{"id":96761,"date":"2026-10-24T20:31:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=96761"},"modified":"2026-10-25T01:20:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T06:20:44","slug":"after-backlash-tulane-cancels-in-person-talk-on-israel-weaponizing-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/after-backlash-tulane-cancels-in-person-talk-on-israel-weaponizing-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"After backlash, Tulane cancels in-person talk on Israel \u2018weaponizing\u2019 diseases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JESSICA RUSSAK-HOFFMAN<\/p>\n<div class=\"ArticlePage-dateAndSource\">(<em>JNS.org<\/em>) \u2013&nbsp;Tulane University canceled an in-person lecture, slated for Thursday night, with Dr. Salman Khan, associate professor of medicine at Columbia University, titled \u201cIsrael\u2019s weaponization of infectious diseases in Gaza.\u201d<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_96762\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TU_Palestinians.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96762\" class=\"wp-image-96762 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TU_Palestinians-300x181.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TU_Palestinians-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TU_Palestinians.png 473w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/181;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96762\" class=\"wp-image-96762 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TU_Palestinians-300x181.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TU_Palestinians-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TU_Palestinians.png 473w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-96762\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tulane University Association of Pre-Medical Students and the Palestinian Coalition Committee at Tulane.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jns.org\/news\/u-s-news\/tulane-student-groups-to-host-talk-accusing-israel-of-disease-weaponization-in-gaza\">event<\/a><\/span> was planned by student groups. Organizers shared a letter from the private New Orleans university, in which it wrote that \u201cdue to heightened safety concerns, the university has determined that the hybrid format of your event this evening will need to shift to a fully virtual format, without an in-person, on-campus component.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The university wrote that it received \u201cthousands of concerns that have escalated significantly, including threats of disruption and counter-activity that could inhibit the safe delivery of your program,\u201d according to the letter that organizers posted. (JNS sought comment from Tulane.)<\/p>\n<p>The school promised to reimburse the groups for costs of food for the event, according to the letter.<\/p>\n<p>Palestine Solidarity Coalition and the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students were permitted to live-stream the event, according to organizers, but decided late on Thursday, \u201cafter lengthy, unproductive discussions with Tulane administrators,\u201d to postpone instead.<\/p>\n<p>The lecture faced backlash for promoting Jew-hatred and antisemitic tropes about Jews spreading disease and poisoning wells in Europe, which led to pogroms and mass slaughter of Jews.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers accused the school of \u201cengaging in blatant viewpoint discrimination\u201d and giving in to concerns about losing \u201cZionist-backed funding\u201d and asked supporters to email the university.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, Susan Tuchman, director of the Center for Law and Justice at the Zionist Organization of America, asked Tulane to \u201cpublicly condemn the program with Dr. Khan as hateful, antisemitic and against the values of the university and let its sponsors know that they can host him elsewhere, without the imprimatur or support of Tulane University.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tuchman asked the university to \u201ccancel tomorrow\u2019s program, since it will encourage antisemitism, create fear and worry among Jewish students and violate Tulane\u2019s values to build a welcoming and respectful community, engage collaboratively and pursue academic excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She also recommended the school \u201cencourage the sponsorship of campus programs that promote the truth about Israel and the war in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"After%20backlash%2C%20Tulane%20cancels%20in-person%20talk%20on%20Israel%20%E2%80%98weaponizing%E2%80%99%20diseases\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":96762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96763,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96761\/revisions\/96763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}