On the first day of the new semester, Jan. 21, a group of four students wearing masks disrupted a class on the modern history of Israel at Columbia University. Here's video of the disruption, plus an image of one of the flyers the students were distributing.
I rarely curse on this platform, but what the actual fuck. How the hell is this allowed? Why are my tax dollars going to Columbia? pic.twitter.com/PmVCVHRjB8
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 21, 2025
Despite the masks, three of those students were identified including two from Barnard college who were referred back to that institution for discipline. This week both of those students were expelled. The news of the expulsions was first published by CUAD, the group which organized the disruption in the first place. They called for a week of action to demand the students be reinstated.
The caption reads in part:
On February 21st, Barnard College expelled two students for their alleged involvement in the classroom disruption of “History of Modern Israel.” A course that manufactures consent for genocide and violently erases Palestinian history.
We reject Barnard’s attempts to intimidate us out of fighting against the zionist genocide of Palestine. We demand that Barnard reinstates our peers and we will not give up until they do so.
After 16 months and 76 years of genocide, Columbia University has refused to divest from israel, but it is also the weakest it has ever been. Their extreme repression is proof that the pressure is mounting, Palestine will be free. We cannot let these expulsions stand, we must keep fighting for Palestinian liberation.
Barnard's President offered a general statement about the situation when asked by Jewish Insider:
In a statement to JI, Barnard President Laura Rosenbury declined to provide details about the expulsions. “Under federal law, we cannot comment on the academic and disciplinary records of students,” Rosenbury said.
“That said, as a matter of principle and policy, Barnard will always take decisive action to protect our community as a place where learning thrives, individuals feel safe, and higher education is celebrated,” Rosenbury continued.
She continued, "When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act." Her statement was praised by the director of the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life at Columbia:
Strong action and words from @BarnardCollege President Laura Rosenbury. These former students disrupted a class, handed out antisemitic flyers, and harassed students who only wanted to learn. These individuals don't belong on campus - and now they won't be. https://t.co/SFmoCM6z9P
— Brian Cohen (@brcohen) February 23, 2025
CUAD, the group which organized the disruption posted a defense of it over the weekend.
The caption on this one reads:
STUDENTS DISRUPTED A ZIONIST CLASS, YOU SHOULD TOO!
On January 21, a group of Pro-Palestine students disrupted the first day of the course “History of Modern Israel” taught by an ex-IOF soldier Avi Shilon. A course that legitimizes and normalizes the genocide, occupation, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and their land.
Every academic paper, course, interview, or book that legitimizes the zionist entity necessarily cosigns the genocide and occupation of Palestinians and necessitates disruption. They are the grease that keeps the war machine killing.
It is our bare minimum duty as people of conscience to disrupt the production and dissemination of zionist propaganda.
This group is literally arguing that any history of Israel that doesn't fit with their extremist, pro-Hamas views shouldn't be taught. Columbia University responded to those claims directly.
The group that made this post is not recognized, authorized or supported by the University. We condemn this unacceptable call to disrupt our academic mission. Disruptions to our classrooms and efforts to intimidate or harass our students are not acceptable, are an affront to our University community, and will not be tolerated.
Hopefully, Columbia will continue to stand up to these threats by extremist bullies and Hamas supporters. Finally, the professor who was teaching the class that was disrupted published his own take on the incident in Forward.
During my first class, I noted that when it came time to cover the 1948 war we would study both narratives: The Israeli one, of a war of Jewish independence after the Palestinians rejected the partition plan and Arab armies invaded, and the Palestinian one, which emphasizes “the Nakba,” the catastrophe of displacement. At that exact moment, pro-Palestinian demonstrators burst into the classroom. They brandished posters calling for the eradication of Zionism, and shouted various things about “genocide in Gaza.”...
To my eyes, it is clear that the demonstrators at the very least hold a different attitude toward Jews than toward other groups. Otherwise, it is hard to understand why their moral outrage was not directed, for example, at the study of Russia following the war in Ukraine, among many other injustices unfolding today. They struck me, clearly, as narrow-minded individuals who, at best, have an overly one-sided view of reality.
I think that's putting it mildly. These students have adopted a pro-terrorism viewpoint in which Hamas fighters are heroes even as they rape, kidnap and murder Jewish civilians. Columbia should stop pretending this is acceptable and suspend all the members of CUAD.
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