On Oct. 20, Michelle Zacarias posted an 11-part thread to X, formerly known as Twitter, summarizing the main points from an Oct. 12 Hamas press statement. 

“The Palestinian resistance movement (sometimes referred to as ‘Hamas’) put out a video that surprisingly* was not played on any of the major news broadcasting networks,” wrote Zacarias, ​​an adjunct instructor of journalism.

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Zacarias explained that Hamas characterized Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Southern Israel, as a “supremely defensive act” that targeted only Israeli military bases and compounds, before “chaos prevailed at the scene” and “civilians found themselves in the middle of confrontations.” 

Zacarias also wrote that Hamas condemned Western bias which has “sought to demonize the Palestinian people and their struggle,” and that Hamas said the Palestinian people have “full rights to resist and end the illegal Israeli occupation.”

The thread remained widely unnoticed until Nov. 16, when a journalist named Stephanie Abrams called the professor out for referring to Hamas as “the Palestinian resistance movement.” 

“Help make this #ProHamas @USC ‘Journalism’ Professor Michelle Zacarias famous!” Abrams wrote. “She spews her terror support on social media and at school where students say they’ve been targeted with inappropriate questions about their identities, are uncomfortable wearing Magen David to class, and even skip to avoid the professor.”

Abrams also posted a photo of Zacarias’ USC email address and phone number, and another photo of a sticker on the back of Zacarias’ laptop that read, “Boycott Israeli Apartheid.”

As of Dec. 17, Abrams’ tweet about the professor had over 33,000 views and 334 likes, and Zacarias has become the subject of widespread backlash and outrage online. Some social media users have called Zacarias a “Nazi” and a “racist,” and an online publication known as Israellycool nicknamed Zacarias the “professor who hearts Hamas” in an article published Nov. 17.  Because of the harassment she said she received from the post, Zacarias moved her classes online during the last week of the semester.

In an emailed statement to the Daily Trojan, Zacarias did not address the sticker on her laptop and did not clarify what she meant when she referred to Hamas as “the Palestinian resistance movement.” She instead labeled her initial tweet as “primarily transcription journalism.” 

“It’s important to emphasize that during the press conference, certain issues were raised that were not being reported by any major news outlets,” Zacarias wrote. “As journalists, our role is not to restrict access to information but rather to promote greater transparency and accessibility, regardless of our individual political beliefs.”

A student from Zacarias’ class condemned Abrams for posting the professor’s contact information online, but said they found Zacarias’ comments about Hamas hurtful and upsetting. 

“I’m the type of person who likes to believe the best in people, and I like to think that maybe things could be taken out of context,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear that Zacarias would penalize their final grade in the class. “But in this situation, I see her directly comparing Hamas and the Palestinian revolution, and to me, it’s very clear what that says, and it makes it clear that she condones Hamas.”

Three of Zacarias’ students told the Daily Trojan they felt uncomfortable attending Zacarias’ class because of her views on the Israel-Hamas war, but other students spoke highly of the professor. One student said in an anonymous interview that they love having Zacarias as a professor. 

“Our class is called ‘JOUR 372: Engaging Diverse Communities,’ and I think that a lot of the focus on the class has been how to report on communities accurately and respectfully,” they said. “[Zacarias] has done all of that, she’s exemplified all that, and it’s really sad seeing the way she has been portrayed in the media.”

In a statement posted to Instagram Nov. 27, the student advocacy group Trojans for Palestine expressed its support for Zacarias — adding that the person who took the photo of Zacarias’ laptop had violated the USC Student Handbook’s Academic Integrity policy as it appears to have been taken inside the professor’s classroom. The handbook explicitly prohibits unauthorized recordings in the classroom. 

The president of Trojans for Palestine, who spoke to the Daily Trojan anonymously for fear of retaliation, said they felt Zacarias’ tweets were being taken out of context and that USC should investigate the student who sent the photo for Abrams to post, who is currently unidentified. 

“Taking unsolicited pictures from within a classroom and then using a third party to then cause harm to this professor is absolutely in violation of USC’s Student Handbook,” the president said. “The student should face consequences in my opinion, because [it’s] absolutely abhorrent that a professor can’t feel secure within their own class.”

In her statement, Zacarias wrote that seeing her information circulating on the internet was “disorienting and scary.”

“Being doxxed is obviously not an ideal scenario … especially knowing that one of the images that the platform used came from inside my classroom,” Zacarias wrote. “The situation described here, however is indicative of a larger problem occurring throughout the nation, which involves the widespread suppression of pro-Palestinian students and academics on college campuses.”

Penal Code 653.2 states it is illegal to provide “personal identifying information” about another individual “without consent of the other person, and for the purpose of imminently causing that other person unwanted physical contact, injury, or harassment, by a third party.”

Doxxing is a misdemeanor in California, punishable by up to one year in county jail and/or by payment of up to $1,000 in fines.  

In an interview with the Daily Trojan, Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief David Carlisle did not specifically address the backlash Zacarias has received, but said victims of doxxing are encouraged to file a report with DPS and the school’s Office of Threat Assessment and Management.

In a written statement to the Daily Trojan, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism did not directly comment on Zacarias, but wrote that the well-being of students, faculty and staff is “always our top priority as we work to create and sustain an academic community in which we can all thrive.”

The statement also described measures the University offers to all faculty, students and staff in response to doxxing, including mental health support and threat assessment.

Zacarias is now “doing well and managing,” her statement read. Her “goal as an educator,” she continued, “is always to foster an environment” where students have the freedom to ask difficult questions and “push the boundaries of traditional journalism.”