Mideast War blowback

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A rabbi who works with an Orthodox Jewish group at Columbia University recommended that Jewish students “return home as soon as possible and remain home” amid pro-Palestinian protests on the school’s upper Manhattan campus — demonstrations that have created a tense atmosphere and triggered accusations of physical intimidation that the White House, New York’s governor and the New York City mayor denounced as antisemitic on Sunday.

With the situation spiraling, university officials announced students can attend classes virtually starting Monday — the first day of Passover, a major Jewish holiday set to begin in the evening.

Rabbi Elie Buechler, a rabbi associated with Columbia University’s Orthodox Union Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, confirmed to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that he sent a WhatsApp message to a group of about 300 mostly Orthodox Jewish students “strongly” recommending they return home and remain there. His message came ahead of Passover, a major Jewish holiday set to begin Monday evening.

Recent events at the university “have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety,” Buechler wrote in the message.

By contrast, the campus Hillel said in a Sunday post on X that they “do not believe that Jewish students should leave” the campus.

This is a time of genuine discomfort and even fear for many of us on campus,” the Hillel said in a statement. “Columbia University and the City of New York must do more to protect students. We call on the University Administration to act immediately in restoring calm to campus. The City must ensure that students can walk up and down Broadway and Amsterdam without fear of harassment.”

Chabad, a Jewish organization the University, said on Facebook they’ve hired additional security to protect students during Passover. They said they were “horrified by what we witnessed last night on and near Columbia’s campus,” but still planned to host Passover celebrations on campus.

The rabbi sent the message after videos circulated showing a man outside the university saying, “Never forget the seventh of October,” and “that will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, but 10,000 times!”

In addition to the student protests on campus, groups of protesters have also gathered outside the campus gates. It’s unclear from the video whether the person yelling is affiliated with the university.

Speaking with CNN, one Jewish Columbia student highlighted the hazards risked by the students protesting as well as interfaith prayers and a Seder service at the encampment.

“Columbia students organizing in solidarity with Palestine – including Jewish students – have faced harassment, doxxing, and now arrest by the NYPD. These are the main threats to the safety of Jewish Columbia students,” Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a PhD student, told CNN.

“On the other hand, student protesters have led interfaith joint prayers for several days now, and Passover Seder will be held at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment tomorrow,” he went on. “Saying that student protesters are a threat to Jewish students is a dangerous smear.”

Another student, Noah Lederman, told CNN that he was “terrified, angry, upset, and horrified that the university failed to take action.” Lederman said he had been accosted in early February and had asked the university for remote learning options. “What’s happening on campus is blatantly antisemitic,” he added.

Students will be permitted to attend classes virtually due to the ongoing demonstrations, a university spokesperson told CNN on Sunday.

The White House also addressed the protests.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement shared with CNN on Sunday. The statement did not include examples of those incidents.

President Joe Biden similarly said Sunday, “Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on X threatening Jewish students with violence is antisemitism. “The First Amendment protects the right to protest but students also have a right to learn in an environment free from harassment or violence,” the governor said.

In a statement, New York Mayor Eric Adams said the city’s police department has an “increased presence of officers” in the area around Columbia’s campus “to protect students and all New Yorkers on nearby public streets.”

Adams said he was “horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism being spewed at and around the Columbia University campus.”

The demonstrations – and the suspension and arrests of students involved – have inspired solidarity rallies at other universities, including Yale, Harvard, the University of North Carolina, and Boston University.

Allegations of violence have also appeared at some of these other demonstrations.

A Yale sophomore, Sahar Tartak, says another student assaulted her with a Palestinian flag Saturday while she was documenting a pro-Palestinian demonstration on campus. Video of the incident from Tartak shows a student passing by while holding a Palestinian flag before the person filming exclaims, “Ow, ow!”

Yale’s Office of Public Affairs said in a statement, “The Yale Police Department is investigating a report of an assault that occurred during a protest on Beinecke Plaza. The university does not tolerate violence, threats, harassment, or intimidation of members of our community, and is providing support to a student who made the report.”

As of early March, five months into Israel’s war with Hamas, American Jews felt close to Israel but were also likely to feel uncomfortable with its government’s actions, according to a Jewish Federations of North America poll.

Almost all of them also said they were deeply emotionally affected by news of the war, and many said they still felt somewhat concerned about their personal safety, although the proportion reporting safety concerns dropped since a similar poll in the early days of the war.

The survey released Thursday, which canvassed 1,901 Jews between Feb. 23 and March 11, found that 79% of respondents felt close to Israel, while 19% did not, and that 72% agreed that Israel, in general, made them proud to be Jewish, while 23% did not feel that way.

Asked whether they agree with the statement, “I sometimes find it hard to support actions taken by Israel or its government,” 62% said they agreed and 34% did not.

The results comport with recent polling that shows substantial American Jewish support for Israel in the war it has waged since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. A Pew survey released last month showed that Jews were likelier than Americans in general to back Israel’s reasons for fighting and its conduct in the war.

But it also comports with polling last year, before the war, showing increasing American Jewish disillusionment with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. At the time of that poll, the government was seeking to overhaul Israel’s judiciary in ways that would reduce its independence.

