Chicago Professor Apologizes For Calling Israelis 'Pigs,' 'Savages'

CHICAGO — An associate professor at Chicago's School of the Art Institute apologized Wednesday after sharing an Instagram story Tuesday calling Israelis "pigs" and "savages" amid the Hamas attack on Gaza.

In the post — which is no longer visible on her story but archived by multiple outlets including the New York Post — Dr. Mika Tosca wrote: "Israelis are pigs. Savages. Very very bad people ... After the past week, if your eyes aren't open to the crimes against humanity that Israel is committing and has committed for decades, and will continue to commit, then I suggest you open them. It's disgusting and grotesque. May they all rot in hell."

The following day — after receiving an outpouring of backlash — Tosca took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to apologize for her comments.

"Yesterday I wrote some things on my Instagram story that I unequivocally reject and do not stand behind," she wrote, in part. " I am deeply sorry for writing what I wrote, and for hurting many people with my words, and I am especially sorry to Israeli people that I broadly placed at fault for the war ... I allowed my reaction to the violence in Israel and Palestine to take an inappropriate and offensive form and I am taking proactive steps to learn how I can do better and be better."

In a statement shared with the Post, School of the Art Institute officials said it "repudiates" Tosca's anti-Israeli statements and that "those views are not reflective of the School or the values we as a community share."

According to her website, Tosca is a "climate scientist, a humanist, an activist." She earned her Ph.D. in Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, in the Earth System Science Department.

The controversy at the Chicago school is part of a series of similar ones taking place across the country since the Israel-Hamas conflict began Oct. 7.

Davis Polk, a top law firm based in New York, said earlier this week that it has rescinded job offers to three students from Harvard and Columbia universities who were leaders of student groups that issued statements blaming Israel for the Hamas attack on Gaza, according to an internal email from the firm obtained by multiple outlets.

A petition started by a Yale University student Oct. 10 that calls for the removal of a professor who apparently shared a tweet calling Israel "a murderous, genocidal settler state" has received more than 52,500 signatures to date.

Around the same time, a New York University law student who also serves as president of the Student Bar Association lost a job offer from a law firm after sending out a newsletter saying Israel "bears full responsibility" for the Hamas attack.

Hamas, which has ruled the Palestinian Gaza Strip since 2007, launched an attack inside Israel earlier this month, killing hundreds and taking others hostage while seizing settlements. Its unprecedented breach of the border sent fighters inside border communities and military installations, shocked Israel and its allies, and raised questions about the group's capabilities and strategy.

The U.S. State Department designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other Western countries also consider it a terrorist organization.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.