Columbia University is facing backlash for promoting a course tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. The course, led by professor emeritus Rashid Khalidi, moved from Columbia’s campus to the pro-Hamas People’s Forum after the school’s $221 million settlement with the Trump administration. Despite the relocation, Columbia’s Center for Palestine Studies promoted the class online, including a registration link, before later clarifying it was not offered for credit.
The course, “A Short Course on Palestine,” requires students to read works by Ghassan Kanafani, a PFLP leader linked to the 1972 Lod Airport massacre that killed 26 people. The book is presented as a “radical analysis of Palestinian resistance from one of their most influential voices.” Khalidi’s syllabus also suggests reading about Izz-ad-Din Al-Qassam, the Muslim Brotherhood figure whose name Hamas adopted for its military wing.
The People’s Forum, which now hosts the course, has promoted violent riots and has direct financial ties to Neville Singham, a left-wing activist with close connections to the Chinese Communist Party. A 2023 New York Times investigation found Singham “works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide.”
Columbia’s spokesman denied the university endorsed the course, though the promotional webpage initially did not make that distinction. Khalidi defended his decision to move the class, saying Columbia’s agreement with the Trump administration made it “impossible to teach.”
The inclusion of Kanafani’s writings has sparked particular outrage. Israel’s Mossad assassinated him after the Lod massacre, but his book is still being taught to students in New York City.