Six months into the war, Israel is facing steeper pressure to adjust its prosecution of the war to limit civilian casualties. The survey found that the proportion of Americans who want to see a “total immediate unconditional ceasefire by all sides” — which Israel says is unacceptable because it would leave Hamas in power — has risen since the early days of the war, but only slightly, to 28% from 20%. Both Jews and respondents overall said their top condition for an end to hostilities would be the release of Israeli hostages.

Jews were much likelier to have an emotional reaction to the war than Americans overall, according to the survey, which asked some of the same questions of 4,143 non-Jews surveyed during the same period. Asked how much the war “emotionally affected” them, 92% of Jewish respondents said it did so “somewhat” or “a great deal,” compared to 48% of all respondents.

Asked if they were following the war closely, 96% of Jewish respondents said they were, while that figure for all respondents was 71%.

The pollsters, Benenson Strategy Group, weighted the answers to reflect the correct proportions of Jews and other segments of the American population. The margin of error for the survey was 2.25% for Jewish respondents and 1.26% for non-Jewish respondents, according to JFNA.

There were substantive differences in how Jewish and non-Jewish respondents answered questions about empathy with Israelis and Palestinians: 95% of Jewish respondents felt empathy with Israelis, while 74% of non-Jews did. Asked the same question about Palestinians, 57% of Jewish respondents said they felt empathy while 69% of non-Jewish respondents said they did.

Anti-Israel protest encampments have emerged on at least eight American universities in emulation of the Columbia University campus occupation, following National Students for Justice in Palestine and several other pro-Palestinian groups calling to do so on Saturday night.

In addition to the Columbia encampment that had started on Wednesday, encampments were started at Yale University, University of Michigan, New York University, The New School, Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, and Rutgers University. An encampment was also established on Friday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but the local SJP chapter said on Instagram on Monday that they had moved from the location.
In a social media post by NSJP entitled "campuses in revolt," the organization promised that more encampments would be established.

"Over the last 72 hours, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country have erupted in a fierce display of power and pressure targeted at their universities for their endless complicity and profiteering off the genocide on Gaza and the colonization of Palestine," said NSJP on Sunday. "The encampments transform mass mobilization into long-term sustained occupation, leveraging our tangible power as students to give our institutions no other option but to divest."
NSJP said in a Monday statement that there would be no classes or compliance with the administration until their demands to adopt Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions policies and support Palestinians were met.

More than 40 arrested at Yale
We will seize control of our institutions, campus by campus, until Palestine is free."
Yale anti-Israel activists claimed on Monday that over 40 students were arrested that morning by police at the behest of the administration. American Muslims for Palestine Connecticut put the number at 49 activists.

While the encampment was removed by the police, students have continued to protest and have demanded the return of their protest materials.

A plywood wall was seen being erected around NYU's Gould Plaza early Tuesday, hours after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators, in solidarity with their Columbia colleagues, were arrested for defying a university order to leave the area.

More than 100 demonstrators were arrested when the university called in police to help dispel what the president argued had become an unruly and disruptive crowd. Similar encampments have since sprouted up at other universities in Manhattan and nationwide -- Yale and Harvard universities both saw classes disrupted by protests on Monday.

Columbia, still mired in the fallout from last week, moved all classes remote on Monday as a precaution. It intends to have a hybrid option available through the duration of the semester to help ensure students feel safe.

Mindful of the backlash Columbia faced for calling in the NYPD to dispel a Gaza protest last week, NYU officials ordered students and protestors to leave Gould Plaza by 4 p.m. Monday. It issued an order saying no additional protesters could join the group that had already assembled. More protesters came; many refused to leave.

Many of the protesters were not believed to be affiliated with NYU, which was also the case for Columbia last week. At the former, as far as Monday's protests, the head of Global Campus Security eventually said "enough."

"With the breach of the barricades this afternoon, that requirement was violated, and we witnessed disorderly, disruptive, and antagonizing behavior that has interfered with the safety and security of our community ... At one point, we explained to the protesters that they needed to disband in an hour, and there would be no adverse consequences." NYU said. “Nevertheless, many refused to leave. We also learned that there were intimidating chants and several antisemitic incidents reported. Given the foregoing and the safety issues raised by the breach, we asked for assistance from the NYPD. The police urged those on the plaza to leave peacefully, but ultimately made a number of arrests."

Across from the NYU encampment, a smaller crowd of pro-Israel supporters pushed back. Overall, action from both sides has remained peaceful, though some say at times, the rhetoric has become incendiary. Both NYU and Columbia officials have publicly lamented having to bring in police to quash the protests.

It’s a really outrageous crackdown by the university to allow the police to arrest students on our own campus," said New York University law student Byul Yoon.

“Antisemitism is never OK. That’s absolutely not what we stand for and that’s why there are so many Jewish comrades that are here with us today,” Yoon said.

The protests have pitted students against one another, with pro-Palestinian students demanding that their schools condemn Israel's assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel. Some Jewish students, meanwhile, say much of the criticism of Israel has veered into antisemitism and made them feel unsafe, and they point out that Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the group's Oct. 7 invasion.

