WATCH: Cornell Professor Celebrates ‘Exhilarating,’ ‘Energizing’ Hamas Attack
Cornell history professor Russell Rickford celebrated Hamas’ brutal kidnapping, rape, and slaughter of Israeli civilians earlier this month at a rally in Ithaca, NY on Sunday, calling the terrorist organization’s incursion into the world’s only Jewish-majority state “exhilarating.”
“Hamas has challenged the monopoly of violence,” claimed Rickford, who insisted that he, his fellow rally-goers, and “many Gazans of good will” all “abhor violence.” Nevertheless, he asserted that the barbarically violent attack left Palestinians “able to breathe for the first time in years.”
“It was exhilarating. It was energizing. And if they weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, by this shifting of the balance of power, they they would not be human,” said Rickford. “I was exhilarated.”
“What has Hamas done? Hamas has shifted the balance of power. Hamas has punctured the illusion of invincibility. That’s what they have done. You don’t have to be a Hamas supporter to recognize that,” he added.
In an interview with the Cornell Daily Sun, Rickford professed to be referring to “those first few hours, when they broke through the apartheid wall, that it seemed to be a symbol of resistance, and indeed a new phase of resistance in the Palestinian struggle.”
“It really signaled that the Palestinian will to resist had not been broken. In subsequent days, we learned of some of the horrifying realities. I want to make it clear that Hamas is a fundamentalist organization. It’s important to note that in some ways, the fundamentalism of Hamas mirrors that of Israeli leadership,” he continued.
Hamas’ charter explicitly calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of the state of Israel. It has long been considered a terrorist organization across the world for its intentional targeting of civilian populations.
Hamas’ attack on Israeli towns and a music festival on October 7 left over 1,400 civilians dead. Children were beheaded and burnt to death, and eyewitnesses recall watching members of Hamas rape women in front of their friends before murdering them.
