A tenured Columbia University law professor says she was effectively terminated after an investigation found she discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students.
Katherine Franke, who was investigated after she gave an interview claiming that Israeli students were harassing students on campus, on Friday announced she was retiring and <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2025/01/Statement%20from%20Katherine%20Franke.docx.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released a statement</a> criticizing the university.
“For the last year and a half, as students at Columbia University and across the globe have protested against the Israeli government’s genocidal assault on Palestinians after the October 2023 attacks, a response that has resulted in horrendous devastation in Gaza, I have ardently defended students’ right to peaceful protest on our campus and across the country,” Franke began her statement. “I truly believed that student engagement with the rights and dignity of Palestinians continued a celebrated tradition at Columbia University of student protest.”
She said she had been “targeted” for her “support of pro-Palestinian protesters – by the president of Columbia University, by several colleagues, by university trustees, and by outside actors.”
“This has included an unjustified finding by the University that my public comments condemning attacks against student protesters violated university non-discrimination policy,” she added.
Those <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2024/1/25/columbia_palestine_protest_attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">public comments</a>, however, suggested Israeli students were the ones harassing other Columbia students, particularly Palestinian students.
“So many of those Israeli students, who then come to the Columbia campus, are coming right out of their military service,” she said in January 2024. “They’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus.”
In that interview, Franke also repeated the false allegation that Israeli students had sprayed anti-Israel protesters with skunk spray, with Franke claiming they were hospitalized due to a “chemical attack.” She also claimed the students responsible were part of Columbia’s dual degree program with Tel Aviv University – but they weren’t.
“The students were able to identify three of these exchange students, basically, from Israel, who had just come out of military service, who were spraying the pro-Palestinian students with this skunk water,” Franke said in her interview with the leftist organization “Democracy Now.”
The “chemical attack” was actually a non-toxic gag spray from Amazon, and Columbia paid $395,000 to a Jewish student after it suspended him for the incident.
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Other professors at Columbia Law filed a complaint against Franke following this interview, arguing that Franke “harassed members of the Columbia community based on their national origin,” <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/probe-finds-columbia-university-professor-discriminated-against-israeli-students/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to The Times of Israel</a>. The investigation determined that Franke violated the school’s anti-discrimination policy during her interview and also violated school policy regarding retaliation by revealing to a reporter the name of a professor who reported her. On social media, Franke also targeted the professors who filed the complaint.
“As made public by parties in this matter, a complaint was filed alleging discriminatory harassment in violation of our policies,” Columbia said in a statement to the Times. “An investigation was conducted, and a finding was issued. As we have consistently stated, the University is committed to addressing all forms of discrimination consistent with our policies.”
Franke also supported the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to harm Israel economically for perceived slights while targeting no other nation for similar or worse aggressions.
Protesters at Columbia and other Ivy League universities have promoted open calls for violence, the Times previously <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/columbia-student-group-retracts-apology-of-member-who-said-zionists-deserve-to-die/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-giving-day-donations-plunge-nearly-30-following-anti-israel-protests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, these student protests likely caused Columbia’s annual “Giving Day” donations to plunge nearly 30% in 2024.

Columbia University Anti-Israel Protest

Columbia Professor Retires After Investigation Found She Discriminated Against Jewish Students

Anti-Semitism

Columbia University

Education

Israel

Palestine

U.S.