Tensions remained high Monday at Columbia, where the campus gates were locked to anyone without a school ID and where protests broke out both on campus and outside.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from North Carolina who was visiting Columbia with three other Jewish members of Congress, told reporters after meeting with students from the Jewish Law Students Association that there was “an enormous encampment of people” who had taken up about a third of the green.

“We saw signs indicating that Israel should be destroyed,” she said after leaving the Morningside Heights campus. Columbia announced Monday that courses at the Morningside campus will offer virtual options for students when possible, citing safety as their top priority.

A woman inside the campus gates led about two dozen protesters on the street outside in a chant of, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” — a charged phrase that can mean vastly different things to different groups. A small group of pro-Israel counter-demonstrators protested nearby.

No significant injuries have been reported.

Prestigious Pratt Institute in Brooklyn is being accused of promoting antisemitism with a proposed Israeli boycott — and its top advisory panel was set to vote on it during Passover, when no observant Jews could likely participate.

The venerable college’s Academic Senate planned to discuss and possibly vote Tuesday on the controversial resolution calling for an “academic and cultural boycott of Israel” — the first full day of the eight-day Passover holiday.

“They might as well pass a resolution condemning God for freeing the Jews from Egypt in the first place,” said Rory Lancman, senior counsel at the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Jewish legal civil-rights advocacy group, to The Post

Jewish faculty were being excluded from having any say because the measure was being introduced and potentially voted on during their religious holiday, when most if not all will be with family and friends, said Lancman, who is repping staff and students opposed to the proposal.

The Pratt Academic Senate is described as a “shared governance body” representing faculty that advises the school’s board of trustees and administration on academic matters and meets regularly with leadership.

Pratt did not respond to a Post request for comment till Sunday, two days after it was asked for a response and following the exclusive story being posted online.

“The scheduling of the discussion of the issue in conflict with the observance of Passover was inadvertent, and it has been removed from the agenda of the April 23rd meeting,” a Pratt spokesman finally said in an email to the outlet.

N.J. man charged with hate crime in break-in at Rutgers Islamic center
A 24-year-old New Jersey man has been charged with a federal hate crime and accused of breaking into an Islamic center on the campus of Rutgers University this month, federal prosecutors said today.

Jacob Beacher, of Somerset County, is charged with one count of intentional or attempted obstruction of religious practice and one count of making false statements to federal authorities, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a statement.

Beacher is accused of breaking into the Center for Islamic Life at the New Brunswick campus around 2:40 a.m. April 10.

He broke through the glass pane of a rear door to unlock it, an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit associated with the criminal complaint, and then allegedly damaged religious artifacts and stole a Palestinian flag.

Around $40,000 in damage was done, the affidavit says. When he was questioned, Beacher said he was the person in surveillance video near the center, but he denied breaking into the building, the FBI agent wrote

Cal Poly Humboldt in California closes campus after occupation of building
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, said campus is closed through Wednesday after protesters demonstrating against the war in Gaza occupied Siemens Hall on the campus in Arcata.

“The University is deeply concerned about the safety of the protestors who have barricaded themselves inside the building. The University is urgently asking that the protestors listen to directives from law enforcement that have responded and to peacefully leave the building,” it said in a statement.

It asked the campus community to avoid the area of the building, "as it is a dangerous and volatile situation."

Cal Poly Humboldt has an undergrad enrollment of around 5,800. Humboldt is on the California coast in the northwestern part of the state, near the Oregon border.

Columbia student organizers condemn hate; NYPD says arrests will be made 'if there is a crime'
Michael Gerber, the deputy New York police commissioner for legal matters, told reporters that officers would step in if crimes were committed on or around Columbia University's campus as some Jewish students express fear for their safety.

He said that includes "harassment or threats or menacing or stalking or anything like that that is not protected by the First Amendment."

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the student groups organizing the protest, condemned hate and bigotry in a statement yesterday. The statement blamed nonstudents outside the encampment for inciting harmful incidents over the weekend.

"We have been peaceful," the statement said. "We follow in the footsteps of the civil rights and anti-war movements in our quest for liberation."

Jewish students march in solidarity
Jewish students at several college campuses are marching in solidarity with demonstrators calling for an end to the war in Gaza and the divestment of universities from Israeli companies.

At the University of California, Berkeley, in the San Francisco Bay Area, members of the local Jews for Peace chapter camped alongside pro-Palestinian protesters on the Mario Savio steps, named after a founding member of the Free Speech Movement.

A spokesperson for the group, which plans an interfaith Passover Seder tonight, said members are there to "protect" the free speech of anti-war demonstrators.

At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Jews for Peace members held signs that read "Jews say no to genocide" and "Anti Zionism is not antisemitism."

Students mark Passover with interfaith Seders
Jewish students have organized interfaith Passover Seders at the Gaza solidarity encampments at college campuses across the U.S.

Photos and videos from Columbia University in New York City and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor were shared online and show students in keffiyeh scarves, surrounded by tents, sitting down to a Passover Seder.

A spokesperson for the Jewish Voice for Peace chapter at the University of California, Berkeley, said the group would also be hosting a Seder.

“A lot of us had other plans for our first-night Seder, but we want to observe Passover with our community,” said a spokesperson for Berkeley’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. “It’s a strange time dealing with the story of Passover.”

