Stanford instructor benched after ‘identity-based targeting of students’ on heels of Hamas terror in Israel

A Stanford University instructor is sidelined for "identity-based targeting of students" as the school probes a situation that caused "serious concern" on the heels of the brutal Hamas terror attacks in Israel.   

Stanford President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez issued a lengthy statement addressing "several issues that have arisen" on campus since the Hamas terror attack, including the apparent benching of an unnamed instructor. 

"We want to make clear that Stanford stands unequivocally against hatred on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, and other categories. The expression of political views, in appropriate times and places, is important. Thoughtful, reasoned discussion of current issues is central to the life of the university. Our commitment to academic freedom means that latitude for expression of controversial and even offensive views is necessary to avoid chilling freedom of thought and ideas," the statement read. 

Saller and Martinez then added, "But harassment and abuse have no place here. We are committed to working with affected communities to provide support and resources, and also to ensuring the physical safety of those on campus." 

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"We have received a report of a class in which a non-faculty instructor is reported to have addressed the Middle East conflict in a manner that called out individual students in class based on their backgrounds and identities. Without prejudging the matter, this report is a cause for serious concern. Academic freedom does not permit the identity-based targeting of students," they continued. "The instructor in this course is not currently teaching while the university works to ascertain the facts of the situation."

Stanford University declined further comment. 

"As this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to identity anyone involved or comment further at this time," a university spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

The instructor has not been publicly named. 

Forward, a nonprofit news organization that covers "issues, ideas and institutions that matter to American Jews," spoke with Rabbi Dov Greenberg, director of the Chabad Stanford Jewish Center about the ordeal. Rabbi Greenberg said he was told by three students that the instructor asked Jewish and Israeli students to identify themselves during an undergraduate course called "Civil, Liberal and Global Education." 

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Greenberg told Forward that the teacher then told the Jewish students to take their belongings and stand in a corner because "this is what Israel does to the Palestinians."

"The instructor then asked, ‘How many people died in the Holocaust?’ When a student answered, ‘Six million,’ the lecturer said, ‘Colonizers killed more than 6 million. Israel is a colonizer,’" Forward reporter Beth Harpaz wrote. 

"He’s saying Israel is worse than the Nazis and Hamas is innocent. This is what Jewish students face at Stanford and other places. They’re feeling isolated, under attack and threatened," Greenberg told Forward.

Greenberg also told Forward that impacted students were scared to speak up out of fear they would be penalized.

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"What are they going to do — get in a fight with their teacher at Stanford?" the rabbi reportedly asked before noting the instructor also told students that "Hamas is a legitimate representation of the Palestinian people. They are not a terrorist group. They are freedom fighters. Their actions are legitimate.’"

Rabbi Greenberg told Fox News Digital that the Forward piece is accurate. 

"I can confirm all of that," he wrote via email. 

Israel formally declared war on Hamas Sunday after the Palestinian terrorist group launched a pogrom-style terrorist campaign against Israeli civilians, killing and kidnapping children, burning people alive, raping women, and parading dead bodies through the streets. 

Jewish students at American universities have told Fox News Digital that they're "stunned" by pro-Hamas sentiment on their campus amid the terrorist group's war against Israel.

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Fox News' Hannah Grossman and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report. 

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