If there is one thing common to President Trump&#8217;s Cabinet picks, it is Newton&#8217;s third law of motion, which suggests that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Newton’s third law holds true in politics. For example, if you corrupt the DOJ, then President Trump is going to unleash Matt Gaetz. Or, if you corrupt HHS, he&#8217;s going to unleash Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
This political reactivity is leading to a bit of introspection on the part of the people who backed Kamala Harris, people who hate Donald Trump. The result is a wide variety of theories as to why exactly Democrats and the Left have lost their way in the United States.
One of the most prevalent theories is being brought out by David Brooks, a former pseudo-conservative columnist for the New York Times who ended up turning toward the Left. He famously suggested that he liked Barack Obama because he liked the crease of his pants or some such nonsense. But he&#8217;s also been responsible for some interesting social theories.
He has a piece on the cover of The Atlantic this week titled, “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/12/meritocracy-college-admissions-social-economic-segregation/680392/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How the Ivy League Broke America</a>.” In it, he discusses the death of meritocracy and suggests one of the reasons outsiders like Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., or a wide variety of other figures have come into positions of power is a result of the failures of the so-called meritocracy. This is because Brooks has a perverse view of what meritocracy actually is.
Brooks does not believe that people who have merit ought to rise to the top in the natural evolutionary process by which people rise to the top. Instead, he is, like many members of the traditional Left, a technocrat. He believes in trying to construct systems in order to make the world a better place, rather than believing in living with the evolved systems of, say, free markets and free government. Instead, he considers himself an expert who can set up a system that will rule over hundreds of millions of people.
This is the actual plague of Western civilization. Over the course of the last century and a half, the movement from evolutionary structures of government and markets have moved toward a technocracy — a self-appointed coterie of elites — who are going to fix all problems.
In his essay, Brooks explains what he sees as the problem with the so-called meritocracy. But the problem he discusses isn’t meritocracy. He does not understand what a true meritocracy actually is. And very few people in politics, it seems, actually do.
The actual problem we are experiencing right now is the transformation of meritocracy — the idea that anyone can get ahead if they have merit — into a technocracy, ruled by an elite who reconstruct the entire society in their image. For Brooks, he isn’t solving the problem; he’s making it worse. Brooks wants to “better manage” the better managed system.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2089-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
It turns out that systems organically evolved to maximize actual merit, but we overthrew them in the name of a “better managed” system. Free markets maximize productivity and innovation; communitarian church systems maximize virtue and social bondedness. Government is a substitute for neither.
This is why colleges have collapsed. They were created in order to maximize both productivity and virtue.
The purpose of Columbia University was clear when it was founded as King’s College in 1754: <a href="https://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&amp;d=cs19200714-01.1.3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to its first president, William Samuel Johnson, “The chief Thing that is aimed at in this College is to teach and engage the Children to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve him, in all Sobriety, Godliness, and Righteousness of Life, with a perfect Heart, and a willing Mind; and to train them up in all virtuous Habits, and all such useful Knowledge as may render them creditable to their Families and Friends, Ornaments to their Country, and useful to the public Weal in their Generations … that they may be qualified to make orderly and tractable Members of this Society.”
In short, Columbia University was designed to teach eternal truths; to pursue knowledge of Nature and Nature’s God; to create good citizens and good men. 
Now Columbia exists not to teach either productivity or Godliness, but to teach an elite set of values that confers membership of a self-appointed aristocracy. 
Brooks is not wrong in identifying a problem, but what he is railing against is not the failure of meritocracy; it is the failure of a technocracy that has been established over the course of the last century and a half — and it has failed the American people.
In The Atlantic, David Brooks writes:
<blockquote>In trying to construct a society that maximized talent, [James Conant] and his peers were governed by the common assumptions of the era: Intelligence, that highest human trait, can be measured by standardized tests and the ability to do well in school from ages 15 to 18. Universities should serve as society’s primary sorting system, segregating the smart from the not smart. Intelligence is randomly distributed across the population, so sorting by intelligence will yield a broad-based leadership class … eventually Conant’s vision triumphed and helped comprehensively refashion American life. If you control the choke points of social mobility, then you control the nation’s culture. And if you change the criteria for admission at places such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, then you change the nation’s social ideal.
Would we necessarily say that government, civic life, the media, or high finance work better now than in the mid-20th century? We can scorn the smug WASP blue bloods from Groton and Choate—and certainly their era’s retrograde views of race and gender—but their leadership helped produce the Progressive movement, the New Deal, victory in World War II, the Marshall Plan, NATO, and the postwar Pax Americana. After the meritocrats took over in the 1960s, we got quagmires in Vietnam and Afghanistan, needless carnage in Iraq, the 2008 financial crisis, the toxic rise of social media, and our current age of political dysfunction.</blockquote>
Brooks goes on to identify six sins of the so-called meritocracy.
The first sin: “The system overrates intelligence: The bottom line is that if you give somebody a standardized test when they are 13 or 18, you will learn something important about them, but not necessarily whether they will flourish in life, nor necessarily whether they will contribute usefully to society’s greater good. Intelligence is not the same as effectiveness.”
He is correct in that the system overrates technocratic bureaucratic intelligence. And we’ve tried to fix that by expanding the circle of the technocratic bureaucracy by saying that everyone should go to college. The problem is not elitism in this sense; the problem is the attempt to extend technocratic bureaucratic intelligence across the entirety of the American body politic. Markets would not make this mistake. The reality is that markets didn’t overrate intelligence. They adjusted for the differential qualities of all human beings. No man-made system can do that.
The second sin: “Success in school is not the same thing as success in life: Success in school is about jumping through the hoops that adults put in front of you; success in life can involve charting your own course.”
This is, yet again, true. But markets solve for that — which he continuously omits.
The third sin: “The game is rigged: The meritocracy was supposed to sort people by innate ability. But what it really does is sort people according to how rich their parents are. As the meritocracy has matured, affluent parents have invested massively in their children so they can win in the college-admissions arms race.”
Why is the college-admissions arms race what matters most? Realistically speaking, in a free market system, it isn&#8217;t. One of the great lies that people tell about economics in the United States is that there&#8217;s no income mobility, that everybody is stuck where they started. That isn&#8217;t true. But the free market system must be left alone for this to be true.
The fourth sin: “The meritocracy has created an American caste system: After decades of cognitive segregation, a chasm divides the well educated from the less well educated … The whole meritocracy is a system of segregation. Segregate your family into a fancy school district. If you’re a valedictorian in Ohio, don’t go to Ohio State; go to one of the coastal elite schools where all the smart rich kids are.”
Again, this is actually not the problem. It is, however, linked to his next point.
The fifth sin: “The meritocracy has damaged the psyches of the American elite: The meritocracy is a gigantic system of extrinsic rewards. Its gatekeepers—educators, corporate recruiters, and workplace supervisors—impose a series of assessments and hurdles upon the young. Students are trained to be good hurdle-clearers. We shower them with approval or disapproval depending on how they measure up on any given day. Childhood and adolescence are thus lived within an elaborate system of conditional love. Students learn to ride an emotional roller coaster—congratulating themselves for clearing a hurdle one day and demoralized by their failure the next. This leads to an existential fragility: If you don’t keep succeeding by somebody else’s metrics, your self-worth crumbles.”
He’s not talking about the right sort of psychic damage. The reality is not that our students are petrified of losing out in the college admissions game. The reality is that, again, the false meritocracy — the technocracy that&#8217;s been created — leads people who succeed to believe that they are members of a higher moral caste. They have a different set of values that if you put she/her pronouns in your bio; this makes you part of the coterie of the elite who are to rule society.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a></h3>
The sixth sin: “The meritocracy has provoked a populist backlash that is tearing society apart: Many people who have lost the meritocratic race have developed contempt for the entire system, and for the people it elevates. This has reshaped national politics.”
The fake meritocracy Brooks is discussing has created an American system, but not economically; rather, it has done so culturally. He’s making an economic critique rather than a cultural one, which is the actual major problem.
He says, in the end, we should redefine merit to include “curiosity, a sense of drive and mission, social intelligence, and agility.” He goes on, saying, “If the meritocracy had more channels, society would no longer look like a pyramid, with a tiny, exclusive peak at the top; it would look like a mountain range, with many peaks. Status and recognition in such a society would be more broadly distributed, diminishing populist resentment and making cultural cohesion more likely.”
This was called the free market. The problem in the United States is that we don&#8217;t have a true meritocracy anymore because people who believe they are smarter than everyone else constructed a system and then shoved people into that system.
Brooks concludes, stating that it is “your desires” that are “at the core of a person” — to which I argue that it is not just your desires. It is your duties. It is what you do in the world that should drive you to help others and contribute to your community — and your nation.

Johnston Gate – Harvard Yard – Harvard University – Cambridge Massachusetts

The Collapse Of The Elitists

Ben Shapiro

David Brooks

Elite

Ivy League

Leftists

Opinion

The Atlantic

Woke Culture

This is the first in a series of articles from Alliance Defending Freedom on the state of free speech in America today. October 21 to 27 is National Free Speech Week.
* * *
All over America, schools are back in session – and lessons are being learned. Some of those lessons are worthwhile, practical, and inspiring. But on far too many campuses, the lessons are doing serious damage not only to our sons and daughters and grandchildren, but to the nation they will one day lead.
Sadly, the most basic lesson a lot of students are learning from their teachers and administrators is: “Be a free-thinker—as long as you agree with us.” Conform your ideas. Shame people who think differently. Don’t engage in words, conversations, speeches, or debates that raise questions or address ideas that may challenge the current culture or established biases of this political season.
When pro-Palestine protests on college campuses reached a fever pitch earlier this year, Jewish students at colleges like Columbia University were told to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/04/22/columbia-protests-gaza-antisemitism-jewish-students/73412092007/">leave campus</a> for their own safety. At UCLA, Jewish students <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/pro-palestinian-encampment-blocks-ucla-students-from-entering-library-during-midterms/">voiced their concerns</a> but said they were “denied” and “not getting acknowledged.” UCLA masked its refusal to enforce rules against disruptive students behind a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/pro-palestinian-encampment-blocks-ucla-students-from-entering-library-during-midterms/">statement</a> saying the protests were largely peaceful.
The refusal to maintain a peaceful, respectful atmosphere on campus hit close to home for me two years ago. I serve as senior counsel and director of the Center for Academic Freedom at Alliance Defending Freedom, and in 2022, ADF General Counsel and CEO Kristen Waggoner was invited to share a presentation with a progressive, atheist advocate on the importance of free speech for all at Yale Law School. 
 
