After making inflammatory comments while passing a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest on the USC campus on Thursday, economics Professor John Strauss defended his statements. He said that his words, “every one should be killed,” was referring only to Hamas and not to Palestinians generally.
Following an outpouring of criticism from students regarding the incident, the university put Strauss on administrative leave with full pay Friday afternoon. He was initially only permitted to teach his Ph.D. classes over Zoom, but as of Monday, he said that he is now cleared to teach his undergraduate classes remotely as well. USC Public Relations confirmed Strauss is teaching his two classes remotely for the rest of the semester.
Strauss maintained that he would not change anything about the interaction, which he described in an interview with Annenberg Media.
“One of them, a woman, I don’t know who, yelled out, ‘Shame on you, Professor Strauss. Shame on you,’ And I immediately yelled back, ‘No, shame on you. You were ignorant about Hamas. Hamas are murderers. That’s all they are. They should all die. Every one of them.’” Strauss said. “Every one of them referred, of course, to Hamas.”
While Strauss maintains that a video circulating on social media is doctored, Annenberg Media could not locate any recordings of the interaction that differ from the viral clips.
The following video is unedited.
Strauss said that his comments were prompted by what he perceived to be antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiments at the protest while walking to his class.
“I’m Jewish, I’m very pro-Israel,” he said. “And so I yelled out ‘Israel forever. Hamas are murderers.’”
Students said they felt threatened by his comments, and many filed complaints about the professor’s remarks. Annenberg Media viewed a copy of one Title IX complaint with at least 15 signatories as of Friday. There is a petition calling for Strauss’ firing and a competing petition calling for him to be reinstated.
The site of the incident on Thursday was near the Tommy Trojan statue, where students organized a temporary installation with names of the thousands of Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli strikes and retaliation, following the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, a militant group recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.
Some online criticism focused on Strauss stepping on the lists of names before he made the comments. Strauss said that stepping on the list was unintentional and that he stepped closer to the protesters to speak with them, not realizing that he was stepping on the names.
The university made an earlier statement, saying they are “aware of a social media post showing a faculty member engaging with demonstrators on our campus [and] are looking into this.”
Strauss said that he hopes that the provost reconsiders the decision to place him on academic leave.
“I think the administration’s already doing some backpedaling, which is good,” Strauss said. “Frankly, I’d like the whole administrative leave thing to be canceled so I can come back on campus. But we’ll see.”