Columbia University faces backlash for disciplining pro-Palestine professor
The targeting of three Columbia University academics, which led to a Muslim visiting professor's job being effectively terminated on national television earlier this week, is part of an attempt to discredit those refusing to stay quiet on Palestine, students and faculty have said.
Tensions at the New York-based Ivy League school reached a zenith this week as university administrators called in the New York Police Department on Thursday afternoon to tear down a student-organised "anti-war and anti-genocide" encampment on the southern lawns of the campus in Harlem just over 24 hours after it had been set up.
The arrests of more than 100 students, suspension of three others, and dismantling of the 50-plus tents by police in full riot gear took place in front of thousands of Columbia students who flooded the lawns to show solidarity with striking students.
In the close to four-hour Congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers repeatedly grilled university president Nemat Minouche Shafik on the university's inaction against allegations of antisemitism on campus.
One Republican lawmaker after the other focused on slogans used by pro-Palestine protesters at Columbia and specifically referenced the remarks or works of professors Joseph Massad, Katherine Franke and Mohamed Abdou when confronting Shafik.