According to the letter signed by over 1,400 academics, Columbia’s decision to arrest and intimidate students is an imitation of the military tactics used by “Israel” that have destroyed every university in Gaza.
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Pro-Palestinian and anti-“Israel” protesters gather outside of Columbia University in New York on April 23, 2024. (AFP)
More than 1,400 academics issued an open letter pledging to boycott activities “held at or officially sponsored by Columbia University and Barnard College” unless the University expunges the infractions from protesting students’ records and the presidents of both schools step down.
Concurrently, Columbia University, which has been a focal point for pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses lately, suspended in-person classes amid increased suppression of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
The New York Police Department moved Thursday afternoon to disperse a pro-Palestine demonstration at Columbia University, detaining dozens of activists who had set up an encampment of around 50 tents on campus, The New York Times reported.
Massive crowd of faculty walked out in solidarity with students and with the Palestinian youth movement for Palestine at Columbia University. #GazaGenocide #ColumbiaUniversity pic.twitter.com/1sCIBMZrjl
— Andreas 🇵🇸 (@AndreasKep) April 23, 2024
In the letter, the authors reject the “ludicrous idea that the Columbia administration was forced to call in the NYPD because of the need to ‘protect students from rhetoric that amounts to harassment and discrimination.”
“Indeed, it is the University’s own decision to arrest, intimidate, criminalize, and punish students that has endangered their safety. If a university would rather arrest its own students than listen to their demands— if it would rather imitate the military tactics of a state that has destroyed every university in Gaza, burying students and colleagues under the rubble, than divest from it —then is it still a university?”
The letter entailed two demands. The first is for Barnard College, Teacher’s College, and Columbia University to “expunge all charges (including suspensions) from and restore campus privileges to the students who protested, as well as reinstate suspended student groups Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia Jewish Voices for Peace.” The second is for Columbia President Minouche Shafik and Barnard President Laura Rosenbury to resign and for the police to be removed from the campus.
The open letter also supports the demands of the Columbia University “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” including divesting from “companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine,” ending initiatives with Israeli universities, cutting ties with the New York Police Department, offering reparations for low-income Harlem residents, and ending “the targeted repression of Palestinian students and their allies on and off campus.”
Until the conditions are addressed, the academics will not attend Columbia or Barnard-sponsored events. Furthermore, they will not “collaborate” on events, seminars, grants, or co-authored papers with Columbia or Barnard faculty members who simultaneously hold administration positions.
Princeton African American studies professor Ruha Benjamin, CUNY Anthropology and Urban Education professor Mark Lamont Hill, and Princeton professor Kevin Kruse are among the signatories.
Princeton University teachers and staff issued an open letter on Monday, proclaiming a “boycott” of Columbia and Barnard, advocating for the reinstatement of “wrongfully suspended” students, the removal of the NYPD from campus, and the reversal of the suspensions of the student groups Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace.
Barnard President Laura Rosenbury said in a statement on Monday that the institution offered to waive temporary punishments for those who had no prior record of misbehavior.
“The vast majority of the students on interim suspension have not previously engaged in misconduct under Barnard’s rules. Last night, the College sent written notices to these students offering to lift the interim suspensions, and immediately restore their access to College buildings, if they agree to follow all Barnard rules during a probationary period,” Rosenbury stated.
In a related development, the Director of Al Mayadeen’s office in Washington affirmed yesterday that an intensive media campaign is ongoing, aiming to associate the university solidarity movement with Palestine in the United States with “antisemitism”.
In summary, US universities, instead of upholding their students’ rights to peaceful protest and fostering an environment conducive to First Amendment-protected discourse, succumbed to pressure from affluent donors and congressional members. They opted for cracking down on student demonstrators.
