In 2004, a pro-Israel activist organization, the David Project, produced a film, Columbia Unbecoming, interviewing students who claimed that Massad and other Columbia professors had intimidated or been unfair to them for their pro-Israel views. This eventually sparked the appointment of an Ad Hoc Grievance Committee by the university to investigate the complaints. In response to the film, United States Representative Anthony Weiner called on Columbia to fire Massad for what Weiner characterized as "anti-Semitic rantings."
The Ad Hoc Grievance Committee, which concluded its work in April 2005, dismissed most of the allegations against Massad, writing in its report that it had "no basis for believing that Professor Massad systematically suppressed dissenting views in his classroom." and stated that they "found no evidence of any statements made by the faculty that could reasonably be construed as anti-semitic." The committee found it credible that Massad was angered by a question in class from a student that he understood to be defending Israel's conduct toward Palestinians and that his response "exceeded commonly accepted bounds by conveying that her question merited harsh public criticism." but it also described an environment of incivility, with pro-Israel students disrupting lectures on Middle Eastern studies.
Critics described the committee's findings as a whitewash. A speaker for the student group Columbians for Academic Freedom, called the committee's finding that statements made were not anti-Semitic "deeply insulting", not because he believed it to be false but because student complaints were about intimidation, rather than racism. Some had previously complained that the committee contained members who, in their opinion, had "anti-Israel views" and personal connections to Massad.
In response to the investigation of Massad and other professors by Columbia, Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, expressed concern that it would become an inquisition into the political views of professors, and that there was a "political agenda" motivating the complaints. Lieberman previously had met with some of the Columbia students who have made the allegations featured in Columbia Unbecoming and said in an interview that it was "wrong to accept these allegations at face value".
Massad continues to deny the one allegation that the report found "credible." Two students beside his accuser said that they witnessed the incident, but a teaching assistant said on WNYC in April 2005 that she was present and that Massad did not angrily criticize the student in question; after the release of the report, 20 students signed a letter stating that they were in class on the day of the alleged incident, and that the incident had never happened.
In an editorial discussing the case one week after the release of the Committee report, the New York Times noted that, while it believed Massad had been guilty of inappropriate behavior, it found the controversy overblown and professors such as Massad themselves victimized:
There is no evidence that anyone's grade suffered for challenging the pro-Palestinian views of any teacher or that any professors made anti-Semitic statements. The professors who were targeted have legitimate complaints themselves. Their classes were infiltrated by hecklers and surreptitious monitors, and they received hate mail and death threats. The panel had no mandate to examine the quality and fairness of teaching. That leaves the university to follow up on complaints about politicized courses and a lack of scholarly rigor as part of its effort to upgrade the department.
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