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said she believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "should resign," criticizing the Israeli leader's aggressive response in Gaza to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, and saying Netanyahu has been an obstacle to peace "for years."

Pelosi made the remarks in an interview with Irish public broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann during a visit to Ireland. Democrats, including President Biden, have grown increasingly critical of Netanyahu's leadership as Israel continues its assault on Gaza.

"We recognize Israel's right to protect itself," Pelosi told the Irish outlet. "We reject the policy and the practice of Netanyahu. Terrible. What could be worse than what he has done in response? First of all, the exposures. His intelligence person resigned — he should resign. He's ultimately responsible."

Asked if Netanyahu is a "block" to peace, Pelosi said "he has been for years."

"I don't know whether he's afraid of peace, incapable of peace, or just doesn't want peace," Pelosi said. "But he has been an obstacle to the two-state solution, I emphasize the word, 'solution.'"

Pelosi also recently called on the Biden administration to halt weapons transfers to Israel.

Chaotic protests at Columbia University are spurring visits to the college from at least 10 members of Congress this week from states as far flung as North Carolina, Florida and Louisiana.

Why it matters: It's a sign of how salient the issue of college antisemitism has become within Congress since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war and subsequent pro-Palestinian protests.

The visits come as the House is on a one-week recess.

Driving the news: House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) office announced Tuesday that the speaker will meet with Jewish students at the New York City-based college on Wednesday afternoon.

Johnson will hold a press conference on "the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America's college campuses," the advisory said.

Johnson will be joined by Reps. Anthony D'Esposito (R-N.Y.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee.

The latest: Columbia announced Tuesday it will make attending all classes in-person optional for the rest of the semester as pro-Palestinian protests entered their seventh day.

Demonstrators have taken over a significant portion of the campus with an encampment in protest of the ongoing war in Gaza

Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who testified to a House committee last week about campus antisemitism, has faced backlash from Congress and pressure to resign from many Republican lawmakers.

The backdrop: Johnson's visit comes after at least three congressional delegations visited the campus on Monday.

Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, called on his supporters to sit in with him at “Columbia’s declared ‘Liberation Zone’”—referring to the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment”—on Monday but was denied access to the Morningside campus after his Columbia University ID was deactivated.

Davidai—who is currently under investigation at Columbia following reports of harassing students—sent an email to University administrators, including University President Minouche Shafik, Vice President Gerald Rosberg, and Chief Operating Officer Cas Holloway, at 8:50 a.m. on Sunday. He requested New York Police Department escorts to help him enter the encampment, according to a screenshot of the email he posted on X.

“Since the events of last night have shown that you have completely failed to protect the safety of your Jewish and Israeli students, I am requesting approval to have a police escort of at least 10 cops with me,” Davidai wrote in the email, referring to reports of antisemitic incidents. “I would ask for escort from the school’s Public Safety, but they have proven themselves useless versus these mobs, and I do not want to put their lives at risk.”

Holloway responded to Davidai’s email before the planned appearance, writing that he must hold his protest in a counterprotest area, in a tweet posted by Davidai at 7:49 a.m. In response, Davidai wrote in an email to Holloway, also posted to X, that he still planned to go to the “illegal encampment” on Monday. In a second response, Holloway restated the requirement for Davidai’s event to be held in a designated area.

“To maintain the safety and security It is our standard operating procedure at any protest to establish a counterprotest area, which is where you will be required to hold your event (on the Math Lawn),” Holloway wrote in an email sent at 8:34 a.m. obtained by Spectator. “To maintain the safety of the Columbia community, you are not permitted to enter the West Lawn.”

In anticipation of Davidai’s entry, students in the encampment stationed individuals in neon vests, mostly faculty who had received de-escalation training, around the encampment’s perimeter. Behind them, protesters within the encampment lined up to block the entrance of the encampment. At around 9:44 a.m., protesters within the encampment closed access to the west side of South Lawn.

At around 9:50 a.m., after he had spoken for around 20 minutes on 116th Street and Broadway, Davidai led the rally to the Earl Hall gates, where he attempted to scan his CUID to enter campus. Holloway stood at the gates with Gerald Lewis, director of Public Safety, while Davidai tried to enter. When Davidai’s CUID failed to scan, protesters began to chant “let him in,” and Davidai climbed on top of the table where the ID scanners were located.

“Over here, we’ve got the COO of Columbia University, Mr. Cas Holloway,” Davidai said, addressing demonstrators from his position on top of the table. “They have deactivated my card, they are not letting me on campus … I have not just a civil right as a Jewish person to be on campus, I have a right as a professor employed by the University to be on campus.”

New York Police Department officer then approached Davidai and asked him to move back to the barricaded demonstration area. Davidai asked the crowd to move back, saying that the rally was “cooperating with the NYPD.”

Before moving from the gate, Davidai asked Holloway if he would be allowed access to the Business School, located at Columbia’s Manhattanville campus on 125th Street, to teach the next day, to which Holloway said yes. In response, Davidai said, “I can teach but I can’t go on campus?”

