We demand that UC Davis immediately fire Jemma Decristo, Assistant Professor of American Studies, for making explicit threats targeting the Jewish people. Please ensure that Decristo is barred from campus pending her termination, because she is a clear threat to the safety and wellbeing of the University community.

On October 10, three days after the world witnessed the barbaric torture, rape, murder, and kidnapping of men, women and children by Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization - war crimes targeting targeting the civilian population of Israel - Prof. Decristo called for “Zionist journalists” and their children to be murdered in a gruesome exhortation on social media featuring emojis of a dagger, ax, and drops of blood. “Zionist journalists,” she wrote, “have houses w addresses, kids in school … They can fear their bosses but they should fear us more.” The message, noting that “we have easy access” to them “in the US,” was followed by the blood-tinged emojis.

More recently, Decristo celebrated the attacks on U.S. embassies in response to false reports that Israel bombed a hospital parking lots. She called for the embassies to be burned down, deploying a series of fire emojis as she urged that “the US embassy everywhere” be put to the torch. 

UC Davis has a responsibility to keep its students and faculty safe, and to provide an environment free of the pervasive hostility created by the continued presence of Decristo on campus. Her statements reflect not just a complete disregard for the values and standards of the University, but the lack of any conformity with the moral code shared by society. As President Biden joins bipartisan leaders of Congress and, indeed, the whole civilized world to condemn the barbarity of Hamas, UC Davis is employing a professor who champions that brutality and instills fear into its students and the larger community. This cannot be tolerated.

Fire Jemma Decristo immediately, and take public action to support the Jewish students and faculty at UC Davis in the face of such undisguised evil.