A left-wing journalism professor who teaches at a top Chicago-area university has for months justified Hamas terrorists’ war on Israel and even joined anti-Israel student agitators on campus, Fox News Digital learned after reviewing his social media and blog posts.
Steven Thrasher is an associate professor of journalism at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and has been “regularly published in the New York Times, BuzzFeed News, Esquire, the Nation, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Daily Beast,” according to his school biography.
Thrasher’s activism could be raised on Thursday when Northwestern’s president, as well as leaders from UCLA and Rutgers, appears before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce for a hearing titled “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos.”
“Staff like Professor Steven Thrasher continue to peddle hateful antisemitic canards,” Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who sits on the committee holding Thursday’s hearing, told Fox News Digital. “This professor has employed hateful rhetoric, invoked antisemitic tropes, and fostered a hostile environment that endangers Jewish students on campus.”
Steven Thrasher attends Out Magazine’s Out100 Event presented by Lexus on Nov. 21, 2019 in Long Island City, New York. (Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Out)
Thrasher’s bio states that he is “the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair of social justice in reporting (with an emphasis on issues relevant to the LGBTQ community) and an assistant professor of journalism.” His areas of expertise include methods of how to study the intersection of “racism, homophobia, policing, medicine, incarceration, culture, and health.”
A review of Thrasher’s social media accounts found that stretching back to October of last year, when Hamas launched an attack against Israel, Thrasher espoused anti-Israel rhetoric appearing to defend Hamas.
“White supremacy and settler colonialism can NOT kill, maim and steal for decades (or even centuries) via genocidal violence and then expect patience and peace — ESPECIALLY when peaceful protest is met with economic, spiritual and literal death,” he posted on X on Oct. 9 of last year. Fox News Digital reviewed the posts earlier this week, before Thrasher protected his X account.
“For those asking ‘But why don’t Palestinians protest peacefully; may I remind you that for me—who is not even Palestinian!!!—merely calling for *peaceful boycott* cost me the German translation of my book, made my PhD advisor shun me forever & almost cost me my entire career,” he wrote in another post that same day.
Later that month, Thrasher compared Israel to the Nazis, claiming the country was carrying out “a genocide of the disabled” in Gaza.
Students and residents camp outside Northwestern University during an anti-Israel protest, expressing solidarity with Palestinians with banners in Evanston, Illinois, on April 27, 2024. (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“This is a genocide of the disabled people, too, who will suffocate on smoke. Who ARE suffocating to death right now. You know who else suffocated the disabled? The Nazis,” he posted on X on Oct. 29.
Thrasher is also apparently no fan of President Biden, according to his posts, claiming that “Biden won’t stop” Israel’s retaliations against Gaza, and that “the US is committing genocide.”
In a November blog post titled, “Tearing down the Wall,” Thrasher compared Gaza to a Nazi concentration camp, arguing, “we can feel compassion towards a desperate people stuck inside a Nazi concentration camp.” He also argued that if Jews were able to break free from concentration camps, they would have killed “anyone they found partying,” thus seemingly justifying Hamas’ attack on the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, when hundreds of people were killed and dozens of others taken hostage.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY DEAL WITH ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS TANTAMOUNT TO ‘PAYING OFF HOSTAGE TAKERS’
“If the Jews being shot and shoveled into ovens could just break through that wall, of course, they would kill anyone they found partying right on the other side of it! And, of course, they would take women and children hostage and drag them back into their hell inside if doing so would give them leverage to free their fellow Jews from torture and death!” he wrote.
Last month, Thrasher also spoke before protesters at an anti-Israel encampment, encouraging agitators to continue their protests, according to The Daily Northwestern.
“To the Medill students and journalists within earshot, I say to you: Our work is not about objectivity,” he said. “Our work is about you putting your brilliant minds to work and opening your compassionate hearts.”
Students and residents camp outside Northwestern University during an anti-Israel protest, expressing solidarity with Palestinians with banners in Evanston, Illinois, on April 27. (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Northwestern, similar to colleges across the nation, has been the site of anti-Israel protests. University President Michael Schill will testify before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce over Northwestern’s “shocking concessions to the unlawful antisemitic encampments.” Schill’s hearing on Thursday is anticipated to also include questions about Thrasher.
“Whether it’s Claudine Gay at Harvard or Liz Magill at UPenn, college presidents at elite universities have failed to address the dangerous and violent proliferation of antisemitism on campus,” Gimenez told Fox News Digital.
“As a member of Congress, I look forward to getting direct answers about President Schill’s inaction this Thursday. His failure to act emboldens hateful behavior and compromises student safety,” he continued.
Northwestern was the first university in the nation to publicly announce that it struck a deal with protesters who established an encampment on campus demanding the school cut financial ties with Israel. The concessions included agreeing to let students review school investments; funding two visiting Palestinian faculty members for two years on campus; full scholarships for five Palestinian undergraduate students; and the immediate construction of a community housing building for Muslim, Middle Eastern and North African students.
Protesters in exchange largely dismantled the tent encampment.
Students and residents camp outside Northwestern University during an anti-Israel protest in Evanston, Illinois, on April 27, 2024. (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Jewish community in the Chicago area slammed Schill and Northwestern for the agreement, with the Jewish United Fund writing in a letter that Schill embraced “those who flagrantly disrupted Northwestern academics and flouted those policies.”
“The overwhelming majority of your Jewish students, faculty, staff, and alumni feel betrayed. They trusted an institution you lead and considered it home. You have violated that trust,” the letter said, according to Jewish Insider. “You certainly heard and acted generously towards those with loud, at times hateful voices. The lack of any reassuring message to our community has also been heard loud and clear.”
Student agitators infiltrated college campuses nationwide last month into May, including radicals on Columbia University’s campus taking over the campus’ Hamilton Hall building, while schools such as UCLA, Harvard and Yale worked to clear student encampments, which led to hundreds of arrests nationwide.
A campus agitator holds a Palestinian flag on the rooftop of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York City on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The protests follow terrorist organization Hamas launching a war in Israel on Oct. 7, which initially fanned the flames of antisemitism on campuses in the form of protests, menacing graffiti and students reporting that they felt as if it was “open season for Jews on our campuses.”
The protests heightened this spring to the point where Jewish students were warned to leave campus for their own safety, and schools such as USC, Emory and Columbia canceled their main graduation ceremonies.
Student protesters gather in protest inside their encampment on the Columbia University campus on Monday, April 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)
Gimenez continued in his comments to Fox Digital that “antisemitism has NO PLACE ANYWHERE — especially not on college campuses receiving federal funding.”
“It’s why I’m working to ensure colleges like Northwestern, that fail to protect students from hateful pro-Hamas activities, have their federal funding eligibility immediately reviewed,” he said.
“I stand resolutely with our Jewish-American community and students combating antisemitism on campuses nationwide. I am committed to fighting antisemitism and reinforcing America’s unbreakable bond with our strongest ally: the democratic, Jewish State of Israel.”
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Neither Northwestern nor Thrasher immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
