A Stanford University teacher has been removed from the classroom amid reports they called Jewish students colonizers and downplayed the Holocaust

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A teacher at Stanford University has been removed from teaching duties while the school investigates reports that during a discussion about… The conflict between Israel and HamasThe teacher downplayed the importance of the Holocaust and singled out the students “based on their backgrounds and identities.”

“Without being prejudgmental, this report is deeply concerning,” Stanford said. “Academic freedom does not permit students to be targeted based on their identity.” In the current situation Wednesday.

The statement continued, “The teacher in this course is not currently teaching, while the university is working to ascertain the reality of the situation.”

The coach’s name was not mentioned, and he is not a member of the faculty. CNN has reached out to the coach for comment.

The university’s action comes as… Fierce battles This week’s clash between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza has heightened tensions beyond the Middle East.

Some Jews in the United States say so Fear of being targeted While the country faces widespread reports of anti-Semitism. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks anti-Semitic incidents, registered Nearly 3,700 accidents in the United States, the highest number since tracking began in 1979.

Rabbi Dov Greenberg, Executive Director of Beit Ror ChabadThe Stanford Jewish Community Center told CNN that the students were “shocked.”

Greenberg, who said he spoke with the students involved in the incident, said they were “not in a good state” and feared facing backlash or bullying on campus.

According to Greenberg, the students said the teacher tried to justify Hamas’ actions and asked the students how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

After one of the students answered, “6 million,” the teacher said that more people were killed by the colonialists, and said, “Israel is a colony.”

The teacher then made his point by asking some students to actually go to the back of the classroom. “This is what Israel is doing to the Palestinians,” Al-Muallem said, according to Greenberg.

“This was the key exchange that left students feeling marginalized, attacked and isolated,” Greenberg said.

The students who spoke to Greenberg did not resist the coach at the time. “The students clearly told me they were shocked and frightened. They couldn’t believe this was happening to them,” Greenberg said.

“This is a classic case of young students, for the first time away from home, feeling shocked,” Greenberg said of the college freshmen. “They didn’t feel like they had the ability at this time to argue with a teacher at Stanford. They’re just kids.”

The Stanford teacher’s alleged comments came during two classes on Tuesday, with a total of 18 students, during which the teacher announced that today’s lesson would focus on colonialism, San Francisco Chronicle mentioned. The outlet cited Jewish student leaders who spoke with students at the so-called course College 101A required class for first-year students.

Noria Cohen and Andrei Mandelstam, co-chairs Stanford Israel SocietyThe students said the teacher asked the Jewish students to raise their hands, separated those students from their belongings and said they were mimicking what Jews do to Palestinians, the Chronicle reported.

The newspaper said that the students Cohen and Mandelstam spoke to requested that their identities not be revealed.

Cohen and Mandelstam declined CNN’s request for comment.

The students told Cohen and Mandelstam that the teacher had brought up the topic Colonization of the Congo The Chronicle newspaper reported that King Leopold II of Belgium in the nineteenth century said that the number of deaths at that time was greater than the number of deaths during the Holocaust, and that Israel colonized the Palestinians.

Students from both classes told Cohen and Mandelstam that the teacher asked the students where their ancestors came from and called them “colonists” or “colonizers,” according to the Chronicle.

“I feel completely dehumanized that someone responsible for students and developing minds would try to justify the massacre of my people,” Cohen told the newspaper. “It’s as if I’m reliving the justification of the Nazis 80 years ago on campus today.”

The coach’s reported comments come months after the Stanford campus police department Open an investigation into a hate crime An anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on a whiteboard hanging on a Jewish student’s bedroom door.

In February, several swastikas, the N-word and the letters “KKK” were scratched on a metal plaque in a bathroom on campus, the university said.

“We have heard many expressions of concern about student safety. We have heard from Jewish students, faculty and staff concerned about rising anti-Semitism. We have heard from Palestinian students who have received threatening emails and phone calls,” Stanford said in its statement Wednesday. We want to make clear that Stanford stands unequivocally against hatred based on religion, race, national origin, and other categories.”