While Kristen and Monica Miller of the American Humanist Association believed they could demonstrate two sides of the ideological aisle finding common ground, several Yale Law students disrupted the event by shouting them down, hitting the walls, and violently intimidating the speakers into shutting down the event and leaving with a police escort. Yale failed to end the protest before it got out of control, and this is unfortunately becoming common at schools all over America (Yale eventually invited the speakers back for a peaceful presentation).
Administrators at universities all over the country will tell you they’re just trying to keep things from blowing up. They don’t want students interrupting classes, or blocking hallways, or rioting on the campus lawn. For the sake of everyone’s safety and undisturbed learning, they say, they must clamp down on any ideas that might stir the student pot.
But these same universities already have plenty of regulations in place to deal with violent or obnoxious students. The problem is that administrators are afraid to enforce them. What if the faculty members don’t like it? What if the board of trustees pushes back? What if we look bad on the evening news?
So, they silence any voices that diverge from the campus mainstream. They banish those with the “wrong” point of view. They promote their schools as bastions of tolerance and inclusion – but everyone knows these educators aren’t teaching tolerance to anyone.
The lessons their actions are passing along are that might makes right, that the loud and out-of-control are permitted to drown out the responsible and respectful. That our culture has no place for debate – or even conversation – even on important issues. That standing up for your principles in the face of opposition is a good way to get sent to campus Siberia.
People complain a lot these days about the quality of leaders they see in our public life. We wonder why we can’t produce great men and women like the ones who led us so thoughtfully and courageously in the past.
Is it really so hard to understand? Thinking comes when ideas are challenged and debated; courage comes from seeing courage modeled in the lives and conduct of others. Those aren’t lessons we’re teaching our children today. Those are not the examples we’re setting for our young people.
That’s why protecting free speech is so vital to our future as a nation. There can be no inclusion without a willingness to listen, to hear what others have to say. Without a genuine respect for other people, even if we see the world differently.
Whoever our leaders are in the years ahead, they’ll be serving a country deeply divided in its politics, its morals, its social and cultural attitudes. Uniting us will take unusual courage, self-control, and the ability to bring many different minds and hearts together.
Those are qualities worth passing along – if our schools and universities are willing to teach them.
The clock is ticking. And class is in session.
* * *
Tyson Langhofer is Senior Counsel and Director of the Center for Academic Freedom with <a href="http://www.adflegal.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alliance Defending Freedom</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/ADFLegal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@ADFLegal</a>).
October 21 to 27 is National Free Speech Week.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

US-ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-PROTEST

Free Speech: What Our Schools Aren’t Teaching The Leaders Of Tomorrow

Academia

American Universities

First Amendment

Free Speech

Yale University

CUNY Gaza Solidarity Camp

‘A Hotbed Of Anti-Semitism’: Jewish Professors Take Their Case To The Supreme Court

'A Hotbed Of Anti-Semitism': Jewish Professors Take Their Case To The Supreme Court

City University of New York (CUNY)

Hamas

interview

Labor Unions

Morning Wire

New York City

Pro-Hamas

Supreme Court

Unions

Every year, Columbia University hosts a “Giving Day” to raise funds for the school, its programs, and causes. For the past 12 years, the amount donated on each day has increased – until now.
For the first time, the university suffered a massive drop in donations, after pausing the event in 2023 after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Columbia Spectator <a href="https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/10/03/columbia-giving-day-donations-down-significantly-amid-donor-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Since resuming the event, the school has had a nearly 30% drop in donations.
In 2022, Columbia raised $30 million on Giving Day, compared to $21.4 million raised in 2024 – a 28.8% drop. This was the lowest amount raised since 2018.
The number of donations also declined 27.9% this year after rising steadily for the first 10 years of the event, the Spectator reported.
The drop comes after a year of anti-Israel protests on Columbia’s campus beginning after Hamas’ October 7 attack. Some of the campus’ anti-Israel groups called for the “total eradication of Western civilization,” The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-anti-israel-groups-call-for-total-eradication-of-western-civilization" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in August.
The Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition, which has a list of demands, including that Columbia “[s]ever academic ties with Israel universities” and “Defund Public Safety and disclose and sever all ties with the NYPD,” made the demand in an Instagram post.
“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” the coalition stated. “We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South. Our Intifada is an internationalist one—we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people. We reject every genocidal, eugenicist regime that seeks to undermine the personhood of the colonized.”
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
”As the fascism ingrained in the American consciousness becomes ever more explicit and irrefutable, we seek community and instruction from militants in the Global South, who have been on the frontlines in the fight against tyranny and domination which undergird the imperialist world order,” they continued.
Even after protesters took over and trashed a building on campus, charges against them were dropped by leftist District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who claimed there wasn’t enough evidence against 31 of the 46 people charged with trespassing, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-prosector-alvin-bragg-drops-most-criminal-charges-against-pro-hamas-extremists-at-columbia-university" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in June.
Anti-Israel protests weren’t the only problem Columbia faced this past year, as the school’s administrators were caught mocking complaints from Jews about anti-Semitism on campus. In a group text, Columbia administrators used vomit emojis to dismiss the concerns of Jewish students. At least three administrators involved in the group chat <a href="https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-administrators-antisemitism-text-69a97c6f21ef52664e780bfe202f305b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have been fired</a>, and the university’s president <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-president-minouche-shafik-resigns-after-far-left-pro-hamas-protests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resigned</a> following this scandal and the protests.

Anti-Israel Columbia Protest

Columbia University ‘Giving Day’ Donations Plunge Nearly 30% Following Anti-Israel Protests

Columbia University 'Giving Day' Donations Plunge Nearly 30% Following Anti-Israel Protests

