When Will North Carolina or Congress Investigate Duke University for Allowing Calls for Israel’s Destruction and Other False Claims?

Peter Reitzes

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Duke University. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Duke University has apparently permitted an entire academic department to publicly align itself against Israel.

In 2021, Duke’s Department of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies endorsed a public statement declaring, “We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine …We do not subscribe to a ‘both sides’ rhetoric.”

The Duke gender studies website presently features a section titled, “Donation Suggestions for Palestine,” which provides links to 12 organizations including Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss, which are both stridently anti-Israel publications. There are no suggestions for donations directed towards Israel.

Anna Storti is Assistant Professor in the department. On Oct. 7, 2023, while Israelis were actively being murdered, raped, mutilated, and taken hostage by Hamas-led terrorists, Storti was reposting anti-Israel complaints on X.

In 2020, Storti tweeted “f[***]  the usa” and in 2024, posted, “F[***] these cops. Shame on the admin who call them on their own students…It’s all about Free Palestine…this month and always. Liberation within our lifetimes.”

She also reposted on X the slogan, “From the river to the sea.” The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) explains the meaning of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”:

This is a cry for Israel to not exist. It is calling for a Palestinian state that extends from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – effectively erasing and destroying the entire Jewish state.

Emily Rogers, Secondary Faculty in Duke’s gender studies department, was detained at the UNC anti-Israel encampment in 2024 and banned from that campus. Rogers told a local progressive paper, “We won’t stop till universities disclose and divest” and “We won’t stop ‘til all of Palestine is free.”

Mishana Garschi, Postdoctoral Associate in the Duke gender studies program, reposted on X, “having a phd and being a zionists is nuts, you need to return that damn degree because you clearly lost all sense of critical thought [sic].” She also reposted, “zionism is monstrous [sic]” and “The Israeli occupiers don’t care about the hostages [sic].”

Last week, I reported in The Algemeiner that Frances Hasso, Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the same department, excitedly announced on X, “HAMAS OFFICIALLY DEFEATS ISRAEL!”

Hasso has repeatedly made social media posts using the antisemitic slur “Zio” — and also reposted on X, “Noone was raped on October 7 [sic].”

Last week, Hasso reposted a protest flyer that said in huge print, “ZIONISTS OUT!” with accompanying text, “We have found out from a trusted source that the British Museum is hosting an event ‘for Israel’ … It is our duty to confront zionists wherever they appear [sic].”

Would Duke University ever allow a professor to remain on staff after reposting: “PALESTINIANS OUT! It is our duty to confront Palestinians wherever they appear”?

In 2021, Hasso pledged to promote the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel “in the classroom and on campus.”

In 2024, Hasso convened a Duke conference, the Palestine Seminar, where 12 other Duke departments and programs participated, including the Provost Initiative on the Middle East, the Department of History, the Department of English, and the Program of Literature.

Hasso also taught the Duke University Global Palestine course in 2025.

The confidence demonstrated by the Office of the Provost in Frances Hasso, along with support from 11 additional programs and departments, highlights serious concerns about Duke University’s leadership and their ability to identify and combat antisemitism.

The Duke history and gender studies departments each presently feature identical glowing reviews of Hasso’s recent book on their websites. These reviews allege that Israel is committing “Zionist settler-colonialism in Palestine.”

Duke University is not merely permitting Hasso to instruct; they are actively endorsing her. It is a disgrace that the institution offers Hasso repeated opportunities to “educate” students.

In addition, many faculty in Duke’s gender and feminist studies department have signed public, anti-Israel statements.

Priscilla Wald, Ara Wilson, and Kimberly Lamm each signed letters supporting various academic boycotts of Israel.

Anne Allison, Hasso, Charles Piot, Wald, Anne-Maria Makhulu, Jessica Namakkal, Gabriel Rosenberg, Ranjana Khanna, Adriane Lentz-Smith, and Kathi Weeks signed a 2021 statement declaring, “We acknowledge our complicity in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians” and “express our solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

In 2023, Michael Hardt, Hasso, Rogers, Storti, and Robyn Wiegman endorsed a letter titled “Scholars Against the War on Palestine,” which demanded an immediate ceasefire, asserting their solidarity with Palestinians. The letter criticized Israel extensively while failing to acknowledge, even once, the violent assault by Hamas on Oct. 7 or the hundreds of hostages held by Hamas-affiliated terrorists at that time.

Last week, I detailed years of anti-Israel publications at Duke University Press. As an example, a recent Duke Press publication actually accuses Israelis of viewing Palestinians as rapeable. The author added, Israelis “carry their rifles as an extension of phallic power.”

Duke University has permitted an entire academic department and its university press to align against Israel. This is hostile towards the vast majority of American Jews that believe in the existence of a Jewish State. Clearly an investigation is in order.

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Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.

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