Columbia University has a long history of anti-Israel and anti-American antics.
First it was Professor Hamid Dabashi, a Columbia department chairman, who calls supporters of Israel "Gestapo apparatchiks" and wanted to sue CNN for biased coverage of 9/11.
Then 106 Columbia faculty signed a petition comparing Israel to South Africa apartheid.
Professor Nicholas De Genova, who teaches anthropology and Latino studies, stated that "The heritage of the victims of the Holocaust belongs to the Palestinian people. ... Israel has no claim to the heritage of the Holocaust." and that he wished for a "million Mogadishus."
George Saliba, a professor of Arabic and Islamic science, told a Jewish student, "You have no claim to the land of Israel ... no voice in this debate. You have green eyes, you're not a true Semite. I have brown eyes, I'm a true Semite."
Rashid Khalidi, head of Columbia's Middle East Institute, has stated that "occupation" began in 1948 and also criticized Yasir Arafat for being too flexible with Israel.
Columbia's president appointed a committee to look into claims of intimidation of students who held that Israel was not a racist, apartheid state, and his hand-picked committee members whitewashed all the incidents without interviewing any of the students who were harassed by professors. It also failed to criticize when Columbia professors canceled classes during an anti-Israel rally and encouraged students to attend.
Joseph Massad, associate professor, wrote an article for Al-Ahram that was effectively anti-semitic.
And then an anthropology professor, Nadia Abu el-Haj, wrote a book denying any Jewish connection to the biblical land of Israel, even as she admitted that she was not interested in using scientific methods to validate the huge amount of archaeological evidence.
Now, in the same tradition of embracing terrorists and despots, Columbia is inviting Iranian thug-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak there on Monday at their World Leaders' Forum.
At least Columbia University is consistent.