As Davidai moved from the gate, Holloway responded to reporters and demonstrators asking why Davidai’s CUID was deactivated. Holloway said that Davidai was “informed that he had a place to go, and he did not go to that space,” adding that it was “not safe” for Davidai to enter campus.

Davidai encouraged those who had a CUID to enter campus and walk on to the encampment. Amy Werman, a professor at the School of Social Work, entered campus with Harriet Jackson, a staff member at Teacher’s College.

“We were supposed to go onto the campus very peacefully, this is all about doing things peacefully,” Wurman said. “And just let our presence be known on the main campus, so that it’s understood that this is an institution of learning for all people, whether you’re Jewish, Muslim, LGBT, whatever your identification is, that this is supposed to be an institution for all.”

Heshy Tischler, a podcaster and candidate for New York City Council, spoke at the rally on 116th Street and Broadway in support of Davidai before he attempted to enter campus. Tischler addressed a Jewish-identifying counterprotester of Davidai’s protest, calling the counterprotester a “filthy animal” and “Kapo pig” before speaking to the rally’s other attendees.

“You think you’re gonna attack us? We are gonna fight back,” Tischler said to the crowd. “I promise you, when I do become councilman, we’re gonna make laws that arrest animals,” Tischler added, gesturing in the direction of the encampment.

Davidai attempted to silence Tischler and then moved the rally away from where he was standing. Davidai reiterated throughout the rally that he is calling for the protection of all students, not just Jewish students.

A petition to terminate Davidai’s employment at Columbia has garnered over 8,000 signatures as of Wednesday. In a statement posted to Instagram on April 22, the Columbia chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace condemned Davidai’s actions.

“The disgraceful Shai Davidai publicly called us Judenrat, Kapos, and told us we would be on ‘the last train to auschwitz,” the statement read, referring to statements Davidai made at an April 18 #EndJewHatred rally. “We do not feel safe with this professor still teaching on our campus, having access to the Jewish community spaces we cherish, much less portraying himself as the valiant protector and spokesperson of Jews on campus while insulting our ancestors’ memory. Almost every suspended Jewish student lost family members in the Holocaust.”

I Am a Jewish Student at Columbia. Don’t Believe What You’re Being Told About ‘Campus Antisemitism’

Smears from the press and pro-Israel influencers are a dangerous distraction from real threats to our safety.

“Reprehensible and dangerous.” “Terrorist sympathizers.” “It’s not 1938 Berlin. It’s 2024, Columbia University, NYC.”

The White House, Congressional Republicans, and cable news talking heads would have you believe that the Columbia University campus has devolved into a hotbed of antisemitic violence – but the reality on the ground is very different. As a Jewish student at Columbia, it depresses me that I have to correct the record and explain what the real risk to our safety looks like. I still can't quite believe how the events on campus over the past few days have been so cynically and hysterically misrepresented by the media and by our elected representatives.

Last week, the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition, representing more than 100 student organizations, including Jewish groups, organized the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, a peaceful campus protest in solidarity with Palestine. CUAD was reactivated after the university suspended Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in the fall. On Wednesday morning, hundreds of students camped out on Columbia’s South Lawn. They vowed to stay put until the university divests from companies that profit from their ties to Israel. Protesters prayed, chanted, ate pizza, and condemned the university’s complicity in Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Though counter-protesters waved Israeli flags near the encampment, the campus remained largely calm from my vantage point.

Columbia responded by imposing a miniature police state. Just over a day after the encampment was formed, university President Minouche Shafik asked and authorized the New York Police Department to clear the lawn and load 108 students – including a number of Jewish students – onto Department of Corrections buses to be held at NYPD headquarters at 1 Police Plaza. One Jewish student told me that she and her fellow protesters were restrained in zip-tie handcuffs for eight hours and held in cells where they shared a toilet without privacy. The NYPD chief of patrol John Chell later told the Columbia Spectator that “the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner.”

Since then, dozens of undergraduates have been locked out of their dorms without notice. Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia, notably gave students just 15 minutes to retrieve their belongings after returning from lockup and finding themselves evicted. Suspended students cannot return to campus and are struggling to access food or medical care. Students who keep Shabbat, and do not use electronics on the Sabbath, were forced to rely on technology in order to secure food and emergency housing. This crackdown was the most violence inflicted on our student body in decades. I implore you, as our Jewish Voice for Peace chapter does, to consider whether arresting Jewish students keeps us and Columbia safe.

Smears from the press and pro-Israel influencers, who have levied charges of antisemitism and violence against Jewish students, are a dangerous distraction from real threats to our safety. I saw politicians compare student organizers to neo-Nazis and call for a National Guard deployment, apparently ignorant of the lives lost at Kent State and in Charlottesville, and with very little pushback from national media. This is a repulsive form of self-aggrandizement that I can only assume is intended to preserve relationships with influential donors. Calls to more heavily police our campus actively endanger Jewish students, and threaten the regular operations of the university far more gravely than peaceful protests.

It’s true, the fact that CUAD organizers fundamentally reject bigotry and hate has not stopped unrelated actors from exploiting opportunities to shamefully harass Jewish students with grotesque or antisemitic statements. I condemn antisemitism – which should seem obvious since I have experienced it many times myself. (This likely won’t keep controversial Columbia Business School professor Shai Davidai from calling me a kapo.) But the often off-campus actions of a few unaffiliated individuals simply do not characterize this disciplined student campaign. The efforts to connect these offensive but relatively isolated incidents to the broader pro-Palestinian protest movement mirror a wider strategy to delegitimize all criticism of Israel.

