Matthew Evangelista
Overview
Matthew Evangelista [Matthew Anthony Evangelista] has defended violent protesters and demonized Israel.As of August 2020, Evangelista was the President White Professor of History and Political Science, in the Department of Government, at Cornell University (Cornell).
Defending Violent Protesters
Evangelista 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, violent riots, instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border, saw thousands of rioters attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with
participants declaring their intention to harm Jews across the border.
Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the March of Return protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. On May 15, 2018, senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, said that the Gaza protests were under a pretext of “peaceful resistance.”
The letter, signed by Evangelista, 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 threw Molotov cocktails, firebombs, shot firearms and threw rocks under the cover of smoke from burning tires.
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 violent riots continued until the end of 2018, accompanied by military-style attacks carried out by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and other terrorist 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.”
Demonizing Israel
In an article published in the Cornell newspaper on February 23, 2009, Evangelista was cited as one of three professors who participated in a panel to discuss the recent violence that had erupted in Gaza.Israel commenced Operation Cast Lead (OCL)in 2008-09 in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians.
In 2010, Hamas admitted that nearly 700 of the Palestinian casualties in OCL were combatants.
The article stated that “Cornell professor of government Matthew Evangelista, former director of the Peace Studies Program and the third panelist, looked at how international law applies to war.”
The article went on to quote Evangelista, expressing concern that Hamas militants engaged in violence would not be protected by the laws of war. Evangelista stated that “they risk being treated as common criminals engaging in murder.”
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Social Media and Weblinks
University Website:https://government.cornell.edu/matthew-anthony-evangelistaSecond University Website:https://research.cornell.edu/researchers/matthew-evangelista
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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