The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) (Jessie Appleby) wrote about this last week (as did the Academic Freedom Alliance):
The University of Southern California has barred economics professor John Strauss from teaching on campus for the rest of the semester in response to anti-Hamas remarks he made to pro-Palestinian protesters last week. Strauss will finish out the semester teaching courses on Zoom.
On Nov. 9, students held a protest on the USC campus as part of a worldwide "Shut it Down for Palestine" movement. While walking past a group of protesters gathered at the Tommy Trojan statue, Strauss engaged with them over what he perceived to be anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments.
The kerfuffle started when protesters accused Strauss of stepping on a printed list of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes. (Strauss says that stepping on it was unintentional.) When Strauss passed the protest again later, he said one of the protesters yelled "Shame on you, Professor Strauss. Shame on you." In response, he yelled "No, shame on you. You people are ignorant. Really ignorant. Hamas are murderers. That's all they are. Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are."
A viral video circulated on social media in which Strauss can be heard saying, "Every one should be killed, and I hope they all are." But the clip was shortened in a way that left out the important context that Strauss's full comment made clear he was referring only to Hamas, not all Palestinians, when he said "every one should be killed."