A Columbia University student who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live” is suing the school for suspending him after The Daily Wire brought his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/zionists-dont-deserve-to-live-meet-the-leader-of-columbia-universitys-anti-israel-encampment">inflammatory remarks</a> to light.
Khymani James made those comments in a January post on Instagram, in which he said that “there should not be Zionists anywhere” and “the world is better without them.” James recorded the video during a meeting with the Center for Student Success and Intervention at Columbia, which had summoned James to discuss earlier anti-Semitic comments he had made.
Columbia, which did not initially take action against James, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-student-who-said-zionists-dont-deserve-to-live-reportedly-expelled">suspended</a> him one day after The Daily Wire reported his comments on April 25. In the <a href="https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=0K3TnfssbAWThf6ypw0QoA==">lawsuit</a>, James claims the university only suspended him to save face amid national backlash.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/zionists-dont-deserve-to-live-meet-the-leader-of-columbia-universitys-anti-israel-encampment">‘Zionists Don’t Deserve To Live’: Meet The Leader Of Columbia University’s Anti-Israel Encampment</a>
“The timing and language of the sanction letter makes it clear that Columbia acted in response to external forces and national media attention,” the suit, filed in the New York State Supreme Court, reads. “The University is allowing external forces, applying pressure to it, to dictate outcomes in individual student disciplinary cases.”
James <a href="https://x.com/khymanijames/status/1839801159734665282?s=46&amp;t=ghpHusspWPjTMisXwpsMaA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced the lawsuit</a> in a Friday post on X, accusing Columbia of discrimination, as well as “cowering” to “billionaire donors” and “fascist politicians.” In a follow-up tweet, he posted a picture of himself flipping off the camera on a jet ski.
“James has been a victim of Columbia&#8217;s anti-Palestinian bias, severely punished, though not himself Palestinian, as a supporter of the rights of the Palestinian people,” the suit states.
It goes on to claim that Columbia violated New York State&#8217;s Human Rights Law, New York City’s Human Rights Law, and standards for educational institutions outlined in the 1980 case Tedeschi v. Wagner College.
Columbia University declined to comment. James’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
In January 2024, James <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68909942">took to Instagram</a> to warn Zionists who may want to “meet up and fight” that he “fights to kill.” According to the lawsuit, James made these comments after receiving hateful comments for sharing his “anti-genocide political beliefs” about the Israel-Hamas war. James had “no intention of harming anyone,” but merely wanted to “dissuade others from causing him physical harm,” the suit states.
According to the lawsuit, James was in a &#8220;highly stressed and anxious mental state&#8221; when he live streamed a January 9 meeting with the Center for Student Success and Intervention at Columbia. He did so due to a &#8220;powerful sense of being endangered,&#8221; to seek sympathy, and to show &#8220;how universities repress voices of pro Palestine [sic] students, and especially people of color,” the suit states.
During that meeting, James said he felt “very comfortable” calling for Zionists to die, and compared killing Zionists to killing Hitler. He added that “there should not be Zionists anywhere” and that “the world is better without them.”
“Zionists don’t deserve to live comfortably, let alone Zionists don’t deserve to live,” he said during the live stream. “The same way we are very comfortable accepting Nazis don’t deserve to live, fascists don’t deserve to live, racists don’t deserve to live, Zionists, they shouldn’t live in this world.”
“Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists,” James also said. “I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, and I hope to keep it that way.”
In March, the Center warned James that live streaming the meeting had been added to the list of possible school policy violations he had committed, and that he had “used language that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward group members of a protected class.”
The next month, James became a media liaison and “member of the safety team” for Columbia’s newly formed anti-Israel encampment. On April 19, the school notified James that he had violated school rules three times and placed him on disciplinary probation, which allowed him to continue his academic progress with the condition that more violations could lead to further disciplinary actions.
“The April 19 letter finalizes and closes the investigation surrounding the December 2023 complaints, as well as the live streaming of the January 9 disciplinary hearing,” the lawsuit states.
On April 25, The Daily Wire first reported James&#8217; livestream, which quickly gained attention from both mainstream and conservative outlets. That same day, the lawsuit states, a Columbia associate dean contacted James and expressed concern for his safety. The school bought a train ticket home to Boston.
The next day, James says he received a letter announcing his interim suspension for misconduct, based on an April 25 report citing his &#8220;disruptive behavior&#8221; at an unapproved anti-Israel encampment, where he allegedly &#8220;engaged in threatening behavior and made discriminatory remarks about other students.&#8221;
James was barred from all Columbia facilities and prevented from completing his studies for the semester, according to the lawsuit, which adds that no other student was suspended that day for participating in the encampment — though some were suspended on other days.
The suit claims that the timing of the new letter “makes it clear that Columbia acted in response to external forces” following The Daily Wire’s initial report. The suit cites Columbia telling CNN, the New York Times, and NBC that James was “banned from campus,” and an April 26 statement from Columbia trustees David Greenwald, Claire Shipman, President Minouche Shafik, and Provost Angela Olinto, that references his remarks and said “one individual whose vile videos have surfaced in recent days is now banned from campus.”
In a since-deleted April <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-student-claims-he-misspoke-after-repeatedly-calling-for-zionists-to-die-in-hour-long-livestream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post on X</a>, James claimed he “misspoke” when he repeatedly called for Zionists to die in the January livestream.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here is the full Khymani James live-stream that includes his disciplinary meeting with Columbia University over making threatening social media posts.
I saved you all the first 30 minutes where he rants with a friend and started with the school meeting. <a href="https://t.co/DfN6mKdlbm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/DfN6mKdlbm</a>
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyAkiva/status/1783899025000780053?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">April 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
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In May, James received another letter for participating in a “human chain” at the encampment. A viral video showed James directing protesters to push pro-Israel students out of the encampment. The lawsuit states James was “reasonably engaged in peaceful self help” in this incident.
“One step forward,” James was seen yelling as the crowd repeated after him in unison while stepping forward.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Why are my friends and I being run off our own campus? We are not moving. <a href="https://t.co/2T5JLSI0OH" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/2T5JLSI0OH</a>
— Jessica Schwalb (@jessicaschwalb7) <a href="https://twitter.com/jessicaschwalb7/status/1782248103216594996?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">April 22, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The lawsuit states that the school used the incident in a way that “piles on” to justify further proceedings against James, though it happened about a week before he received the sanction for participating in the protest.
James received a letter in August notifying him that he was suspended for the academic year for his participation in the human chain, the suit states. James has received death threats and suffered from anxiety, fear, and depression since his suspension, the suit claims.
The lawsuit then launches into a tirade against the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, comparing its hearings on college anti-Semitism to bringing “a new form orf [sic] McCarthyism to the American scene.”
It goes on to claim that Columbia “privileges a class of self-described &#8216;Zionist Jewish&#8217; people over everyone on campus who does not share their views.”

Khymani James

Anti-Israel Columbia Student Sues School For Suspending Him After Daily Wire Exposé

