Nader Hashemi, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Assistant Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies of the University of Denver, has an extensive history of antisemitism that includes falsely demonizing Israel, defending Palestinian violence, and excusing Jew hatred. Most recently, Nader Hashemi stated on a podcast that Israel was to blame for the attempted assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie.
Joseph Korbel (1909-1977) was Czech-American of Jewish descent and his daughter Madeleine Albright served as the U.S. Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton.
In an interview with the New York Post from jail, Rushdie’s 24-year-old Lebanese attacker Hadi Matar said Rushdie was "someone who attacked Islam." Rushdie is known as a harsh critic of Islam and was repeatedly stabbed by Matar in the moments before he had been due to deliver an address at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.
Hashemi has a long history of vilifying the world's only Jewish nation - Israel - while defending those that seek to eradicate it. He has previously faced criticism for suggesting that Hamas has become more moderate, stating in 2015 that there had been significant attempts by the leadership of Hamas to strike out and to present a more moderate face with respect to a political resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict." Between 2000-2015, at the time of Hashemi’s speech, Hamas was responsible for at least 37 suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, as well as thousands of rocket attacks.
During that same time, Israel saw an upsurge of knife attacks; these stabbing came to be known as the "Knife Intifada." In one of the attacks Hashemi tweeted: "Israeli soldiers kill another Palestinian in Hebron" and linked to an article about a Palestinian who attempted to stab Israeli soldiers during a riot. The month prior, Hashemi tweeted an article validating Palestinian violence surging in Israel, while urging that the campaign of violence be "transformed" into a non-violent, international movement, for tactical reasons. Hashemi’s tweet read: "EXCELLENT: The current uprising in Palestine could win — but only with international solidarity."
Hashemi often mocks and attempts to rationalize antisemitism coming from those that vilify Israel. In 2016 he tweeted -"there is another message: we will continue to colonize Palestinian land, if you criticize us we will call u anti-Semitic." Hashemi’s tweet was in response to a tweet by anti-Israel propagandist Yousef Munayyer, who also accused Israel of inappropriately threatening elected U.S. officials that were critical of Israeli policy.
In 2005 Hashemi claimed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s demand that Israel "must be wiped off the map" was rooted "not in ancient ethnic hatreds or Muslim anti-Semitism, but primarily in the trauma and enduring legacy of European colonialism and Israel's perceived connection with this legacy.” Ahmadinejad — in his speech calling for Israel’s erasure — also said: "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, [while] any [Islamic leader] who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world.”
Nader Hashemi is also a supporter of the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement having signed and promoted a pro-BDS petition calling for a boycott of Israel and shared links on Twitter endorsing the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
University of Denver’s Jewish students should not have to be subjected to Professor Hashemi’s hateful and false rhetoric. StopAntisemitism needs YOUR help - email University of Denver's Chancellor to voice your outrage of Hashemi’s antisemitic propaganda and/or Frederick (Fritz) Mayer, the Dean of the Joseph Korbel School.