Mick Hartley

Columbia professor Joseph Massad, speaking to Ejaz Haider of Lahore University. From MEMRI TV:

Columbia University Professor of History Joseph Massad stated that "the idea that European Jews are somehow direct descendants of the Ancient Hebrews is, of course, a bogus claim." He added that while some Jews may have had a religious or spiritual connection to the Ancient Hebrews, European Christians began suggesting in the 17th and 18th centuries that Jews originated from Asia in order to "estrange them from Europe."

He further claimed that "it is almost like a Hitlerian project to speak about Jews genetically" and that talk of a genetic connection between Jews and the Ancient Hebrews or Ancient Israel "became fashionable" only in the 19th century with the rise of biological sciences. He also stated that "Israeli propaganda" claims Palestinians are descendants of Arab colonizers, but asserted this cannot be true, as the Arab-Islamic conquest of the Levant and North Africa was not a settler colonialist project. Massad dismissed archaeological records as a "colonial venture." He added that Palestinians are the only group in the region not allowed to claim the Ancient Hebrews as their ancestors because "some strange European group" is claiming them for themselves.

Massad has a course this year at Columbia on Zionism – “The History of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala) in 19th century Europe and the development of Zionism through the current peace process between the state of Israel and the Arab states and the Palestinian national movement.” According to the course description it's intended to provide an overview of the “Zionist-Palestinian” conflict.

He described the October 7th terrorist attacks by Hamas as “awesome".