The student-run publication at Cornell University, The Cornell Daily Sun, recently faced backlash after featuring artwork by a faculty member that depicted a blood-splattered Star of David alongside a Nazi “SS” symbol on a Palestinian figure’s back.
Though the controversial image was eventually removed, it drew criticism for being perceived as antisemitic, as reported by the New York Post.
“In my view, this represents the dangerous trend of Holocaust inversion being normalized, both online and now at Cornell,” remarked William Jacobson, a law professor and the founder of Legal Insurrection, in a statement to the paper.
The contentious artwork appeared in The Cornell Sun. (The Cornell Sun / AP)
“The graphic, with its SS lightning bolt inside a blood-stained Star of David, doesn’t seem to connect with Israel directly. It seems to suggest that Jews are akin to Nazis today, which is profoundly offensive,” Jacobson continued.
The illustration was part of an opinion article authored by Karim-Aly Kassam, a professor at Cornell who specializes in natural resources and Indigenous Studies at the Ithaca, New York campus.
The piece, titled “Thousand & One Eyes for an Eye,” was published days after the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas. In it, Kassam wrote that Israel was engaging in a revenge campaign in the Gaza Strip and described a pattern of Israeli officials describing Palestinians as “animals.”
Cornell points to “core values of inclusion, engagement, impact, and community” on their DEI page. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
The student newspaper later retracted the piece and republished it without the drawing following an internal Sun discussion. The imagery failed to meet the newspaper’s standards, it said.
“I am deeply saddened to learn that this portion of the artwork has been interpreted by some as antisemitic,” Kassam told The Post about the situation.
Julia Senzon, the editor-in-chief for The Sun, told Fox News Digital that Kassam provided the image to the publication.
“The Sun removed the image on the grounds that the imagery may plausibly cause visceral harm to some of our readers based on the historical context of the ‘SS’ symbol,” she said in a statement.
An aerial view of Cornell University. The Daily Sun, the student newspaper, came under fire for publishing an image of a bloodied Star of David and a Nazi “SS” symbol scrawled on the back of a Palestinian person in a recent issue. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
An editor later defended Kassam in a column, arguing that the professor did “not imply that the state of Israel is equal to Nazi Germany.” The column reflected the editor’s views, not the newspaper.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Kassam. The university declined to comment on the matter.
