The city's Department of Education decided yesterday to drop a Columbia University professor who has called Israel a "racist" state from a professional-development course it is offering public-school teachers.

The department's decision came hours after a report appeared in The New York Sun revealing that the professor, Rashid Khalidi, would be one of the Columbia faculty members instructing the city's teachers on how to teach students about the history, culture, and politics of the Middle East.

"Considering his past statements, Rashid Khalidi should not have been included in a program that provided professional development for DOE teachers and he won't be participating in the future," Chancellor Joel Klein's press secretary, Jerry Russo, said in a statement sent via e-mail to the Sun yesterday evening.