Columbia University just jeopardized the academic careers of dozens of its own students for protesting against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
On Monday, more than 70 Columbia students were notified that they would be suspended, placed on probation, expelled, or even have their degrees revoked for taking part in an occupation of Butler Library in May. The students entered the library’s main room in protest, chanting slogans and occupying it for a teach-in in honor of Bassel al-Araj, a Palestinian activist assassinated by Israeli soldiers in 2017. Unidentified police officers physically clashed with the students until they started making mass arrests.
“Columbia responded to the teach-in by illegally kettling and body slamming protesters who asked to leave, resulting in hospitalization of four students with concussions,” the Columbia University Apartheid and Divest group, or CUAD, wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
This move comes as the university is completely bending the knee to Trump in order to restore $400 million in federal grants that the administration is withholding. It also comes just days after the university already ceded a major deal with the Trump administration to crack down on what the administration perceives as antisemitic activity on campus. The president spent months calling out the university, baselessly accusing student protesters of collaborating with Hamas, among other allegations.
The university’s sanctions this week demand that students apologize for protesting if they want their punishment to be lightened.
“The sanctions are believed to be part of a federal deal Columbia is about to announce that includes a formal partnership with the zionist Anti-Defamation League and an agreement to use the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s] definition of antisemitism, which equates criticism of Israel with discrimination against Jews,” CUAD wrote in the same statement. “In collaboration with the Trump administration, Columbia’s Acting President and Board of Trustees Co-Chair, Claire Shipman, illegally restructured the University Judicial Board (UJB) and removed student members and faculty oversight to pursue exceptionally harsh sanctions against its own students. The UJB’s Rules Administrator, akin to a prosecutor, filed charges after protestors flooded Columbia’s largest library to share a syllabus and readings about al-Araj and demand Columbia divest from the Israeli war machine.”
This is the same university that sold Mahmoud Khalil, one of its own graduates, out to ICE for simply being a politically active pro-Palestinain voice on campus. While devastating for these students, it’s unsurprising that the Ivy League institution would rather sacrifice students who are peacefully protesting to please the Trump administration. This was a heavily coordinated attack not only on free speech but on any criticism of Israel and the current destruction it’s leveled against Gaza for nearly three years now. And aside from caving to the Trump administration, the university has worked with Columbia Alumni for Israel, which is believed to rely on the shadowy blacklist Canary Mission to identify students to punish.
“Every university in Gaza has been destroyed. Hundreds of academics have been killed. Books and archives have been incinerated. Entire families have been erased from the civil registry. This is not a war. It is a campaign of erasure,” CUAD’s statement read. “We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”
Hence then, the article about columbia punishes dozens of student protesters as it caves to trump was published today ( ) and is available on The New Republic ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Columbia Punishes Dozens of Student Protesters as It Caves to Trump )
Also on site :
- Travel Warning Issued For Millions Across US
- ‘Change is inevitable’: What is next for Iran?
- Australian Open: Sinner overcomes cramps; Keys, Pegula advance; Osaka withdraws