In a letter dated Thursday, March 13, the Trump administration demanded "academic receivership" of Columbia University's Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies "for a minimum of five years." This unprecedented challenge to academic freedom extends the war waged by the American president against the Manhattan-based university, which has become the epicenter of student mobilization against Israel's bombardment of Gaza, in response to the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

The administration began its attacks on the financial front, announcing on Friday, March 7, the withdrawal of $400 million in federal grants. The following day, it arrested Syrian student Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the pro-Palestinian protest on campus. His green card had been revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself. The 30-year-old man, married to an American woman, was placed in a detention center in Louisiana. On Friday, federal authorities announced that they had arrested a second Palestinian student involved in the pro-Gaza protests in Columbia. Academic, financial and human destabilization: The offensive is total.

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