As this national discourse over “campus antisemitism” reached a boiling point over the weekend, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment saw CUAD organizers lead joint Muslim and Jewish prayer sessions and honor each other’s dead. This is wholesome, human stuff – it doesn’t make for sensationalist headlines about Jew-hating Ivy Leaguers.

On Monday, I joined hundreds of my fellow student workers for a walk-out in solidarity with the encampment; we listened respectfully as a similarly sizable group of Columbia faculty held a rally on the library steps. Frankly, it didn’t feel much different from the environment during my union’s most recent strike on campus – I felt inspired again by my colleagues’ commitment to making Columbia a safer and better place to work and study.

Later that night, a Passover Seder service was held at the encampment. Would an antisemitic student movement welcome Jews in this way? I think not.

Here’s what you’re not being told: The most pressing threats to our safety as Jewish students do not come from tents on campus. Instead, they come from the Columbia administration inviting police onto campus, certain faculty members, and third-party organizations that dox undergraduates. Frankly, I regret the fact that writing to confirm the safety of Jewish Ivy League students feels justified in the first place. I have not seen many pundits hand-wringing over the safety of my Palestinian colleagues mourning the deaths of family members, or the destruction of Gaza’s cherished universities.

I am wary of a hysterical campus discourse – gleefully amplified by many of the same charlatans who have turned “DEI” into a slur – that draws attention away from the ongoing slaughter in the Gaza Strip and settler violence in the occupied West Bank. We should be focusing on the material reality of war: the munitions our government is sending to Israel, which kill Palestinians by the thousands, and the Americans participating in the violence. Forget the fringe folks and outside agitators: the CUAD organizers behind the campus protests have rightfully insisted on divestment as their most important demand of the Columbia administration, and on sustained attention to the situation in Palestine.

And we are not alone. College campuses across the United States have followed Columbia’s lead.

And so, it is my hope that we can all learn from their examples to remain clear-eyed about the stakes of this crisis and focus on the actual violence being perpetrated in all of our names.


Jonathan Ben-Menachem is a PhD student at Columbia University.

^ Just like during 9/11 when the American Media tried to convince the whole world that all muslims were subhuman terrorists and anyone who protested against Bush's stupid "War on Terror" was a terrorist sympathizer (like they did the French and tried to call French Fries "Freedom Fries" )

When are people going to wise up and quit trusting the media? Just because Trump had to be the one to bring attention to "fake news" does not mean he was wrong about at least that much (although any broken clock is technically right at least twice a day).

Speaker Mike Johnson said he will call Joe Biden and demand the president send the National Guard to Columbia University — an escalation after protesters constantly shouted him and other Republicans down during a visit to the campus Wednesday.

Johnson, flanked by GOP lawmakers from New York and elsewhere, repeated his calls for the university’s embattled president to step down. But protesters shouted “who are you people?” “Mike, you suck!” and chanted “free Palestine,” making it almost impossible for the gaggle of reporters and others to hear the speaker.

“This is dangerous. This is not the First Amendment, this is not free expression,” Johnson said.


He later added: “If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard.”

Johnson directly faced the Gaza Solidarity Encampment that has thrown the Ivy League campus into turmoil over the past week — demonstrations that have drawn bipartisan anger over incidents of antisemitism. Johnson earlier in the day called Columbia President Minouche Shafik a “weak and inept leader” who can’t guarantee the safety of Jewish students during a radio interview.

While he’s the most senior elected official so far to push for Shafik’s resignation, numerous Republican lawmakers — including New York’s GOP delegation — and at least one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), are also pushing for her ouster.

“My message to the students inside the encampment is go back to class and stop the nonsense,” Johnson said. “Stop wasting your parents’ money.”

Hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators have been arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York, as they shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire and urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end US military aid to Israel.

The 300 or so arrests took place on Tuesday night at Grand Army Plaza, on the doorstep of Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, where thousands of mostly Jewish New Yorkers gathered for the seder, a ritual that marked the second night of the holiday celebrated as a festival of freedom by Jews worldwide.

The seder came just before the US Senate resoundingly passed a military package that includes $26bn for Israel.

The protesters called on Schumer – who is among a minority of Democrats to recently criticize the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – to stop arming Israel’s military, which relies heavily on US weapons, jet fuel and other military equipment.

“We as American Jews will not be used, we will not be complicit and we will not be silent. Judaism is a beautiful, thousands-year-old tradition, and Israel is a 76-year-old colonial apartheid state,” Morgan Bassichis, an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace, told the crowd.

“This is the Passover that we take our exodus from Zionism. Not in our name. Let Gaza live.”

The mass arrests came after the seder rituals. Speakers included journalist and author Naomi Klein, Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour, and several Jewish students suspended from Columbia University and Barnard College over the protests that have rocked US campuses in recent days.

Rabbi Miriam Grossman, from Brooklyn, led a prayer before the first cup of ritual wine. “We pray for everyone besieged, for everyone facing starvation and mass bombardment.”

