MIT professor under scrutiny after calling Zionism a 'mind infection'
An MIT professor, Michel DeGraff, has drawn criticism for controversial remarks about Jews and Israel, including calling Zionism a “mind infection” and accusing Israel of genocide.
His comments, which link U.S. aid to alleged Zionist propaganda, have sparked debates about antisemitism and academic freedom.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor has made numerous controversial statements about Jews and the state of Israel, including by appearing to call Zionism a “mind infection” in a post online.
Israeli youth “grew up with this trauma that made them fear that their existence is in threat, by anyone who doesn’t believe in the superior position of the Jewish people in Israel,” MIT Professor Michel DeGraff said during a lecture on Nov. 13, according to The Daily Wire.
This is not the first time DeGraff has come under fire for rhetoric about Jewish people. Previously, according to screenshots posted online, he critiqued what he calls a “mind infection” of Zionism.
“On our campuses this ‘mind infection; (= settler-colonial Zionist propaganda + violations of free speech & other attacks on pro-Palestinian students) is funded by millions from the Israeli government, some of it through organizations such as Hillel, Chabad, Olami & Canary Mission,” Professor DeGraff posted online, according to the screenshots.
“Since Israel is the largest recipient of aid from the US, this entails that our taxpayers’ dollars are being mis-used for our miseducation & indoctrination into hatred, including antisemitism,” DeGraff continued.
DeGraff has also contended that there is an ongoing “genocide” in Palestine, according to The Daily Wire.
“One courageous question that might help break the Zionist genocidal propaganda machine: Was the Holocaust really truly a singular historical event — not to be compared with, say, the ongoing genocide in Gaza?” he has previously posted online
This semester he is teaching a seminar entitled “Language and linguistics for decolonization and liberation and for peace and community building from the river to the sea in Palestine and Israel to the mountaintops in Haiti and beyond.”
This is not the only time MIT has become embroiled in allegations about anti-Israel rhetoric.
Last month, MIT President Sally Kornbluth was criticized for not attending an event at the school that commemorated Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel. An MIT spokesperson excused Kornbluth’s absence by asserting that “the president has a long-standing prior commitment at that time, which unfortunately could not be rescheduled.”
Previously, in September, the school had to condemn an anti-Israel “mapping project” which lists the locations of Jewish groups in Massachusetts.
Members of the project stated online that their “goal in pursuing this collective mapping was to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so we can dismantle them. Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted.”
“While I have repeatedly defended freedom of expression, I must tell you that I found some of the websites cited on the flyers deeply concerning,” Kornbluth said at the time.
Campus Reform has contacted the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
