Columbia Distances Itself From New Faculty Group That Hosted Pro-Terrorist Surgeon

Columbia University is distancing itself from a new faculty group that hosted an anti-Israel doctor who has praised terrorists, including a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) cofounder who helped plan an Israeli airplane hijacking and a Hamas leader suspected of masterminding a rabbi's murder.

The doctor, British-Palestinian surgeon and University of Glasgow rector Ghassan Abu-Sittah, spoke Tuesday evening at Columbia University Health Sciences for Palestine's (CUHSP) inaugural event "Gaza: Public Health in Crisis." The group is composed of Columbia University Irving Medical Center faculty and staff working to "bring attention to health justice in Palestine."

CUHSP's advertisement for the online panel included Columbia's logo and noted that it was cosponsored by "SPIRIT Initiative and the Certificate Program in Global Health, Mailman School of Public Health, [and] Columbia University Medical Center."

A Columbia spokeswoman, however, denied that the anti-Israel group was affiliated with the university.

"Columbia University Health Sciences for Palestine is not a recognized Columbia group and is not authorized to hold an event using University resources," she told the Washington Free Beacon. "The group has been reminded of this and told to remove any Columbia logos from their materials."

She added that the certificate program has since removed its affiliation and that the flyer has been updated. But CUHSP's original advertisement was still active on social media as of Wednesday evening.

The spokeswoman didn't respond when asked if CUHSP's members or the initial cosponsors would face consequences.

Regardless, CUHSP proceeded with its event.

During the online panel, which more than 200 people attended, Abu-Sittah accused Israel of intentionally creating a famine in Gaza. He called the Jewish state the "tip of the genocidal iceberg" and said the United States, Britain, and Germany were part of the "genocidal project" for supplying Israel with arms, intelligence, and "boots on the ground." None of those nations have deployed troops to Gaza.

Abu-Sittah, who volunteered in Gaza hospitals, said "Israel was unable to provide a shred of evidence" that Hamas leaders operated in tunnels underneath hospitals. But U.S. and Israeli intelligence dispute that claim. Intelligence also shows that the terror group used Al-Shifa Hospital for cover, weapons storage, and hostage detention and destroyed electronics and documents while evacuating.

Abu-Sittah has long sided with anti-Israel terrorists. He attended the 2019 funeral of Maher Al-Yamani, a PFLP cofounder who helped plan the 1968 hijacking of an El Al plane, which resulted in a dozen Israeli passengers being taken hostage for 40 days. Al-Yamani was sentenced to 31 years for his role, though he was released early as part of a separate hostage exchange. Abu-Sittah's lawyers described the doctor and Al-Yamani as friends, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

At the funeral, Abu-Sittah was pictured sitting next to Leila Khaled, a PFLP member who was involved in two other plane hijackings. A year later, he spoke at a ceremony in Beirut commemorating the first anniversary of Al-Yamani's death. Abu-Sittah wept alongside mourners and hailed Al-Yamani's legacy, video shows.

"He still scares the enemy. All of Maher's efforts, since he opened his eyes to the world and he became a young man, didn't go to waste," Abu-Sittah said at the ceremony. "And this is our only comfort: that even when Maher leaves, the Israelis will still be afraid of Maher."

In 2018, Abu-Sittah praised Ahmad Jarrar, a Hamas leader accused of plotting the drive-by murder of Raziel Shevack, an Israeli rabbi and father of six. Israel Defense Forces killed Jarrar in a shootout nearly a month later following a manhunt for his capture.

"The martyrdom of the resistance member Ahmed Nasr Jarrar … represents a pivotal moment," Abu-Sittah wrote, according to the Jewish Chronicle. "The Palestinian people stand watching one of their dearest and best sons drenched in their pure blood."

He also called Jarrar a "hero" and described the partnership between Israeli and Palestinian security services as a "satanic alliance."

His comments echoed Hamas's statement eulogizing Jarrar.

"Our hero and martyr has carried out the duty of resistance and defending the land of Palestine," the statement said. "The West Bank will produce 1,000 Jarrars."

Abu-Sittah defended using "emotive language," though his attorneys told the Jewish Chronicle that the doctor was unaware Jarrar had been involved in Shevack's killing.

More recently, Abu-Sittah claimed Israel has "intensionally [sic] targeted children in its genocidal war" following Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack.

He was also barred from entering Germany earlier this year. In April, the doctor was scheduled to attend an anti-Israel conference in Berlin, but airport police in Germany denied him entry into the country for "the safety of the people at the conference and public order," Abu-Sittah told the Associated Press. The conference was canceled later that day after its livestream showed someone barred from political activity in Germany, though Berlin police wouldn't say who.

The surgeon was originally banned from the country for only a few days. But when he landed in France on the way to London, French authorities told him Germany had put a year-long ban on his visa. That meant he was barred from entering any of Europe's nearly 30 Schengen Area nations.

Abu-Sittah did not respond to a request for comment.

Three other panelists joined Abu-Sittah on Tuesday: Sarah Aly, Jess Ghannam, and Jeffrey Sachs. Salman S. Khan and Noga Shalev, both assistant professors of medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center, moderated the event. Columbia's Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) advertised the event on social media.

CUAD was among the groups that contributed to the chaotic start of Columbia's fall semester. On September 3, the first day of classes, CUAD and the university's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter prevented students from entering campus. CUAD in a Telegram post also praised Hamas leaders and promised that protests would continue.

The next day, CUAD promoted Columbia School of International and Public Affairs Palestine Working Group's protest of a course taught by former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Agitators dubbed it a "sham class," accused Clinton of "war crimes," and called on students to walk out. A flyer advertising the event showed a bloody image of the former secretary of state with her eyes crossed out.

Columbia's Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, meanwhile, has long supported anti-Israel activism on campus, including amnesty for anti-Semitic students and divestment from Israel. After student protesters were arrested in April for storming a campus building, the faculty group went on strike, demanding the removal of police from the campus.

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