NY judge says Columbia University did not discriminate against pro-Hamas professor

NEW YORK — A New York City judge on Monday dismissed a case that a pro-Hamas professor filed against Columbia University, saying the university, its president and a pro-Israel professor had not discriminated against the instructor by condemning his rhetoric.

Mohamed Abdou was a visiting professor at Columbia in the spring term of 2024. His employment term ended in May 2024 and was not renewed.

Abdou had previously made pro-terror statements, saying days after the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, “I’m with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”

US Rep. Elise Stefanik questioned former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik about the comments during a Congressional hearing.

Shafik said she shared Stefanik’s “repugnance” with the remarks and that Abdou would never work at the university again.

Abdou filed a lawsuit against Shafik and the university in August 2024, alleging that Shafik’s comments and issues on campus constituted defamation, discrimination based on his national origin and a hostile work environment.

Abdou identified in his lawsuit as a North African-Egyptian Muslim.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint later that year, and in Monday’s court filing, the judge, Kathleen Waterman-Marshall, granted the dismissal.

Abdou had claimed that Shafik had falsely labeled him an “antisemite” in her Congressional testimony, but the judge said Shafik did not actually make such a statement.

Shafik had made truthful statements about Abdou’s employment or stated opinions, which did not constitute defamation, the judge said.

Abdou also claimed Shafik’s hearing was “chock full of racism” that Shafik had endorsed, but the judge said Abdou had only cited allegedly racist comments from others at the hearing.

“Abdou provides no authority which stands for the proposition that expressing disapproval of a foreign terrorist organization in a Congressional hearing amounts to discrimination,” the judge said.

Abdou had also claimed that former Columbia professor Shai Davidai, an Israeli who became an outspoken critic of the university’s handling of anti-Zionist activism, had discriminated against him, and that Columbia had allowed the discrimination, creating a hostile work environment.

The judge said Davidai’s statements about Abdou were “solely based upon Professor Abdou’s criticism of Israel,” noting that Davidai also targeted Jewish anti-Israel activists, and were therefore not discrimination based on Abdou’s identity.

Columbia and Abdou’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

Abdou has filed an appeal.

Columbia was an epicenter of campus anti-Zionist activism following the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel and war in Gaza.

The university has been hit by lawsuits from both pro-Israel Jews and anti-Zionist activists.

Abdou regularly makes statements in support of Islamist terror groups and calls for the destruction of the US and Israel, online and in talks to college students.

Abdou was a visiting assistant professor at Columbia’s Middle East Institute, where he taught a course called “Decolonial-Queerness & Abolition in SWAN,” an acronym that stands for “Southwest Asia and North Africa.”