US Professor Fired Over Anti-Israel Rants Days After Attacking Reporter

A New York City professor who was caught on camera holding a machete to a reporter's neck has been fired for anti-Israel rants. The 47-year-old Shellyne Rodriguez in an email wrote, "Cooper Union has fired me because of a social media post I made about 'Zionists'".

Her January 23 email was shared the next day on Instagram by the Cooper Union Students for Justice in Palestine.

"This is fascism," she wrote. "Y'all are learning about it in real-time."

In her Instagram post, Rodriguez said she was fired over "public comments about 'Zionists.'"

A spokeswoman for the college told the New York Post that it does not comment on personnel matters but Rodriguez is no longer listed as an adjunct on Cooper Union's faculty page.

However, it is unclear which posts or comments led to her being fired.

Notably, Rodriguez took part in a CUNY for Palestine panel where critics claimed she made antisemitic remarks. She also posted a flyer on Instagram, promoting a pro-Israel event - edited to make it look like it was covered with cockroaches.

Former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr was one of the event's participants. "Look at this dirty f-ing roach former Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. a Zionist lapdog," Rodriguez wrote in the caption.

The pro-Palestinian student group condemned the professor's firing as "an intense escalation of repression" that "must be resisted." "The Cooper Union wrongfully terminated a valued educator who is indispensable to the community and the academic livelihood of students," the group wrote in a letter to the administration," according to the New York Post.

However, a section of people were happy about her termination news and said it was much-needed. 

"Jewish students at Cooper Union are very relieved that they fired her," said Jeffrey Lax, a CUNY law professor and co-founder of Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY. "Her comments were despicable."

"Normally, I would say I commend the university for taking action against this professor but in this case, how can I possibly say that? She did something far worse before they hired her. I mean, she held a knife to a reporter's neck," Lax said. "They're not to be commended, they should be ashamed of themselves."

In May last year, Rodriguez, who was then serving as an adjunct professor at Hunter College, was recorded using profanity while expressing displeasure at students who had organized a pro-life table. He asserted that their actions were causing distress to others, stating, "You're not educating anything. This is propaganda. What's next, anti-trans initiatives?" The video capturing the incident was shared online by Students for Life of America.

When a New York Post reporter arrived at her apartment for comments, she was seen holding a blade to the reporter's neck. 

She pleaded guilty to harassment and menacing in connection to the attack on the reporter, the Post reported, citing the Bronx District Attorney's Office. 

Rodriguez was sentenced in October to 13 months of behavioural therapy for menacing.