We have covered the story of Megan Marzec, the Ohio University student who co-opted the ALS ice bucket challenge to suit her anti-Israel views by turning it into a bucket of blood. Professor William Jacobson has also covered the story extensively at Legal Insurrection.

Now Sharona Schwartz of The Blaze is reporting that Marzec is being defended by some members of the faculty.

‘Proud to Be Educators’: College Professors Pen Letter That Appears to Glorify Self-Immolation

A letter signed by 39 faculty members at Ohio University expressing support for a pro-Palestinian student’s dramatic “blood bucket” display also seemed to applaud the act of self-immolation, describing it as part of a “long and honorable tradition” in the United States.

The faculty members published an open letter Wednesday, including in the student newspaper The Post, in which they defended Megan Marzec, the student senate president who last week amended the viral ice bucket challenge to criticize Israel by performing a Gaza “blood bucket challenge.”

The professors wrote in part:

Dramatic nonviolent actions — draft-card burnings, lunch-counter sit-ins, and even self-immolations — capture public attention and spark reactions in an effort to create public debate and social change. There is a long and honorable tradition of such protests in the United States and in Ohio public education. Marzec’s action is no different. It is consistent with what makes us most proud to be educators.

William Jacobson, a vocal supporter of Israel and a Cornell University law professor who runs the conservative blog Legal Insurrection, told TheBlaze, “Marzec has the right to express her views, but other students, faculty and administrators have the equal right to criticize those views and to hold Marzec responsible.”

“Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism. The faculty letter misses that distinction,” Jacobson told TheBlaze in an email. “Even more disturbing is that the faculty members describe the suicidal act of self-immolation as ‘non-violent’ and ‘honorable.’  One would have hoped that faculty members, while also entitled to speak their minds, would have done so more responsibly on an issue of student safety.”