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Brooklyn teacher under fire for social media comments like ‘let Gaza burn’ and 'there are no innocents'
Pro-Palestinian activists have now urged the city Department of Education to investigate The Fort Hamilton School instructor Robert Rossicone over his remarks
A Brooklyn teacher is under fire for his disturbing comments on social media, such as“Let Gaza Burn’’ and “There are no innocents.’’ Pro-Palestinian activists have now urged the city Department of Education to investigate The Fort Hamilton School instructor Robert Rossicone over his remarks.
The PS 104 elementary-middle school is known for serving students from the largest Palestinian-American and Arabic communities in the state, according to New York Post. “Look at these ANIMALS. And the people who support this, or call for a ceasefire, are dogs as well,” Rossicone commented in response to a Hamas video provided to CNN by the Israel Defense Force. The video was of the surprise attack Hamas launched on Israel on October 7.
“Let Gaza Burn. There are no innocents if this is what is allowed to continue. Never again. By ANY means necessary,” he also wrote.
The group Stop Arab Hate posted screenshots of Rossicone’s comments on X, captioning it, “Robert Rossicone is a @NYCSchools educator at PS/IS 104 in Brooklyn, where he teaches social studies to children. He believes people calling for ceasefire are “dogs”, and describes women in the IDF as a “72 virgins dating service”.
This comes days after aprofessor of Cornell University who came under fire for his comments on the Hamas attack in Israel took a leave of absence from the school. A viral video showed Russell Rickford saying the Hamas attack was “exhilarating” and “energising.” Russell, an associate professor of history at the school in Ithaca, New York, made the comments at a pro-Palestinian protest.
Russell said that the attack “shifted the balance of politics and punctured the illusion of invincibility” of Israel. The country has imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized power in 2007. “That’s what they’ve done. You don’t have to be a Hamas supporter to recognize it,” he said.
Russell went on to say that Palestinians who witnessed oppression were “able to breathe for the first time in years” in the hours after the attack. “It was exhilarating. It was exhilarating, it was energising. And if they weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, the shifting of the violence of power, then they would not be human. I was exhilarated,” he is heard saying as the crowd chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