Klein spoke after eating the bitter herbs that represent the bitterness of slavery at the seder. “Our Judaism cannot be contained by an ethnostate, for our Judaism is internationalist by its very nature. Our Judaism cannot be protected by the rampaging military of that ethnostate, for all that military does is sow sorrow and reap hatred, including hatred against us as Jews.”

Jewish communities have often used Passover to protest about global injustice. Tuesday’s protest, organizers said, was inspired by the 1969 Freedom Seder, organized by Arthur Waskow on the anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s death. The original Freedom Seder sought to connect the Jewish exodus story with the struggle for civil rights in the US and against the war in Vietnam.

Jewish groups have staged a number of high-profile antiwar actions in the US since 7 October, shutting down sites from the Capitol to the Statue of Liberty. Jewish activists held another seder on Monday, the first night of Passover, at Columbia’s protest encampment.

More than 20 people were arrested, including a FOX 7 Austin photographer, by law enforcement on the University of Texas at Austin campus on Wednesday, April 24 during protests.

Around 5:23 p.m., UT police issued a dispersal order directing everyone to leave the South Mall area immediately. At 9 p.m., the dispersal order was given the all clear.

"The University of Texas has shown that they do not care about student free speech at all, they sent in multiple police agencies to oppress people, arrest organizers, and this is just what we're seeing across the country," Bill James, a rally attendee said.

Hundreds of students walked out of class on Wednesday, April 24 to rally for Palestine and attempt to occupy the South Lawn on campus.

The students gathered on the South Lawn and set up tents while chanting "Free Free Palestine" and other slogans, including ones aimed at the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and even Austin police.

"They're getting arrested for just their support, and they're not even really doing anything in their presence, they're trying to get people afraid, but our strength, our strength is in numbers and what we're seeing right now is that everyone's grouping together for one cause," Bilal, who did not want give his last name, said.

DPS said in a release on social media that it responded to the campus at the request of the University and at the direction of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott "in order to prevent any unlawful assembly and to support UT Police in maintaining the peace by arresting anyone engaging in any sort of criminal activity, including criminal trespass."

FOX 7 Austin captured on video troopers pinning a person to the ground and detaining them. Troopers are also using bikes and riot gear as barricades to push students back.

A FOX 7 Austin photographer was also arrested. After the protest line was moved back, social media video shows the photographer being pulled backwards to the ground by Texas DPS troopers. He was then detained and taken to jail.

The rally was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee to follow "in the footsteps of our comrades at Columbia SJP, Rutgers-New Brunswick, Yale, and countless others across the nation." according to a post on social media about the rally.

UT Austin, in an April 23 letter to the PSC organizers, said that their event "has declared intent to violate our policies and rules, and disrupt our campus operations" and that the university would not "allow this campus to be ‘taken’ and protestors to derail our mission in ways that groups affiliated with your national organization have accomplished elsewhere."

In the letter, UT Austin said that any attempt to hold the event would subject the PSC and its members to discipline, including suspension, and anyone who attended not affiliated with the University would be directed to leave campus.

Refusal to comply may end in the individual being arrested, the letter said

Police said 108 people were arrested in protests around Boston's Emerson College on Wednesday night.

Protest encampments are now in place on at least 20 college campuses across the U.S., including Harvard, Brown, the University of Michigan, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

More universities launch their own encampment protests
Encampment protests are spreading to other universities across the U.S. today.

Students at George Washington University appeared to reclaim the University Yard on the campus in the nation’s capital early Thursday.

At Cornell University in Ithaca, New York , students created a liberated zone on the campus quad “to pressure university admin to divest from genocide in Gaza,” according to a press release by a coalition of student groups.

Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, also saw about two dozen student activists start their own encampment on Deering Meadow, according to the school's paper.

Two graduate students arrested, tents voluntarily removed at Princeton encampment
Two graduate students were arrested for trespassing at Princeton University's encampment protest this morning, the school said.

“Fewer than 100 people gathered on campus, and a small number began erecting about a half-dozen tents, which is a violation of University policy,” a university spokesperson said.

The university's Department of Public Safety issued “repeated warnings” to cease protesting and leave the area, and the two graduate students were arrested. Those students “have been immediately barred from campus, pending a disciplinary process,” the spokesperson said.

All the tents were then “voluntarily” taken down by protesters.

The morning arrest comes after the vice president of campus life, Rochelle Calhoun, sent a message to students yesterday warning: “Any individual involved in an encampment, occupation, or other unlawful disruptive conduct who refuses to stop after a warning will be arrested and immediately barred from campus. For students, such exclusion from campus would jeopardize their ability to complete the semester.”

Police move in on protesters at Northwestern University
Northwestern University police officers are on scene at the school’s encampment protest at Deering Meadow this morning.

School paper, The Daily Northwestern, reported that Chief of Police Bruce Lewis told students to take down the tents. All were down by 8 a.m. local time, but re-erected minutes later. A police officer announced: “arrests will be made for trespassing,” and officers were seen moving in on a line of protesters who had their arms locked.

