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- A Yale University professor called Israel "genocidal" and "murderous."
- A student-led petition calling for her ouster has more than 44,000 signatures.
- Yale said the professor's social media posts "represent her own views."
A petition with tens of thousands of signatures is calling for Yale University to terminate a professor after she described Israel as "murderous" and "genocidal" on the day Hamas launched one of its deadliest attacks on the country.
In response to the backlash, Yale University has reasserted its commitment to freedom of speech.
Yale told NBC Connecticut in a statement that the university "is committed to freedom of expression, and the comments posted on Professor Grewal's personal accounts represent her own views."
One self-identified Yale student, Netanel Crispe, created a Change.org petition calling for the ouster of Zareena Grewal, an associate professor of American studies, ethnicity, race, migration, and religious studies. The petition has so far gathered more than 44,000 signatures.
According to the petition, Grewal posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on October 7 to say that she was praying for the people of Palestine.
"My heart is in my throat. Prayers for Palestinians. Israeli [sic] is a murderous, genocidal settler state and Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle, solidarity. #FreePalestine," Grewal said in the post, according to the petition.
Earlier on October 7, Hamas launched a wave of unprecedented terror attacks in Israel, killing more than 1,000 and taking dozens of hostages. The attack ended a nearly 20-year stalemate that has been characterized by rising tension over Israel's occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza.
Israel has since declared a state of war and vowed to completely destroy Hamas. Israel's airstrikes over the densely populated Gaza strip have killed 1,900 people so far in response, at least 614 of them children.
Grewal has since made her X account private, and her posts are no longer visible.
Crispe said in the petition that condoning violence and advocating for a terrorist organization are values that that "run contrary to the values of Yale University."
"She has unequivocally proven that she has no right being in her current role or in the field of education if she considers war crimes against civilians to be acts of resistance," the petition says.
Neither Yale nor Grewal responded to Insider's requests for comment.