Students at Columbia University have filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the school for alleged discrimination against pro-Palestinian protesters and Palestinian students.
Palestine Legal filed a complaint on Thursday with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of four students and the student group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), who “have all been the target of anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment by fellow students, professors, and/or Columbia administrators.”
The complaint claims Columbia has mishandled the protests, after the university called in the NYPD to clear out the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” last week. It further argues that students should not live under the fear of police or military threat (the group says the school threatened to bring in the National Guard, though the administration has dismissed this claim) and claims the school has “actively contributed to pervasive racism and discrimination against Palestinian students on campus, causing both mental and physical harm.”
NYPD officers arrested 108 anti-Israel protesters on Columbia University’s campus last week. Mayor Eric Adams said police “ensured that there was no violence or injuries during the disturbance.”
As police carried out arrests, a crowd of some 500 students looked on and shouted at officers. Officials said the students likened the police to the Ku Klux Klan and told officers to go kill themselves.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest organized the encampment and asked students to gather around the lawn to block police from entering. The group led chants calling for an “intifada revolution” and for Hamas to “kill another soldier now.”
In the complaint, pro-Palestinian students claim they received death threats and were doxed, stereotyped, and harassed for wearing keffiyehs or hijabs. It also cites an alleged attack with a chemical agent against protesters “that led to at least 10 students requiring hospitalization and dozens of others . . . seeking medical attention.”
Columbia president Minouche Shafik has pushed back on claims around the alleged attack, saying at a recent congressional hearing that while police are still investigating, it is believed an “odorous substance” was discharged, rather than a “toxic chemical substance.” The president added that the university did in fact reach out to the students who said they were affected but that many of them “didn’t want support.”
Meanwhile, there is no evidence that students were admitted to hospitals for observation or treatment.
It appears the “attack” was nothing more than a pro-Israel student using prank-style stink spray. A lawsuit filed by one of the pro-Israel students who was suspended over the incident says the substances were in fact novelty sprays called “Wet Farts” and “Liquid A**.”
Meanwhile, the pro-Palestinian protesters’ complaint calls for an investigation into the university’s alleged actions.
“As a Palestinian student, I’ve been harassed, doxed, shouted down, and discriminated against by fellow students and professors — simply because of my identity and my commitment to advocating for my own rights and freedoms,” student Maryam Alwan said in a news release from Palestine Legal.
“I’m horrified at the way Columbia has utterly failed to protect me from racism and abuse, but beyond that, the university has also played a role in this repression by having me arrested and suspended for peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The violent repression we’re facing as peaceful anti-war protesters is appalling. Palestinian students at Columbia deserve justice and accountability, not only for Israel’s decades-long oppression and violence against our people, but for the racism and discrimination we’ve experienced here on Columbia’s campus,” Alwan added.
After protesters reassembled the encampment in the wake of the arrests last week, Shafik gave protesters a midnight deadline on Tuesday to clear out a second time, lest they face another round of arrests. However, she extended the deadline twice to early Friday morning after protesters agreed to certain terms, including a rule that only those affiliated with the university would attend the protest. Negotiations with protesters remained ongoing.