Zionism

On October 7, 2023, Hamas slaughtered <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/hamass-october-7-attack-visualizing-data" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1,200 Israelis</a> in cold blood: <a href="https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/remains-found-of-12-year-old-girl-burned-alive-by-hamas-pwuvp95s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">burning families alive</a>, raping women until their bodies became unrecognizable, and taking eight Americans hostage. Before American Jews knew whether their loved ones were dead or alive, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters across the country had already begun <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/students-justice-palestine-sjp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">glorifying</a> Hamas, harassing <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/nyc-colleges-jewish-students-seen-locked-inside-library-anti-israel-protest-moves-building" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Jews</a> and demanding that Israel acquiesce to the terrorists’ demands.
In the months since, SJP chapters have seized every opportunity to embrace <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/shocking-antisemitism-at-ucla/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anti-Semitic tropes</a> and <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/students-justice-palestine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rewrite history</a> along ideological lines in their call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It is no surprise, then, that on the first anniversary of Hamas’ rape, murder, and abduction of Israeli civilians, SJP’s national headquarters has called for a &#8220;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C__KP_pSvp9/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA%3D%3D&amp;img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Week of Rage</a>.&#8221; Not rage against Hamas. Not rage against Yahya Sinwar or any other actor who could be reasonably blamed for the massive suffering following October 7. No: SJP is raging against any Israeli claim to legitimate self-defense.
Let’s be clear, October 7 marks the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Israel’s stated aims in the ongoing conflict are to return its hostages and to eliminate Hamas’ military capacities. SJP views Israel’s sole aim as the genocide of the population of Gaza.
However, the Israel-Gaza war has amassed one of the lowest ratios of civilian-to-militant casualty ratios in modern history. As the <a href="https://www.ajc.org/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-israels-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IDF supplies</a> Gazan civilians with humanitarian aid, opts for <a href="https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2024/07/18/idf-carries-out-precision-strikes-on-hamas-on-two-fronts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">precision strikes</a> to minimize civilian casualties, and even warns civilians in areas they intend to bomb to allow them time to evacuate — the term “genocide” simply doesn’t apply.
For almost 12 months, SJP has protested Israel’s actions as though Hamas does not exist, merely a thin justification for genocide. A &#8220;Week of Rage” on the anniversary of the massacre is SJP finally saying the quiet part out loud: they believe that October 7 was justified, and Hamas’ failure to eliminate the Israeli state is worthy of rage.
Violent and unlawful acts are nothing new for SJP. UCLA’s SJP chapter once re-posted an Instagram story claiming credit for a firebombing at UC Berkeley, reading “NOT SURE WHAT BUILDING IT EVEN WAS. HONESTLY DONT REALLY CARE. EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS DESERVES TO BE INCINERATED.” 
<div id="attachment_801989" style="width: 282px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-801989" class="size-large wp-image-801989" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/unnamed-272x576.png" alt="Credit: Instagram" width="272" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/unnamed-272x576.png 272w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/unnamed-142x300.png 142w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/unnamed.png 666w" sizes="(max-width: 272px) 100vw, 272px" />Credit: Instagram</div>
During on-campus protests at UCLA, SJP affiliated agitators chanted &#8216;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/ucla-professor-schools-gutless-response-antisemitism-campus-complicit-hamas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Itbah El Yahud</a>&#8216; (&#8216;slaughter the Jews&#8217; in Arabic) and beat a piñata effigy of Israel’s Prime Minister, accompanied by <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/11/10/news/ucla-students-batter-bibi-pinata-to-chants-of-beat-that-f-g-jew/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shouts of</a> &#8216;beat that f***ing Jew.'&#8221; SJP is also responsible for the illegal encampments that spread across university campuses last year, along with the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-move-in-on-anti-israel-encampment-at-ucla-make-dozens-of-arrests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vandalism</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&amp;v=ZmBk3T935CI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">destruction</a> they caused.
In addition to broad-brush antisemitism and lawlessness, individuals affiliated with campus SJP chapters have taken it upon themselves to harass individual Jewish students. A Jewish student was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/jewish-yale-student-stabbed-eye-palestinian-flag-rowdy-protest-mob-behavior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stabbed in the eye</a> by an SJP-affiliated individual at Yale. At Princeton, a student at an SJP protest <a href="https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-reports-being-pushed-while-filming-princeton-protest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assaulted a student reporter</a>. Even when punished, these incidents contribute to a culture that causes Jewish students to think twice about openly expressing their identity. Indeed, a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/noteworthy/ssri/hotspots-antisemitism.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brandeis study</a> found the presence of an active SJP chapter to be one of the strongest predictors of campus anti-Semitism.
Despite SJP’s clear calls for violence, university responses have been largely tepid or nonexistent, focusing on condemning individual incidents that garner media attention rather than addressing the quacking duck in front of them. While swift action is warranted, most campuses have stood by, either out of fear of backlash or a reluctance to confront the increasingly hostile climate for Jewish students.
Their call for a &#8220;Week of Rage&#8221; alone is obvious incitement to violence against Jewish students, proud Americans, and all those mourning the victims of October 7. Coupled with their violent record, SJP’s call for a Week of Rage becomes all the more terrifying. As students grieve the loss of their family members, the last thing they should have to worry about is being attacked by their own peers.
A few schools have disavowed SJP as a student organization, representing the appropriate response to a student organization endorsing an international terrorist organization. In October of 2023, Florida Governor <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/desantis-directs-florida-state-universities-to-deactivate-students-for-justice-in-palestine-group/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ron DeSantis</a> ordered Florida universities to “deactivate” their SJP chapters, citing their “material support” for a “designated foreign terrorist group.” In November, Brandeis University banned SJP, with University President Ron Liebowitz <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/president/letters/2023-11-08-free-speech-not-hate-speech.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a> that the academy is “a space for free speech, not hate speech.” Unfortunately, such clarity is the exception, not the norm.
Reacting to instances of textbook anti-Semitism and mounting public pressure, <a href="https://news.columbia.edu/news/statement-gerald-rosberg-chair-special-committee-campus-safety" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Columbia</a> and <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2024/08/gwu-suspends-anti-israel-campus-groups-through-fall-semester/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GWU</a> banned SJP on their respective campuses. However, SJP continued to <a href="https://mediarelations.gwu.edu/update-demonstration-gws-foggy-bottom-campus-630am" target="_blank" rel="noopener">operate encampments</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-ny-jewish-columbia-student-alleges-harassment-by-violent-anti-israel-protesters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">violently attack</a> Jewish students on both campuses long past their sanction. Without the appropriate follow-through, their condemnations amounted to little more than milquetoast suggestions.
Overwhelmingly, university responses to the violent hatred wrought by SJP have amounted to little more than <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-colleges-and-universities-are-failing-fight-antisemitism-campus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">generic condemnations</a> of “all forms of hatred,” <a href="https://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/news/statement-about-support-and-resources-students-crises-unfold-worldwide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failing to name SJP</a> or affiliated organizations directly. Such cowardice is clearly exemplified by the University of Maryland’s delineations for October 7, 2024, when the USM restricted campus activity to only <a href="https://dbknews.com/2024/09/02/usm-limits-oct-7-campus-demonstrations-university-sponsored-events-backlash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">university-sponsored events</a>.
While their blanket ban ostensibly targets SJP, it also effectively bans student-led vigils mourning the horrors of the Hamas attack. To pretend that October 7 is a both-sides issue by painting grieving Jewish students as similar to those calling for a globalized intifada is to equivocate the victims of terrorism with its supporters.
In their own words, SJP openly supports internationally-recognized terrorist groups and calls for the destruction of the United States. It is long past time for universities to take these students at their word and hold them accountable as adults. Campuses that continue to tolerate groups that endorse the most dangerous terrorist organizations of our time risk fostering further radicalization and unintentionally abetting their destructive goals.
* * *
Bella Brannon is a student at UCLA studying Public Affairs and Digital Humanities. She is the Editor-In-Chief of Ha’Am, researched bias in artificial intelligence with the School of Technology Law and Policy, and spent the summer as an intern with the Religious Freedom Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Police Arrest UCLA Protesters And Clear Encampment

