Cornell Student Newspaper Retracts Antisemitic Nazi Symbol Artwork Amid Backlash

The Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper at Cornell University, removed a controversial artwork accompanying an opinion piece by Professor Karim-Aly Kassam after it faced widespread criticism for antisemitic imagery. The artwork depicted a bloodied Star of David with a Nazi "SS" symbol scrawled on the back of a Palestinian figure, which critics, including Cornell law professor William Jacobson, described as promoting Holocaust inversion and equating Jews with Nazis. Kassam's opinion piece, published near the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel, accused Israel of a revenge campaign in Gaza and noted Israeli officials referring to Palestinians as "animals." After internal discussions, the newspaper retracted the image, stating it could cause visceral harm due to the historical context of the "SS" symbol. Kassam expressed regret over the interpretation of the artwork as antisemitic, clarifying it was not his intention. The controversy highlights ongoing tensions on campus regarding the representation of Israel-Palestine issues and the boundaries of acceptable discourse.