Dr. Mika Tosca, Chicago professor, apologizes for calling Israelis ‘pigs’ and ‘very bad people’

A Chicago art professor who was blasted online for calling Israelis “pigs” and “very bad people” after the Hamas attacks has said she is “deeply sorry” and does not stand behind her antisemitic comments.

Dr. Mika Tosca, a climate scientist and associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), issued an apology on her Instagram Wednesday for her incendiary post amid the Israel-Hamas war.

“Yesterday I wrote some things on my Instagram story that I unequivocally reject and do not stand behind,” Tosca wrote.

“I am deeply sorry for writing what I wrote, and for hurting many people with my words, and I am especially sorry to Israeli people that I broadly placed at fault for the war.”

Earlier this week, Tosca came under fire when she called Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas – the terrorist group that killed about 1,400 people and is believed to be holding around 200 hostages – ”downright evil” and “propaganda.”

Following Hamas’ surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip.

As of Thursday, at least 2,778 Palestinians have been killed and another 9,700 injured, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said.

“Israelis are pigs. Savages,” Tosca wrote at the time. “Very bad people. Irredeemable excrement.

“After the past week, if your eyes aren’t open to the crimes against humanity that Israel is committing and has committed for decades, and will continue to commit, then I suggest you open them,” she added.

“It’s disgusting and grotesque. May they all rot in hell.”

Tosca’s post was shared up by the group Stop Antisemitism, which also shared her later apology.

“[Israelis] did not – and do not – deserve [what I said], and I was wrong to post what  I posted; I know that my words perpetuated harmful stereotypes,” the lengthy statement read.

“I allowed my reaction to the violence in Israel and Palestine to take an inappropriate and offensive form, and I am taking proactive steps to learn how I can do better and be better.

“To the many Israeli and Hewish people who I hurt with my words: I am truly sorry. I own my mistake and promise to be better. I hope you can forgive me,” she concluded.

Earlier this week, SAIC said it was aware of the “hateful views” Tosca wrote in her initial rant and insisted that the school “repudiates” the post.

SAIC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for a comment on Tosca’s apology.

Speaking to The Post on Wednesday, Liora Rex, the executive director of StopAntisemitism, demanded that “administrators hold Dr. Mika Tosca fully accountable for her vile bigotry.”

“She must be investigated for her horrible sentiments. Jewish students deserve to feel safe on campus and people like her make that impossible when they’re unapologetically antisemitic.”

Meanwhile, Tosca is not the only academic who has courted controversy in the wake of the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

Joseph Massad, a politics and history professor at Columbia University, made headlines when he called Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens “awesome.”

The tenured professor is currently the subject of a petition calling for his removal – though the Change.org-based movement was “under review” as of Thursday morning.

Further north, at Cornell University, associate professor of history Russell Rickford is struggling to save face after he boasted that he was “exhilarated” by the wave of anti-Israeli violence.

On the other side of the divisive issue, Washington University professor Seth Crosby claimed to have been fired because he referred to Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza as “a much needed cleansing.”

The off-color remark was criticized by Muslim advocacy groups for dehumanizing Palestinians – many of whom have lived in quasi-exile in the Gaza Strip and West Bank for decades.