As the new semester begins at Columbia University on Tuesday, anti-Israel protests on campus show no signs of abating.
first day New York City During the Ivy League term this week, protesters gathered at the school’s gates while an NYPD police drone hovered above their heads — though at least two arrests were made, according to the agency, with police describing the gatherings as “peaceful.”
Cornell law professor William Jacobson, president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation and EqualProtect.org, told Fox News Digital he doesn’t think campus relations will improve anytime soon.
“I think we’re going to see a peak in threats and hostility as we get closer to October 7,” he said. Hamas attacks southern IsraelDuring which Palestinian fighters took hostages, murdered civilians and committed other war crimes.
“(The protesters) have already announced plans to hold a ceremony (on that day).”
He said, “We’re dealing with a cult on campus and it’s dangerous and difficult.”
Republican leaders vow ‘action’ after anti-Israel protesters attack Columbia University
Anti-Israel protests continued on the Columbia University campus in New York City on Tuesday. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)
Former Columbia President Nemat Shafiq resigned last month after her handling of protesters on campus “had a profound impact on her family.” Shafiq, the school’s third president in an eight-month period, called in hundreds of armed police officers to arrest more than 30 protesters who had barricaded themselves inside an academic building.
Now, interim president Katrina Armstrong is tasked with maintaining order on the struggling campus. Since she took office, new restrictions and changes have been made on campus in an effort to control conflict, according to the school’s updated code of conduct.
Camping is now prohibited on school grounds, and new signs and security guards have been posted on the school’s south lawn. According to ReutersCampus gates that for decades had been open to nearby streets have been closed under a new system that restricts student access, with guards allowing entry only to those with Columbia IDs and pre-registered guests. Officials have also erected fences and gates on wheels around the campus, which will be used to cordon off small areas.
These changes have been made by the non-profit organization Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression. Colombia was ranked 250 – ranked second-to-last in its annual college free speech rankings.
A small group of pro-Israel protesters and counter-protesters gathered in front of Columbia University on August 27, 2024, to hold an “Unmask Campus Hate” protest at the start of the academic year in New York City. Columbia was the site of a months-long tent camp of pro-Palestinian supporters that was eventually broken up by police. Many Israeli and Jewish students and faculty have complained and accused the university of allowing anti-Semitism to flourish on campus. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
According to the group’s survey, for every conservative student on campus, there are five liberal students. 66 percent of survey respondents reported they self-censored on campus at least once or twice a month.
“Starting in October 2023, a ‘doxxing truck’ has been placed around my campus, in which students who express any kind of criticism of Israel are identified by their full name and placed a giant photo of them under the label ‘Anti-Semite of the Week’ on a large truck with a digital screen,” one rising junior told surveyors.
“Students reported this to the administration several times, but they did nothing for months. My friends have also lost job and internship opportunities because of their political beliefs,” the student said.
Another student stated that “most professors and classes take progressive ideas as fact” and “most curriculum is designed to fit this narrative… the needs of students who agree are taken for granted.”
Pro-Palestinians will continue to protest on the campus of Columbia University in New York City on April 29, 2024. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Jacobson said that, based on his experience at Cornell and what he has been told by Columbia students, a large part of the protest culture is “faculty-driven,” with professors “continuing to imagine that they are very revolutionary.”
He said, “In fact, they are very careerist, very bourgeois. They don’t sacrifice themselves at all, but they are happy to make the students sacrifice themselves.”
In an effort to combat hostility on campus, Columbia’s Anti-Semitism Task Force published its second report, detailing complaints from students who were harassed on campus because of their Judaism.
“My friends on campus were spit upon, called horrible names. One of my very close friends was called a genocide lover and then a baby killer,” one student, who wears a traditional head covering, told the task force. “This was just a few days after October 7.”
In the 91-page report, many students spoke of “traumatic experiences of hostility.”
“You have denialism, just like there’s denialism about October 7,” Jacobson said of the report and its extremely poor freedom of speech ranking. “I think that’s a good thing. It may not lead to positive change, but at least people can no longer deny what’s happening.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the schools with the most activism have the least free speech,” Jacobson said. “The purpose of the activism is to scare people.” “These are not protests where people are expecting debate; these are protests meant to stifle debate.”
When asked by Fox News Digital for comment on the perceived lack of free expression on campus, Interim President Armstrong reiterated a portion of a recent message sent to students.
“Everyone needs to feel that they belong, that their voice matters, and that they belong here,” Armstrong wrote. “Protests need to be managed effectively and fairly. This requires holding two truths simultaneously. The truth is that our mission depends on free speech and open debate. And the truth is that our mission also depends on an environment free from harassment and discrimination, where our students can learn. There is no doubt that holding these two truths requires understanding and effectively enforcing our policies, rules, and procedures, just as the society around us does.”
