Columbia faces protests after banning two pro-Palestinian groups
As police officers guarded the wrought-iron fences protecting Columbia University’s main campus Tuesday night, looking for student identification cards, a group gathered around a stone podium in the center of the quad.
About 400 students held Palestinian flags and handmade signs. Demonstrators took turns speaking into a microphone, criticizing the war between Israel and Hamas, as well as their own school for its decision to suspend two pro-Palestinian student groups until the end of the semester.
“We’ve said it before: our voices are louder and more powerful than the money you receive, Columbia,” said Mohsen Mahdawi, a student and Palestinian refugee. “We will not be silenced.”
It was a scene that has become increasingly common in New York City and across the country as college campuses grapple with the fallout from the war. Divisions over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have existed on campuses for generations, but as the war rages on, universities are facing increasing backlash over efforts to curb the dissent.
Columbia last week suspended the groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, saying they had violated university policy, including by holding “unauthorizedevents that “included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” In addition to Tuesday night’s student rally, dozens of faculty members said they would walk out on Wednesday to protest the decision.
After their suspension, the groups released a joint statement on Instagramaccusing the university of “selective censorship” of pro-Palestinian groups and calling the ban “an attack on freedom of expression to distract from and enable Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.”
Some pro-Israel donors have pressured institutions to respond more forcefully by condemning Hamas and pro-Palestinian student protests on campuses.
In response to the ban on the two groups, Columbia students on Tuesday announced a new coalition, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a collection of 40 student organizations representing a range of racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds that have called on Columbia to divest from Israel . .
Dane Haleem, 24, a law student and son of a Palestinian refugee who is part of the new coalition, said Columbia’s decision to ban the two groups sent a loud message to students.
“For me as a Palestinian, this means that your tragedy does not matter,” he said. “It says if your people die, you can’t talk about it.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Maryam Alwan, 21, a Palestinian-American student, said she was afraid to go to class because fellow students had followed her, recorded her and harassed her on campus. She said she had received numerous graphic death threats.
But when the university sends emails about the conflict, Ms. Alwan says, the plight of the Palestinians is rarely mentioned.
“My friends are losing family members. I see my little brother in every photo of a traumatized child who looks like him,” Ms. Alwan said during the demonstration, speaking from the podium. “And here I am begging my university to at least use the word Palestinian in its emails.”
Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.