#6: Samer Alatout, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Samer Alatout is a Palestinian associate professor of Community and Environmental Sociology at UW-Madison who has long been noted for his record of Jew hatred and his whitewashing of Hamas’s terrorist violence. In recent months, his promotion of Hamas has become even more explicit, praising the organizers of the barbaric October 7^th attacks on Israeli civilians and participating in—and getting arrested—during an illegal anti-Israel demonstration on campus.

Just days after Hamas’s massacre of Israeli innocents, Alatout made his support for the terrorist organization clear, tweeting, that “Hamas fighters r precisely the kids & grandkids of those who were displaced from Palestine in 1948. They r the Palestinians if one comes to think of it. In refugee camps, they live legacies of that war and hold tight to the right of return (enshrined in international law).” While most leftist critics of Israel were attempting to draw a moral distinction between Hamas and the larger mass of Palestinian people, Alatout was doing precisely the opposite—and justifying the actions of Hamas.

In another tweet on October 13, 2023, Alatout attempted to absolve Hamas and blame Israel for the barbaric massacre of 1200 innocents and the kidnapping and maiming of many more. “…[I]t is not about Hamas, not about Gaza, and not about the recent attack by Hamas. Israel has been targeting Palestinians within Israel, in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in the Diaspora. The demand: Die silently, without a whimper,” he wrote.

Professor Alatout has repeatedly invoked the Holocaust in condemning Israel’s actions to defend itself from Hamas, a classic form of anti-Semitism. On November 15, 2023, Alatout tweeted, “#Israeli use of #Goebbels’s (the Nazi propaganda guy) approach of ‘lie, lie, and keep lying until people believe you,’ will not work in 2023.” Two days later, he compared Israelis to Holocaust deniers, tweeting, “Deniers of the ongoing #Genocide_of_Palestinians should be ashamed. They are made of the same moral depravity of which Holocaust deniers are made of.”

Alatout was one of the organizers of a letter to the UW-Madison administration titled “Criticism of Israel is not Antisemitic.” The letter was signed by over 230 faculty, staff, and graduate students at the university, and alleged that “harassment and intimidation of students who criticize Israel” was taking place on campus.

“We want to work with the university in order to figure out how to appropriately make the environment peaceful to protect the students, whether they are, of course, pro-Palestine or pro-Israel, or whoever it is, just to have a civil discourse,” Alatout said—a sentiment that appears in sharp contrast to his actual conduct which includes participating in an illegal and violent occupation on campus.

Profesor Alatout is fond of slinging false and demonizing accusations against Israel and its citizens. A picture accompanying an article about Alatout that was printed in the UW-Madison student newspaper, the Daily Cardinal, shows the professor lecturing before an audience of students and pointing to an enlarged image of the series of Hamas propaganda maps which falsely allege that Israel colonized and invaded the land of Palestine.

The professor has also alleged that Zionism is “a form of racism and racial discrimination” writing in a tweet that “Seeing the way #Israel commits a #genocidal war against Palestinians and the way so many #Zionists… seem to affirm their obvious repugnance towards all non-whites (within Israel or outside, against non-Jews as well as against Jews of color)…” The accusation of racism against Israel is a common form of Jew hatred and also utter nonsense, given that the majority of Jewish citizens of Israel are of Middle Eastern or North African descent.

As horrific as Alatout’s vocal declarations of support for Hamas are, they pale in comparison with his actions on campus which include participating in an illegal encampment which violated the civil rights of Jewish students at the public UW-Madison campus and engaging in a violent altercation with police who attempted to disband the protest.

Video of Alatout filmed and then tweeted by a local news channel on May 1, 2024, shows the professor pushing back against police officers arrayed with shields while chanting, “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest!”

The professor can also be seen in a second video taken on that same date during which he is being arrested by police who were attempting to disperse the illegal encampment that the pro-Hamas faction—including Alatout—had established on the Madison campus several days earlier in clear violation of university rules. While being arrested, Alatout yelled out, “Palestine will be free.”

Despite his violent and illegal conduct, Alatout claimed he was “targeted by police for violence” and blamed law enforcement for inflicting a gash on his forehead. “They pushed me into the ground,” Alatout told reporters. “They pushed me again and again and again.” Four law enforcement officers were also injured while clearing the encampment.

It is clear that Alatout has only himself and his unlawful conduct to blame for his injuries. “Every individual was given the opportunity to move away from the tent area and continue peaceful protest,” wrote UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin in a campuswide email. “I cannot emphasize strongly enough our support for free expression and peaceful protest.”

For his unrelenting support for Hamas and his frequently voiced Jew hatred, Professor Samuel Alatout deserves his place on the list of Hamas Loyalist Professors.

Previous Articles in the Series:

#7: Hamas Loyalist Professor: Steven Thrasher at Northwestern University.

#8: Hamas Loyalist Professor: Noura Erakat at Rutgers University.

#9: Hamas Loyalist Professor: Jairo Fúnez-Flores at Texas Tech University.

#10: Hamas Loyalist Professor: Jeffrey McCully at Moraine Valley Community College.