NEW YORK – As Columbia College officers proceed to barter with a gaggle of anti-Israel agitators who arrange tents on a garden on the coronary heart of campus, Jewish and Israeli college students say the presence and the aggression of the protesters has them afraid to stroll via the world after sunset.
“I’ve had a pal who was overwhelmed up,” mentioned Itai Driefuss, a third-year Columbia undergrad and Israeli army veteran from Tel Aviv. “It is scary. It is violent.”
He pointed to a confrontation over the weekend the place he mentioned anti-Israel agitators confronted a gaggle of counter-demonstrators who assist the alliance between the U.S. and Israel.
“You had Jewish individuals holding up the American and Israeli flag, and folks had been holding up an indication that claims, ‘Al-Quds subsequent goal,'” he mentioned, referring to the militant Al-Quds Brigades, a Palestinian terror group aligned with Hamas. “It is the identical individuals who do bus bombings and rape girls and put infants in an oven.”
Professional-Palestinian supporters rally exterior Columbia College on April 23, 2024 in New York Metropolis. In response to current campus unrest and anxieties relating to Jewish scholar security, Columbia College President Minouche Shafik introduced a shift to on-line studying for Monday. She additional urged school and employees to prioritize distant work. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Photos)
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas launched a shock assault that killed greater than 1,200 Israelis and noticed greater than 200 kidnapped and held hostage. Israel’s army response remains to be underway, and protesters at numerous giant U.S. universities, together with Columbia, USC, UT Austin and Yale have seen dozens of anti-Israel agitators arrested.
At Columbia, a gaggle of protesters who arrange tents on college grounds had been kicked out final week, solely to return with extra tents and occupy the West Garden as a substitute.
A masked demonstrator stands guard at a locked gate on Columbia’s West Garden, the place dozens of scholars have arrange tents as they demand the college take numerous anti-Israel measures amid a battle between the nation’s army and Hamas terrorists who attacked on Oct. 7, 2023. (Micheal Ruiz/Fox Information Digital)
“It’s loud, and it’s scary, and lots of Jewish and Israeli individuals don’t stroll round on campus after the solar goes down,” Driefuss mentioned.
WATCH: Columbia scholar describes tense, scary state of affairs on campus amid anti-Israel protests
ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS AT COLUMBIA ISSUE DEFIANT ULTIMATUM
Jewish college students have advised Fox Information Digital they face harassment, antisemitic rhetoric and even violence in confrontations with the demonstrators. A number of college students who mentioned they might touch upon behalf of the encampment declined to talk with Fox Information Digital.
Driefuss advised Fox Information Digital his girlfriend, additionally Jewish, had been adopted house. He mentioned he had been advised to kill himself, spit on and shouted at.
“I do not assume that is any option to have any campus, the place you may have a giant a part of your scholar physique simply scared for his or her lives,” he mentioned.
A Columbia scholar prays close to a wall lined in posters of hostages who stay in captivity after Hamas terrorists kidnapped them in a shock assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Michael Ruiz/Fox Information Digital)
Driefuss, talking in entrance of a wall lined in lacking individual fliers devoted to the remaining Israel hostages, mentioned he believed the demonstrators’ refusal to even converse with Jewish college students or Israel supporters left them in an echo chamber to turn into “much more radicalized”.
“I feel, lots of the narrative, particularly contained in the camp, is to not have interaction in to anybody who seems to be like Zionist or Jewish,” he mentioned.
Faculty leaders have been negotiating with the occupiers for days however have thus far declined to ask police to clear them out a second time.
Columbia College president Minouche Shafik leaves the Low Memorial Library on the campus of Columbia College, Wednesday, April 24, 2024. The embattled president, who’s underneath stress to resign her put up, reportedly met with Speaker of the USA Home of Representatives Mike Johnson earlier than his speech on the college earlier. (Fox Information Digital)
“I very a lot hope these discussions are profitable,” Columbia President Minouche Shafik mentioned in a press release Thursday. “If they aren’t, we must take into account different choices for clearing the West Garden and restoring calm to campus in order that college students can full the time period and graduate.”
Anti-Israel agitators assemble an encampment on Columbia College’s campus in New York Metropolis on Monday, April 22, 2024. The college introduced that each one courses can be held nearly at the moment in response to the continued demonstrations on campus. (Peter Gerber)
She additionally mentioned the college deliberate to take motion in opposition to college students who violated the college’s codes of conduct.
Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson leaves Columbia College in New York Metropolis on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Johnson known as on Columbia College president Minouche Shafik to resign forward of his speech on campus earlier at the moment as student-led anti-Israel protests escalate. (Fox Information Digital)
“We’re working to determine protesters who violated our insurance policies in opposition to discrimination and harassment, and they are going to be put via applicable disciplinary processes,” she mentioned. “The correct to protest is important and guarded at Columbia, however harassment and discrimination is antithetical to our values and an affront to our dedication to be a neighborhood of mutual respect and kindness.”
Home Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on campus Wednesday to name on Shafik to resign if the protests aren’t reined in.
College students transfer a tent inside Columbia College on April 24, 2024 in New York Metropolis. Columbia College scholar organizers got a midnight deadline to resolve talks with the college over dismantling the pro-Palestinian encampment, with Columbia President Minouche Shafik contemplating “different choices” if no settlement was reached – however then she pushed again the deadline. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Photos)
Some Jewish college students and critics of the college’s actions thus far have accused the administration of antisemitic discrimination as properly.
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Earlier this month, one other Israeli army veteran who attends Columbia filed a lawsuit accusing the college of harshly punishing him for utilizing “fart spray” on anti-Israel activists whereas turning a blind eye to their antisemitic rhetoric.
