The Teacher is Devoted to Hamas

Lara Sheehi is a faculty member at George Washington University who has never made any secret of her love of Hamas. On May 22, 2021, she tweeted: “If you see this and STILL entertain for even a split second that Hamas is a terrorist entity, there is literally zero hope for you, your soul, or your general existence as an ethical human being in this world.” 

It is a case of unqualified devotion. And her commitment to Hamas includes equally unqualified condemnation of all those on earth who do not share her passion. Her rejection of those who even consider the possibility that Hamas is a terrorist group leaves no room for debate or discussion. 

Within a few days of the October 7 massacre, Sheehi doubled down on her support for Hamas. Even Berkeley Hamas supporter and faculty member Judith Butler had second thoughts and condemned the assault. But not Sheehi. She immediately endorsed the massacre on Instagram, where she posts as psychoanalyst and activist. 

In the weeks since the Hamas murder spree, Sheehi has signaled that she likes posts contesting reports of Hamas violence, and she endorses competing claims: “The Zionist entity has a long history of sexual violence against Palestinian women.” She decries “the claims of mass rape used to siphon off support from the Palestinian resistance.” She urges widespread statements asserting that “the State of Israel is engaged in a war of extermination against the Palestinians,” that the October “armed resistance … is not only Hamas’ but that of the entire Palestinian people.” She also declared her support for George Washington U’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and castigated GWU’s president Ellen Granberg: “How dare you call our mourning a ‘celebration of terrorism.’ How dare you slander the names of our martyrs as terrorists.”

Nonetheless, she has been able to get away with continuing as 2023 president of the influential Division 39 of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology. Protests to APA leaders from a number of clinical psychologists who are past and present members of that and other APA divisions were simply ignored. Some prominent APA members embrace Sheehi’s love for Hamas and the hatred of Israel it embodies. APA leaders realize her presidency ends in December 2023. They are waiting out the protests until they become moot. But the APA will long be identified with the antisemitic Division who endorsed a pogrom. I participate in group discussions among Jewish psychologists who confirm their unsuccessful efforts to get meaningful responses from the APA leadership.

There is no getting past this APA scandal if the organization’s leaders simply bury their heads in the sand. But matters may get worse before long.

There is no getting past this APA scandal if the organization’s leaders simply bury their heads in the sand. But matters may get worse before long.

For several years, Sheehi has taught a course that all students, including Jews and Israelis, in GWU’s graduate program in psychology are required to take. She taught the course in fall 2022 and may teach it again in fall 2024. Jewish students will have to suffer through lectures by a faculty member who shares the blood lust of the Hamas murderers.

For GWU administrators to assign her a required course itself amounts to harassment of Jewish students and support for terrorism. If this plan goes forward, line administrators from the program through the upper administration should be pressed to resign. Public demonstrations should demand Sheehi’s removal from any required course. GWU is already under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education, accused of endorsing Sheehi’s retaliation against her Jewish students. But the case against GW will become more serious now that Sheehi has embraced the worst violence against Jews since the Holocaust.

Sheehi is an assistant professor who is being considered for permanent academic tenure. The university is entirely within its rights to take Sheehi’s support for a bestial massacre into account when reviewing her case. 

Sheehi is an assistant professor who is being considered for permanent academic tenure. The university is entirely within its rights to take Sheehi’s support for a bestial massacre into account when reviewing her case. Her academic publications embody her radical anti-Zionism. Her love of Hamas is part of her professional profile. Promoting terrorism is not part of academic freedom.

Cary Nelson’s “Israel Denial” (Indiana) includes a detailed chapter on Puar. His “Hate Speech and Academic Freedom” (Academic Studies Press) is forthcoming.