A Cornell professor who said he was “exhilarated” by the Hamas attacks on Israel has apologized for his incendiary comments, admitting his choice of words was “reprehensible.”
Russel Rickford, an associate professor of history, addressed the pro-Hamas statements he made at an off-campus protest over the weekend in a statement to the school’s paper The Cornell Daily Sun.
“I apologize for the horrible choice of words that I used in a portion of a speech that was intended to stress grassroots African American, Jewish and Palestinian traditions of resistance to oppression,” Rickford wrote Wednesday.
“I recognize that some of the language I used was reprehensible and did not reflect my values.”
The educator – who “specializes in African-American political culture, according to his biography – apologized to students for his “reckless remarks” and said he “unequivocally opposes and denounces racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, militarism, fundamentalism, and all systems that dehumanize, divide, and oppress people.”
Rickford had drawn backlash for a video that showed him calling the deadly terror attacks “exhilarating.”
“It was exhilarating. It was exhilarating, it was energizing. And if they weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, the shifting of the violence of power, then they would not be human. I was exhilarated,” Rickford said.
Rickford had initially refused to walk back on his statement, saying Monday: “What I was referring to is in 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.”
But it seems the professor changed course after students called for the school’s administration to take action against him.
“This guy essentially outright said that he was happy, exhilarated, excited, energized, right, by the murder of innocent civilians. The massacre of civilians and the raping of women,” Netanel Shapira, who has dual Isreali citizenship, said.
Another student, Amanda Silberstein, 21, said she felt “deeply disgusted” after hearing Rickford’s comment, saying: “Seeing that video, my initial reaction was: ‘This is a professor, this is an educator, you know, students are supposed to internalize and respect, you know, the words their professor says.’ It was really really shocking and his words have meaning.”
Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack and Cornell University Board of Trustees Chair Kraig H. Kayser called Rickford’s statements last weekend “reprehensible” and ” demonstrates no regard whatsoever for humanity.”
“The university is taking this incident seriously and is currently reviewing it consistent with our procedures,” the school said in a statement to The Post.