Kate McCullough
Overview
Kate McCullough has defended a pro-Hamas professor, expressed support for violent protesters and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.As of August 2020, McCullough was an associate professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English at Cornell University (Cornell).
Defending a Pro-Hamas Professor
McCullough signed a November 2023 letter defending a professor at Cornell who expressed support for the Hamas terror group the previous month.The November 21, 2023 letter was authored by “Members of Cornell University’s Faculty” and it called on Cornell to take action following “attacks on a faculty member over comments about Israel’s war on Gaza.”
The letter referred to Professor Russell Rickford, who gave a speech on October 15, 2023, praising [00:00:04] Hamas terror attacks and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings. Hamas executed the terror attacks on October 7, 2023, and left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Rickford said [00:01:39]: “It was exhilarating! It was exhilarating! It was energizing!” He then said [00:01:47] that if Palestinians “weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, by this shifting of the balance of power, then they would not be human. I was exhilarated!”
Rickford made his statements at a rally hosted by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization.
On November 16, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation into discriminatory incidents, including anti-Semitic ones, at Cornell following the October 2023 Hamas terror attacks.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Defending Violent Protesters
McCollough signed a letter to the editor, published on May 6, 2018 by the Cornell Daily Sun newspaper, whose purpose was to “call on Cornellians of conscience to denounce the Israeli military’s recent massacre of unarmed Palestinian protesters participating in the Great March of Return in the Gaza Strip.”In May 2018, terror organization Hamas instigated the “March of Return.” Thousands of violent rioters attempted numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence with Gaza, seeking to harm Jews across the border. Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of the fence, some by armed Palestinians. On May 15, 2018, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said the Gaza protests were only a pretext of “peaceful resistance.”
The letter, signed by McCullough, stated that Israel’s actions were “a massacre in violation of international law and an outrage against basic principles of human rights, dignity and life. This massacre is the latest injustice in a 50-year occupation, and 70-year ethnic cleansing, endured by the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeligovernment.”
March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Participants also attempted to breach the border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire. Agitators also threw Molotov cocktails and firebombs, shot firearms and threw rocks.
The letter continued: “While many countries assault human rights on a daily basis, Israel is unique in its insistence that its actions — including those on the Gaza border in past weeks — are compatible with international law.”
The letter concluded: “...we salute those Palestinian demonstrators who are facing one of the world’s military giants armed only with their determination to be free.”
The violent riots continued until the end of 2018, accompanied by military-style attacks carried out by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other terror organizations. The attacks included gunfire, armed rioters penetrating Israeli territory, throwing IEDs and hand grenades and launching incendiary kites into Israel.
The letter concluded: “...we salute those Palestinian demonstrators who are facing one of the world’s military giants armed only with their determination to be free.”
Supporting BDS
As of August 2020, McCullough was a signatory to a list of endorsers of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).In 2016, McCullough signed an open letter calling for the academic boycott of Israel.
The open letter was addressed to the Modern Language Association (MLA), “calling on the association to pass a resolution endorsing the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”
In January 2017, the MLA Delegate Assembly approved a resolution (2017-1) acknowledging “the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel contradicts the MLA’s purpose” and conflicted with another resolution (2002-1), that condemned boycotts against scholars. Therefore, the Assembly “resolved that the MLA refrain from endorsing the boycott.”
The declaration was titled: “Faculty Support Student-Workers of UAW 2865 in Standing in Solidarity with Palestinian Students and Workers and Voting YES on BDS December 4th!”
Signatories of the declaration called upon the university and UAW International “to divest their investments, including pension from Israeli state institutions and international companies complicit in severe and ongoing human rights violations, and on the US government to end military aid to Israel.”
Social Media and Weblinks
University Website:https://english.cornell.edu/kate-mccullough
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Cornell
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
Photos & Screenshots
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