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2224631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/image-asset-2_736x514.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2224631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2224631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2224631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2224631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}