Responding to charges a professor engaged in Mideast politics on the taxpayer dime, San Francisco State University officials offered bland reassurances that the school investigates “any allegations that a member of the University community misused state funds.”

Palestinian guerrilla Leila Khaled was praised by San Francisco State University professor Rabab Abdulhadi, who received more than $7,000 from SFSU to fly to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel.

According to a California Public Records Act inquiry requested by the nonprofit group AMCHA Initiative, “Professor Rabab Abdulhadi received more than $7,000 from SFSU to fly to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel to meet with members of known terrorist organizations.”

Abdulhadi did not respond to email and telephone requests for comments. In a recording, she said the trip was aimed at “collaborating with academic institutions, especially with academic institutions in Palestine.”

Abdulhadi was scheduled to present a paper at a Jan. 11 – 14 Conference of the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University in Lebanon. After receiving university approval to attend at the school’s expense, Abdulhadi sent an email to the SFSU Risk Management Office advising that her “name was dropped from the Beirut conference.”

Despite that change, she made the Mideast trip, along with SFSU ethnic studies professor Joanne Barker and Jaime Veve, who is Abdulhadi’s husband.

Critics allege the trip was always political rather than academic. They point to a March 6 event, during which Abdulhadi called the trip a “political solidarity tour.” Captured on an audio recording, she clearly expresses her admiration for Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, calling her “an icon in the liberation movement and she is an icon for women’s liberation.”