Two professors at the taxpayer-funded University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) were scheduled to lead a “teach-in” session held by a pro-Hamas student organization Wednesday ahead of its Thursday rally in support of the Palestinian terrorist group following its terrorist attacks on Israel.
The pro-Hamas campus organization Students for Justice In Palestine (SJP) scheduled the event on Zoom alongside UCLA professors Saree Makdisi from the school’s English department and Sherene Razack from the gender studies department, according to an announcement on the UCLA SJP Instagram page.
“UCLA Professors Makdisi and Razack will be convening a teach-in Wednesday, October 11th both online and in person,” the announcement post reads. “If you are a student seeking more clarity, information, and perspectives on recent escalations in Palestine, we highly encourage you to attend.”
A Zoom link for the scheduled meeting was inserted at the bottom of the post and the Zoom meeting room confirms the event was scheduled for Wednesday.
The Instagram post includes an image with details about “the crisis in Palestine” and it lists a venue where the “teach-in” was scheduled prior to the UCLA SJP’s decision to hold the event solely on Zoom. UCLA SJP said in the post that the event was moved to Zoom only because of “high interest” and limited seating capacity in the room where the event was scheduled.
The Daily Caller reached out to UCLA SJP for comment to confirm the event took place. The organization did not respond by the time of publication.
UCLA SJP scheduled a walk-out and rally for Palestine for Thursday afternoon encouraging supporters to bring Palestinian flags and express support for “Palestinian liberation” on campus. “BRING YOUR KEFFIYEHS & PALESTINE FLAGS AND WALK OUT OF YOUR CLASSES,” the group said on Instagram.
The national umbrella organization of SJP chapters issued a rallying cry ahead of a “day of resistance” scheduled for Oct. 12 and urged its more than 200 campus chapters to support the “liberation” of Palestine.
Video footage from the pro-Hamas rally organized by UCLA SJP appeared to show demonstrators chanting in support of the Palestinian terrorist organization. “Intifada, Intifada,” the demonstrators could be heard chanting as members of the crowd waved Palestinian flags and music played in the background.
A former Hamas leader called for a global day of jihad to take place Friday across the Muslim world in the wake of Hamas’ terrorist atrocities, Reuters reported. The Biden administration is working with federal, state and local law enforcement to prepare for any threats associated with the global day of jihad, White House official John Kirby said at a Thursday press briefing.
UCLA SJP’s account on Twitter reposted an announcement from the Palestinian Youth Movement promoting pro-Hamas rallies across America, including the pro-Hamas rally in New York City supported by the city’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter.
The Palestinian Youth Movement once honored a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian marxist terrorist organization that is partnering with Hamas and another jihadist group to rebuild the Palestine Liberation Organization, a once-prominent umbrella group of Palestinian terrorist organizations, according to the U.S. government.
Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel claimed the lives of more than 1,000 civilians including at least 25 American citizens, according to the White House and State Department. Hamas killed more than 250 people at a music festival and witnesses have described piles of massacred civilians left by Hamas terrorists. The terrorist group slaughtered Israeli babies and left hordes of dismembered bodies in its wake. Numerous hostages remain in Hamas’ captivity and President Joe Biden confirmed Americans are among the hostages.
Both of the professors scheduled to lead the UCLA SJP event chair their respective departments and study topics associated with left-wing activism, according to their official bios.
Makdisi is the Chair of UCLA’s English department and one of his fields of interest is “postcolonial theory” as it relates to Arabic countries, his bio states.
“Professor Makdisi’s teaching and research are situated at the crossroads of several different fields, including British Romanticism, imperial culture, colonial and postcolonial theory and criticism,” the bio reads. “He has also written extensively on the afterlives of colonialism in the contemporary Arab world.”
Likewise, Razack is the Chair of Women’s Studies within UCLA’s gender studies department and lists “critical race feminism” as one of her research interests. Razack also studies “anti-Muslim racism” and various topics connected to racial and sexual violence, her bio states. She formerly taught at the University of Toronto where she was a professor of “critical race and gender studies” in its social justice department.
The university released a statement Wednesday correcting alleged “misinformation” surrounding events on UCLA’s campus related to Israel and Palestine. In the statement on “misinformation,” UCLA endorses the First Amendment rights of its students to express themselves on campus.
“Allowing the use of campus facilities for such events is part of UCLA’s legal obligation under the First Amendment and does not constitute the university’s endorsement of any event, its speakers or the views they express,” UCLA said in its statement. UCLA has not released a statement addressing Hamas’ terrorist atrocities against Israel.
UCLA did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