This Student Group Is Calling For A ‘Week of Rage’ Beginning October 7 

This Student Group Is Calling For A 'Week of Rage' Beginning October 7 

Jews

October 7

Students for Justice in Palestine

Terrorism

UCLA

A recent Columbia Law School graduate whom the school praised for exemplifying its “spirit” attempted to bully The Daily Wire into censoring an article on the school&#8217;s partisan behavior with an email that seemed to threaten a reporter’s children and dog.
Luke Cronin emailed The Daily Wire earlier this month to complain about a year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-law-students-call-kavanaugh-a-rapist-egged-on-by-radical-academic-department" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article from this reporter</a> on campus extremism. Cronin, a former editor of the Columbia Law Review and recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, advised The Daily Wire to “take down Mr. Rosniak’s [sic] writing.” He did not claim that the article was inaccurate, instead saying it referenced remarks he made on social media that have since been hidden from the public.
Cronin, writing from his Columbia email address, concluded his missive with an ominous postscript containing specific details about this reporter&#8217;s place of residence, family members, and pet, expressing his wish that they have &#8220;gotten what they deserve.&#8221;
In March 2023, The Daily Wire reported that Columbia&#8217;s law school had a collective meltdown because its official Instagram page posted a picture of some students meeting with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Virtually all of the law school&#8217;s race-based student clubs, such as the Black Law Students Association, said they would no longer help Columbia recruit minorities in retaliation for the photo op.
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The Daily Wire noted that students who objected to the meeting accused Kavanaugh of raping Christine Blasey Ford, even though such accusations against the justice have never been proven. Cronin, then a &#8220;Leadership Fellow&#8221; at Columbia, was one of the students who made a baseless accusation against Kavanaugh.
&#8220;Kavanaugh sexually violated Dr. Ford,&#8221; he wrote on the school&#8217;s Instagram post.
This summer, Cronin graduated and entered the job market. Shortly thereafter, he petitioned The Daily Wire to scrub his comments from its factually-accurate article. The timing suggests Cronin may have been looking to shield his partisan comments from potential future employers as he pursues a career in big law.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-787051" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/columbia-cronin.jpg" alt="Columbia University - Luke Cronin" width="1610" height="750" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/columbia-cronin.jpg 1610w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/columbia-cronin-300x140.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/columbia-cronin-1024x477.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/columbia-cronin-768x358.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/columbia-cronin-1536x716.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1610px) 100vw, 1610px" /></div>
Cronin spent last summer as a summer associate at <a href="https://www.quinnemanuel.com/the-firm/news-events/quinn-emanuel-successfully-represents-a-cat-owner-after-a-harrowing-near-fatal-accident/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Quinn Emanuel</a>,  where he worked on the case of a homeless person whose cat plummeted out a window. Summer associates at big law firms like Quinn Emanuel virtually always receive permanent job offers after passing the bar exam. But a spokesman for the firm told The Daily Wire Cronin “does not have an offer to return to the firm.”
Thirteen judges have said they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/13-federal-judges-we-wont-hire-columbia-u-students-unless-serious-consequences-for-protesters-significant-changes-in-faculty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will not hire</a> Columbia law grads as law clerks due to an “explosion of student disruptions, anti-Semitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints&#8221; at the school, saying it has become an &#8220;incubator of bigotry.&#8221;
At the time he commented on the Kavanaugh photo, Cronin was a Davis Polk Leadership Fellow. The fellowship page said he &#8220;hopes to use the Davis Polk Leadership Fellowship to build an outreach organization which directly serves unhoused folks in Morningside Heights and in Harlem&#8221; and &#8220;connect unhoused individuals with legal issues to legal service providers.
“As someone who has experienced housing insecurity, Luke hopes to build a bridges [sic] between his peers at Columbia and with <a href="https://leadership-initiative.law.columbia.edu/content/2022-2023-fellows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unhoused folks</a>,&#8221; a university website reads.
In April 2024, Columbia gave Cronin its &#8220;Campbell Award, which is presented to a graduating student at each School who shows exceptional leadership and <a href="https://archive.is/grKNl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Columbia spirit</a>.&#8221;
The award said Cronin uses &#8220;he/him/his&#8221; pronouns and &#8220;helped represent asylum-seeking clients.&#8221; It said he &#8220;was selected to join the Clerkship Diversity Initiative, the Academic Scholars program, as well as the Tony Patiño Fellow-elect.&#8221; The Academic Scholars program is a scholarship that pays half of tuition for students who Columbia faculty believe would make good law professors. The Tony Patiño Fellowship pays an additional $17,500 a year for students who Columbia faculty believe show &#8220;good citizenship.&#8221;
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Columbia University president Minouche Shafik <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-president-minouche-shafik-resigns-after-far-left-pro-hamas-protests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resigned</a> earlier this month amid criticism of how the school has handled anti-Semitic protests since Hamas&#8217;s Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, including the student takeover of an academic building. The school has adopted a color-coded security system in light of the frequent disruptions on its campus. Columbia is currently at an &#8220;Orange Level,&#8221; meaning people seeking to enter campus must go through a checkpoint and show ID.
Columbia University did not return a request for comment.
Cronin&#8217;s response to the Kavanaugh photo and The Daily Wire&#8217;s story was not out of place on campus. The Center for Engaged Pedagogy at Columbia University&#8217;s sister school, Barnard College, used its official Instagram account to comment &#8220;WTF is wrong with you&#8221; on the Kavanaugh photo.
When The Daily Wire asked the Center’s director, Melissa Wright, for comment last year, the comment request — which included the reporter’s phone number and email — was used to doxx the reporter. In a juvenile prank, his contact information was entered into dozens of spam websites, cult and far-left mailing lists, and dating sites. Wright has since been promoted from interim director to executive director.
Related:<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/law-school-pays-for-gay-dance-party-to-quell-uproar-following-diversity-offices-promotion-of-civility"> Northwestern Law School Pays For ‘Gay Dance Party’ To Quell Uproar Following Diversity Office’s Promotion Of ‘Civility’</a>