As of 9 a.m. local time (10 E.T.), the line of protesters were still standing and chanting without physical confrontations with police. As of 10:30 a.m. local time, no arrests have been made, and Northwestern police and Student Affairs are still on the scene.

Police arrest protesters Emory University encampment
Atlanta's Emory University also launched an encampment protest this morning in partnership with local activist groups.

Social activist group "Stop Cop City" shared on social media that “within two hours” of the encampment protest on campus, the university issued a “final warning” on protesters.

School paper, "The Emory Wheel," reported on X that Atlanta police and Georgia State Patrol began “arresting protestors around 10:20 a.m. this morning.”

Police were seen cleaning out the encampment around 11 a.m. and about a dozen people were seen sitting near a police vehicle with their hands zip tied behind their back.

Laura Diamond, the assistant vice president of University Communications at Emory, said in a statement that several dozen protesters “trespassed” onto the campus and set up tents on the quad early this morning.

“These individuals are not members of our community. They are activists attempting to disrupt our university as our students finish classes and prepare for finals,” Diamond said. “Emory does not tolerate vandalism or other criminal activity on campus. The Emory Police Department ordered the group to leave and contacted Atlanta Police for assistance.”

UCLA joins encampment protest
The University of California, Los Angeles started a solidarity encampment protest this morning.

A flyer by the Students for Justice in Palestine group on campus said: “Join us now at Royce Quad. We are not leaving until our demands are met.”

Title VI investigations into Columbia University, UMass Amherst, CUNY
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is investigating multiple universities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin.

According to the office's list of open investigations, probes were opened into Columbia University and CUNY Hunter College on Tuesday, the New Jersey Institute of Technology on Monday, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst on April 16.

It comes amid a wave of protests on college campuses expressing solidarity with Palestinians and calling for university divestment from weapons manufacturing.

The Education Department said it doesn’t comment on pending investigations.

The department had announced in the winter probes into a string of schools, including Stanford University, UCLA, Harvard University and Cornell University, over alleged ethnic discrimination, including antisemitic or Islamophobic activities, on the campuses amid the backdrop of heightened tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.

3 arrested as Ohio State University encampment protest is cleared
An Ohio State University encampment demonstration by students and community members was dismantled and resulted in at least three arrests.

University spokesperson Ben Johnson said “longstanding university policy prohibits camping and requires a space reservation for gatherings.”

As a result, individuals were asked to clear the area. Three refused “after multiple warnings” and were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, Johnson said. Of those arrested: one is not affiliated with the university, one is an employee, and one is a graduate student.

“There is no ongoing encampment or continuous demonstration at Ohio State,” he said, noting university police and staff are onsite for all demonstrations and will remain there tonight.

The arrests come after two students were arrested, also on a charge of criminal trespassing, on Tuesday at a protest on campus, school paper “The Lantern” reported.

Activists behind the Gaza solidarity encampment at Emory University in Atlanta said in a press release that demonstrators were “attacked” with “pepper bullets, tear gas, and tasers for the simple act of camping out on a school lawn.”

The encampment was established on the Emory Quad at 7:30 a.m. today in a protest launched by Emory Students for Justice in Palestine and local activist group “Stop Cop City.”

Footage from the protest taken by NBC affiliate cameras showed uniformed officers, some in helmets and gas masks, and holding guns that appeared to hold pellet bullets on campus.

One video shared on social media showed a demonstrator handcuffed on the ground by multiple officers, one of whom deployed a stun gun on the protester's leg.

The person who filmed the video, who did not share their name, said police officers flooded in the peaceful protest with teargas, pellets and what appeared to be stun guns. The individual who was hit with the stun gun was already pinned down by officers when the weapon was deployed.

School paper "The Emory Wheel" also reported that irritant gas was used on protesters and at least one protester was hit with a stun gun. An officer told detained protesters they were being taken to the DeKalb County Jail, the paper reported.

Activists said in a press release that Georgia State Patrol, Atlanta police and Emory Police responded and confronted students and a faculty member.

“As protestors collectively retreated from streams of pepper bullets, hundreds more students have taken their place, calling for an end to the police’s brutality and the immediate release of all activists arrested,” the release said.

NBC News has reached out to local law enforcement for comment.

USC cancels main graduation commencement ceremony

The University of Southern California canceled its main graduation commencement ceremony today, citing new safety measures involving those who come to campus.

In a commencement update posted this afternoon, USC said "we will not be able to host the main stage ceremony that traditionally brings 65,000 students, families, and friends to our campus all at the same time and during a short window from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m."

The new safety measures include issuing tickets for all commencement events and only allowing campus access through specific points of entry, the school said. It said the reason for canceling the main ceremony is because it would take too long to process the large number of guests who would come to campus for the event.

The school acknowledged that the decision is "disappointing," but added "we are adding many new activities and celebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful, memorable, and uniquely USC, including places to gather with family, friends, faculty, and staff, the celebratory releasing of the doves, and performances by the Trojan Marching Band." It did not offer more detail on these events.

The release stated that the school will still host the dozens of smaller individual school commencement ceremonies "where students cross the stage, have their names announced, are photographed, and receive their diplomas."

Doctoral hooding ceremonies, special celebrations and departmental activities and receptions will all still be held, the school said.