Princeton hires Oct. 7 denier to teach Gaza course

Princeton University has hired a professor who denies Hamas’s atrocities on Oct. 7 to teach a new course comparing Gaza to genocides such as the Holocaust.

The Ivy League school will offer “Gender, Reproduction, and Genocide” in its spring semester, taught by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a Palestinian academic who has publicly accused Israel of lying about Hamas’s actions.

Students will study how “genocidal projects target reproductive life, sexual and familial structures, and community survival,” according to the course description.

The syllabus lists Gaza alongside the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust and genocides of black and indigenous peoples.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian has a long record of inflammatory remarks against Israel.

“It’s time to abolish Zionism,” she said in 2024, according to the Times of Israel. “It can’t continue, it’s criminal. Only by abolishing Zionism can we continue. They will use any lie. They started with babies, they continued with rape, and they will continue with a million other lies.”

Her comments came months after Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, including children and the elderly, and raped and tortured civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, the Free Beacon notes.

The professor was previously suspended and briefly arrested in Israel for alleged incitement while teaching at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She later retired from that institution under pressure.

Princeton lists her as a professor emerita at Hebrew University and describes her work as focusing on “the settler colonial state’s brutality.”

Her hiring adds to ongoing concerns about antisemitism at Princeton.

In April, the U.S. Department of Education froze $210 million in federal funding to the school after a Title VI civil rights investigation into anti-Jewish harassment. The probe began after Campus Reform documented protests in which Princeton students chanted anti-Israel slogans shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks.

The university also has faced backlash for failing to discipline demonstrators who disrupted an April 7 speech by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Protesters called Bennett a “war criminal,” insulted Jewish students and displayed Hamas-related symbols.

Additionally, earlier this year, Princeton hosted Palestinian activist Mohammed El-Kurd, who has described Jewish organizations as “agents of apartheid” and expressed support for Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault.

The appointment continues a trend of controversy surrounding Princeton’s handling of the Israel–Hamas war. The university has faced repeated criticism for allowing faculty and guest speakers with extreme or divisive views on the conflict, while administrators insist such decisions reflect a commitment to academic freedom.