Columbia University New York # 1

Columbia Law School Grad Threatens Daily Wire Reporter’s Family, Dog

Anti-Racism

Brett Kavanaugh

College

Lawfare

On August 14, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigned after occupying the top seat for just over a year.
Good riddance. Under her watch, protesters <a href="https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/04/30/dozens-occupy-hamilton-hall-as-pro-palestinian-protests-spread-across-campus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">occupied</a> Hamilton Hall and <a href="https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2024/04/30/dozens-occupy-hamilton-hall-as-pro-palestinian-protests-spread-across-campus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">burned</a> a student’s Israeli flag before assaulting him with rocks. Now, Columbia is <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/08/11/us-news/columbia-restricts-campus-access-as-it-braces-for-anti-israel-protests-to-return/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">restricting</a> campus access for demonstrations and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-looks-to-give-campus-police-arresting-power-after-protests-11d2b3bc?st=e1abh0rzjzdi9sm&amp;reflink=article_copyURL_share">considering</a> arrest authorization for its campus police.
It’s not just Columbia either. After spending millions of dollars on property damages rather than limit students’ supposed “speech rights” during Israel-Hamas protests last semester, universities are now walking back their protest policies. This month it was revealed that Harvard <a href="https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/08/new-rules-campus-use">banned</a> encampments and chalking, and tax-payer-funded Indiana University is <a href="https://policies.iu.edu/policies/ua-14-first-amendment-indiana-university/index.html">doing</a> the same. 
It’s not just Jewish students who are apprehensive about this fall.
We’re excited to vote in our first presidential election, but we’re fed up with fringe students who physically threaten us to enforce a campus culture of intimidation.
Eli Noam, a Columbia Garrett Professor of Public Policy and Business Responsibility, was a student at Harvard during student protests in the 1960s. He says that the protests today are about bullying, not change.
“In the ‘60s, we protested and challenged the university administration. Today’s students are looking for the administration to protect them from all kinds of evil things like harassment, discrimination, bullying, and so on.”
60% of students at least somewhat agree that the climate at their school prohibits them from expressing their opinions because others might find it offensive, according to a recent Knight Foundation-Ipsos <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2024-07/Knight%20Foundation_Ipsos_Free%20Expression_July%202024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a>. Only 43% of students feel that freedom of speech is “very secure or secure today” — a 30% drop since 2016.
Our campus climate used to require a self-censorship tax we paid to eat lunch with friends, get invited to parties, and share notes. Now, for simply being Jewish, students are paying with their physical safety, like the UCLA student who was <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/jewish-ucla-student-said-protesters-blocked-him-from-walking-to-class" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blocked</a> from attending class by a Jewish Exclusion Zone, or the Yale student who was <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/i-was-stabbed-in-the-eye-at-yale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stabbed</a> in the eye, or the student at my school who was <a href="https://dailyorange.com/2024/05/pro-palestine-protest-altercation-walnut/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assaulted</a> in front of his Jewish fraternity, Zeta Beta Tau.
All of us — despite our race, religion or creed — are taking notice.
“I always thought that there had been a risk of harassment,” Noelle Delumpa, a junior at Xavier University, said. “I never really worried about physical violence, but I have started to worry with the uprising of the pro-Palestine protests, seeing how they are burning these flags and pushing people out of encampments if they don’t ‘belong.’”
Anthony Rispo, a student at Columbia, agrees. “I don’t really feel that way for myself, per se, but when you start to add things up, it doesn’t look good.”
“Look, Hamilton Hall was vandalized, pure and simple,” he continued. “The students that did it got off free.”
Our worries are warranted. These unruly demonstrators plan to return with the same vigor as before. In response to the new policies at Columbia, protesters <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/columbia-university-coo-cas-holloway-red-paint-apartment-rcna166079" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vandalized</a> Columbia’s Chief Operating Officer’s home and propped up a sign on campus that read “We’re Back Bitches.” Harvard’s Out of Occupied Palestine group <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C-ERg8PJwFp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “Not reading that, Free Palestine” on Instagram.
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As we get closer to November 5, all issues are fair game in our national conversation — except on campus. And as much as administrators claim they protect free speech, we know our schools don’t have our backs.
Just ask Macy Gunnell, a junior at St. Mary’s College, who advocated for the reversal of a policy that would have admitted transgender women to her all-women’s college. When she rallied alumni, family and friends to boycott the school in protest of the policy, she didn’t get the same leniency universities afforded pro-Hamas protesters.
“I was threatened with my life,” Gunnell said. “I locked my door and had my phone by hand, ready to call the police if necessary. People were spreading my room number online, which definitely did not help either.” Instead of defending Macy’s speech rights, Administrators idly watched as students threatened her safety.
The recent federal <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20240813183534/injunction.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">injunction</a> against the University of California, Los Angeles and Trump’s promise to <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?537763-1/fmr-pres-trump-speaks-antisemitism-event-bedminster-nj" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crack</a> down on college anti-Semitism are signs of hope. But sadly I predict this fall will be no different.
“Ultimately, they [the protesters] are prepared to break the rules, whatever the rules are, as part of a process to create attention, noise, and victimhood,” Prof. Noam said. “Now, the university administration believes that if they’re flexible and show that they’re nice guys, somehow everyone will be friends. I’m just not sure if that’s the reality.”
Protesters emboldened by the fecklessness of administrators will dominate the discourse and dox anyone who dares dissent. The Israel-Palestine conflict, immigration, and abortion are all hot-button issues this year. As the election season evolves, we all are nervously suppressing our beliefs because we know we’re next.
* * *
Daniel Idfresne is a junior at Syracuse University. He’s a Campus Reform Correspondent, a Young Voices Contributor and interned for “The Story with Martha Maccallum.” He has written for the New York Post, Newsweek, and The Free Press. He has appeared on “Fox and Friends,” “America Reports,” and “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
This article has been edited for clarity.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik Visits Campus After Protest Encampment Cleared

Columbia’s President Abandons Ship. Students Like Me Brace For Election Protests.

Activists

Jewish

Protests

Readers Pass

Students

Violence

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned effective immediately after the school was rocked by far-left pro-Hamas riots earlier this year.
The riots got so out of control that the extremists took over an entire building on the university&#8217;s campus in New York. A large number of NYPD officers were needed to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nypd-storms-columbias-hamilton-hall-after-pro-hamas-protesters-illegally-took-control-of-building">liberate</a> the building but only after Shafik initially refused to let police take action.
Shafik said that her resignation was effective immediately and that today was her last day, complaining that the situation that she helped foster took &#8220;a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community.&#8221;
&#8220;Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins.&#8221;
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) celebrated Shafik’s resignation, saying that her “failed presidency was untenable and that is was only a matter of time before her forced resignation.”
“After failing to protect Jewish students and negotiating with pro Hamas terrorists, this forced resignation is long overdue,” Stefanik said. “We will continue to demand moral clarity, condemnation of antisemitism, protection of Jewish students and faculty, and stronger leadership from American higher education institutions.”
Shafik revealed that she has been approached by far-left British Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#8217;s government to &#8220;chair a review of the government&#8217;s approach to international development and how to improve capability.&#8221;
&#8220;I am very pleased and appreciative that this will afford me the opportunity to return to work on fighting global poverty and promoting sustainable development, areas of lifelong interest to me,&#8221; she added. &#8220;It also enables me to return to the House of Lords to reengage with the important legislative agenda put forth by the new UK government.&#8221;
Starmer&#8217;s approval rating has <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/10/starmer-popularity-slumps-after-criticism-of-riots-respon/">plummeted</a> amid his tyrannical response to protests in his country over how mass immigration is ruining the country. Starmer is so extreme that his government is arresting people for complaining about mass migration on social media, posting videos that increase anti-migrant sentiment, and British police have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/uk-police-chief-suggests-he-would-arrest-americans-for-highlighting-british-riots-online">threatened</a> to charge American citizens for posting videos of what is happening and warning against mass migration.
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.

Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Antisemitism

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik Resigns After Far-Left, Pro-Hamas Protests

New York

An anti-Israel group that claims to represent &#8220;thousands of Columbia students&#8221; publicly acknowledged a deeper truth: they are fighting to “eradicate” Western civilization.
The Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition — which states in its <a href="https://cuapartheiddivest.org/demands" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list of demands</a> that Columbia University should “[s]ever academic ties with Israel universities” and “Defund Public Safety and disclose and sever all ties with the NYPD” —   joined with the university’s Bengali Student Association to post a statement on Instagram, as Campus Reform <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article/columbia-university-anti-israel-group-says-fighting-total-eradication-western-civilization/26077" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” they stated. “We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South. Our Intifada is an internationalist one—we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people. We reject every genocidal, eugenicist regime that seeks to undermine the personhood of the colonized.”
”As the fascism ingrained in the American consciousness becomes ever more explicit and irrefutable, we seek community and instruction from militants in the Global South, who have been on the frontlines in the fight against tyranny and domination which undergird the imperialist world order,” they continued.
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1722714742764000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1XzmEsRwzti1RFNuISwYgd">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a>
”As we, the militants of Hind’s Hall, continue our fight for Palestine from within the belly of the beast, we draw inspiration not only from the Palestinian resistance but from every struggle for liberation across the globe,” they declared.
Social media users bashed the Instagram post with comments such as:
<blockquote>
Mask fell off. Share this around people, the world must be informed of who they really are and what they want. If you are American or European they hate you and want to destroy you.
I’m so embarrassed for y’all that this was posted in seriousness. You all are students at an Ivy League college calling yourselves “militants” and stating you want to eradicate the civilization you actively benefit from? You know, the one that allows you to have the freedoms and privileges to even post some s*** like this?
I’m from Central Asia, if you hate “Western Civilization” so much, let US deport you, and instead give me and other people who want to move to US and contribute to it &#8211; a Green Card. That’s a fair replace? Deal?
</blockquote>

Columbia University Anti-Israel Groups Call For ‘Total Eradication Of Western Civilization’

anti-Israel

Politics

Western Civilization

The unhinged antics of academia have long baffled ordinary Americans. Institutions once prized for their services to knowledge are now staffed by people who routinely deny that such a thing objectively exists, and who focus more on their partisan priorities. Despite its reputation, Columbia University is no exception. Before recently being evicted after clashes with police, students at the school’s fractious anti-Israel encampment proudly proclaimed their support for terrorism while calling on the college to sever ties to Israel and Israelis.
Now, we have more evidence that some of the college’s top administrators are not merely willing to indulge such radicalism but hold their own egregious views. Last week the Washington Free Beacon exposed how deans at the Ivy League school <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/amazing-what-can-do-new-text-messages-show-columbia-deans-sneering-at-privilege-of-jewish-students/">mocked Jewish students</a> in private texts, referring to them as &#8220;privileged&#8221; despite their concerns over growing anti-Semitism. Perhaps the most surprising part of this scandal is that the offensive remarks were made in private, given how normalized such sentiment has become in academic circles.
The Jewish students denigrated by their deans are the same ones who recently had to pass protestors, mobilized by groups that openly celebrated the slaughter of civilians by Hamas, <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2024/04/for-the-first-time-people-were-truly-afraid-antisemitism-hits-boiling-point-at-columbia-university/">screeching</a> at them to “go back to Poland.” Even prior to macabre celebrations of the October 7th attacks, anti-Jewish incidents were soaring in the U.S., with assaults on Jews rising by <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/report/audit-antisemitic-incidents-2022">over 25%</a> in 2022.
Columbia University deans mocking Jewish students&#8217; legitimate concerns about anti-Semitism as &#8220;privilege&#8221; — not to mention the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-administrators-mock-jewish-panelists-use-vomit-emojis">vomit emojis</a> they directed at those who express those concerns, proves that despite promoting progressive values, Columbia’s rampant <a href="https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/the-shameful-radicalisation-of-columbia-comes-from-critical-race-theory-oubwi2uh">critical race theory</a> has apparently done nothing to alleviate a toxic atmosphere for Jewish students, and arguably exacerbated it. In the corridors of academia, “progressive” staff are only too happy to trivialize the genuine fears and experiences of Jewish students in a way they would not be if students of any other minority group expressed similar fears. How can students feel safe on campus in these circumstances — or trust administrators to be honest referees for their concerns after these private texts?
Incredibly, despite a slew of headlines claiming that the Columbia staff in question have been “removed,” the college will <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/columbia-to-reassign-deans-at-center-of-texting-scandal/">simply shuffle</a> three of them into new roles. The most senior among them, Dean Josef Sorett, is walking scot-free having released a mealy-mouthed <a href="https://president.columbia.edu/news/messages-president-shafik-and-provost-olinto">statement</a> in which he vows to “rebuild trust.” 
But how can trust be rebuilt when, to echo the words of the Free Beacon, Columbia’s response is akin to “Moving the Priests Around” a rightly decried practice of shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish instead of forcing them to face justice for horrendous crimes? While many Catholic authorities have reckoned with previous abuse scandals and improved safeguarding practices, most colleges are incapable of even admitting a scandal is unfolding. 
The question now is whether ambitious American students, Jewish or otherwise, decide to give up on the colleges of yesteryear and gravitate towards less “prestigious” schools that remain dedicated to learning rather than appeasing extremists.
While comprehensive measures such as training on anti-Semitism could be helpful in theory, it is difficult to believe that, in practice, administrators like those at Columbia will change for the better from such training. Their mocking text messages, after all, occurred during a discussion of anti-Semitism.
After this text message scandal, can we really trust colleges to execute these training programs? Will students, already raised to hate, be open to changing their minds? Are current teachers actually qualified or willing to explain the complex history of anti-Jewish hatred, rather than reduce it to yet another function of the irredeemable white supremacist evils of Western civilization?
The reality suggested by this affair is that entire college departments and administrations are rotten to the core. Root and branch reform is needed, in Columbia and beyond. Universities must crack down on anti-Semitism, not just from the Right but also from the Left — and from their own students — before they can hope to root out anti-Semitism.
From Nazi Germany to the USSR to post-Islamic Revolution Iran, societies that encourage or turn a blind eye to Jew-hatred have been doomed to achieve neither longevity nor learning. In order to train the next generation of people in elite professions who have America’s best interest at heart, Columbia and other colleges must extinguish the anti-Semitism festering in their ranks. The US will not maintain its global strength if its educated elite continues its descent into a toxic combination of hatred and ignorance.
* * *
Georgia L. Gilholy is a journalist and writer in the U.K. Her work has appeared in The Spectator, The Times of Israel, Hong Kong Free Press, First Things, Newsweek, Jewish Chronicle, CityAM, UnHerd, The Jerusalem Post, and The Washington Times. She is also a media consultant for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting &amp; Analysis (CAMERA). Follow her on X/Twitter: @llggeorgia.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire

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Columbia’s Private Text Scandal Reveals Endemic Anti-Semitism

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