Gray Tuttle is the Leila Hadley Luce Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University. He holds a PhD in Asian History from Harvard University and has been associated with Columbia’s Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures. As of March 2024, Tuttle is a member of the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC) and is based in Flanders, New Jersey.
Justifying Hamas Terrorism
On October 30, 2023, Tuttle, along with other Columbia faculty members, signed a public statement justifying US Designated terrorist organization Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks. The statement framed these attacks as a “military response” by an occupied people exercising their “right to resist violent and illegal occupation.” This view aligns with anti-Israel rhetoric that justifies violence as part of Palestinian “resistance” to an occupation, a term frequently used to excuse acts of terrorism.
The Columbia Faculty Statement
The faculty statement that Tuttle signed defended students who characterized the Hamas attacks as part of a larger context of resistance against an occupation. It suggested that these attacks were a reaction to Israel’s longstanding state violence against Palestinians and framed the atrocities of October 7 as part of an ongoing war, rather than isolated acts of terrorism.
This position has sparked significant controversy, with critics accusing Tuttle and other signatories of condoning terrorism and downplaying the severity of Hamas’s war crimes. The letter emphasized the need to debate the historical and political context of the Israel-Gaza conflict, but its framing of the October 7 attacks as justified resistance has drawn backlash.
Current Status
Gray Tuttle remains a prominent academic at Columbia University, but his support for the controversial letter has placed him at the center of a debate over academic freedom, terror support disguised as activism, and the justification of violence. His involvement with this statement continues to generate discussions about the role of academia in political discourse, particularly concerning terrorism and human rights. How should Americans view a man who supports a tettor organization that wants American values to be diminished.
