Cornell Professor Says Hamas Attack Was ‘Exhilarating,’ ‘Energizing’

A Cornell University professor is in hot water for calling the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel “exhilarating” and “energizing” — his words, and the crowd’s reaction to them, are downright ugly.

Russell Rickford — who’s an associate professor of history there at the Upstate NY Ivy League school — made the inflammatory remarks over the weekend at a pro-Palestine rally … which were also caught on camera and circulated on social media.

Cropped versions of this clip have been making the rounds, but even in its full context … what Rickford says here is pretty despicable. Take a look for yourself — he starts by saying that Palestinians have been living in oppression for a long time, and that what Hamas carried out two weeks ago (an outright onslaught of innocents) gave them renewed hope.

He says the Hamas attack allowed the Palestinian people a chance to finally breathe — and makes the bold claim that by doing what they did … they’ve “shifted the balance of power.”

Bottom line … this all amounts to a justification for the terrorism, and it sounds like most of the crowd that was on hand was backing him — chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Of course, his remarks have also drawn outrage on the other side.

Amid the outcry … Cornell has yet to respond, nor has Rickford himself. Many are calling for his job … but it’s unclear if anything’s going to happen on that front.

On the opposite coast, however, a different professor for a separate prestigious school is singing a different tune on this issue — UC Berkeley law professor Steven Solomon is now calling for students who speak up and support Palestine/condemn Israel should be blacklisted.

He wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal arguing as much … saying that law firms should not hire Berkeley grads who’ve spewed hate toward Jews — which is how he seems to interpret pro-Palestine sentiments, and which some Berkeley students have been echoing.

He writes, in part … “My students are largely engaged and well-prepared, and I regularly recommend them to legal employers. But, if you don’t want to hire people who advocate hate and practice discrimination, don’t hire some of my students.”