Columbia University has launched an investigation into masked protesters who disrupted a class on Israeli history and distributed antisemitic leaflets that included what the school denounced as “violent imagery.”
At least four pro-Palestinian protesters, their faces covered by keffiyehs, barged into the History of Modern Israel course on Tuesday, refusing to leave initially as the professor tried to escort them out and students told them to “please get out of here,” as shown on video posted by Stop Antisemitism.
One of the protesters delivered an anti-Israel harangue while others passed out at least two fliers. The first said “Crush Zionism” and showed a drawing of a boot stepping on the Star of David, an image credited to the “Palestinian Liberation Poster Project.”
The second showed an Israeli flag on fire with the caption, “Burn Zionism to the Ground.”
Columbia Interim President Katrina Armstrong said the university “will move quickly to investigate this act,” saying that acts of antisemitism or other forms of discrimination are “unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
“Today a History of Modern Israel class was disrupted by protesters who handed out fliers,” said Ms. Armstrong in a Tuesday statement. “We strongly condemn this disruption, as well as the fliers that included violent imagery that is unacceptable on our campus and in our community.”
She said, “No group of students has a right to disrupt another group of students in a Columbia classroom. Disrupting academic activities constitutes a violation of the Rules of University conduct and the nature of the disruption may constitute violations of other University policies.”
The incident comes with pro-Palestinian unrest once again percolating on the Manhattan campus, despite the Israel-Hamas ceasefire that went into effect Sunday.
In November 2023, the university suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, but groups such as Columbia Social Workers for Palestine and Columbia University Apartheid Divest have picked up where the SJP left off.
The campus organizations held a walkout and a protest Tuesday to advance a host of demands, including divesting from Israel and lifting the suspensions of two student activists.
“There will be no school as usual as long as Columbia funds genocide,” said the CUAD on Instagram.
In a Jan. 17 report, the pro-Israel watchdog group Canary Mission called Columbia a “national model” for anti-Israel activism, crediting the SJP chapter for “orchestrating campus protests and normalizing Hamas’ antisemitic and violent rhetoric and imagery.”
The report said that Columbia allowed SJP “to rebrand as Columbia University Apartheid Divest,” which then “proceeded to amp up SJP’s antisemitic rhetoric and violent intimidation tactics.”
“CUAD launched what would become the template for anti-Israel protests across the country: an encampment on university grounds to establish the ‘Popular University of Gaza,’” said the report, titled “From Tehran to Columbia: Inside America’s Student Intifada.”
“Through the encampment, NSJP’s stated plan was to ‘seize control of our institutions, campus by campus, until Palestine is free,’” it said.
Canary Mission listed profiles of 321 “key players supporting Hamas” at Columbia, but most of them aren’t students.
The breakdown included 68 students and 145 faculty and staff, as well as 108 “outside agitators.”
Meanwhile, the pro-Palestinian Council on American-Islamic Relations listed Columbia as one of 14 “hostile campuses,” citing disciplinary action taken against student activists.
The University Judicial Board held disciplinary hearings earlier this month for students who participated in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment last April, according to the Columbia Spectator, the student newspaper.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.