Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations: Why Columbia University is at the forefront of the movement

Since Hamas attacked residents of an Israeli kibbutz on October 7 and abducted dozens of hostages, leading to a merciless response from the Israeli government, numerous tensions have arisen between communities, especially on American campuses. They continued to rise as the number of civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip increased and the humanitarian situation became catastrophic. In November, the presidents of three of the world’s most prestigious universities were called before Congress to explain repeated anti-Semitic acts at their institutions. Claudine Gay, President of Harvard, and Elizabeth Magill, President of the University of Pennsylvania, believed that “context” must be taken into account. Two scientists, brilliant and recognized, had to resign.

In Colombia, President Nemat Shafik, also known as Minouche, vowed to threaten Jewish students while avoiding a congressional summons. She came under fire last week from U.S. elected officials who wanted to know how she responded to pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations that are spreading across the country. But why is a prominent university leading criticism of Israel?

An old institution that has become very militant

Columbia University, founded in 1754, more than 20 years before the creation of the United States of America, is located in New York City in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. It admits more than 32,000 students annually, who pay approximately half a million dollars for five years of an extremely demanding education unless they receive a scholarship. The seven Founding Fathers of the United States wore out their pants on the benches, as did four presidents (including Barack Obama), dozens of ministers, diplomats, American and foreign, or Supreme Court justices. If he was the first to issue a medical degree, and if he annually awards Pulitzer Prizes, symbols of journalistic or intellectual excellence, he, like his colleagues, has long practiced segregation policies against “minorities,” women, blacks. , Jews.

In the progressive melting pot of New York City, its students and faculty opened up to the fight for civil rights, placing activism at the core of Columbia’s identity since the 1950s. According to its detractors, the university would also prefer to orient its activities. teaching, concentrating its “modern civilization” programs on 20th century anti-colonialism and omitting totalitarianism or the harms of communism. Separate graduation ceremonies based on whether a person is “native,” meaning Native American, Asian, or LGBT, have also provided material for those who criticize concessions made to communitarianism.

Interesting precedent

In 1985, thousands of students mobilized at the university to sever all ties to South Africa and its apartheid regime, which brutally segregated blacks and whites. Like any private university in the United States, Columbia has significant funds that it uses in many areas of business and activity. Barricades are installed in the famous Hamilton Hall building, which houses the administration offices. The company relented and in the following months sold 39 million shares of Coca-Cola, Mobil Oil and Ford Motor Automobiles. It is the first major university to choose the divestment option, with 150 more universities to follow.

The legacy of BDS?

In 2004, BDS, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, was born, an international campaign that aims to end Israel’s colonization of West Bank lands by stopping the purchase of Israeli products or convincing companies not to interact with the Hebrew state. BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti studied at Columbia University. He was born in Qatar to a Palestinian family expelled in 1967, the year of the Six-Day War, after which Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria despite international protests.

Over the years, BDS says it has made some progress, most notably when Sodastream closed its bottling facility in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.

Nonviolent movement strengthened by institutional response

On April 3, Colombia announced that it was working on creating an antenna in… Tel Aviv. Provocation. The 93 teachers denounce the project as tantamount to an endorsement of Israel’s current policies, led by the War Cabinet, the most right-wing and most religious government ever to lead the Jewish state. Pro-Palestinian students protest. On April 17, the day President Shafiq was summoned to Congress, about a hundred students began occupying Hamilton Hall. Opposing the war, they are demanding, as they did in 1985, the academic and economic independence of their institution, and that Colombia give up its stakes in foundations and companies that profit from the war in Gaza.

Unlike in the spring of 1968 – hundreds of students occupied five buildings and isolated the dean for 26 hours, and the police were called only a week later – and in 1985, when the barricades lasted three weeks, Minouche Shafik’s response was immediate: on April 18, the NYPD for the first time called to evacuate the campus. He administratively punished the demonstrators less than a month before the graduation ceremony. All in-person classes are canceled on April 22. This does not prevent the camp from reforming sporadically. On Tuesday evening, riot police again intervened to clear out the demonstrators. This time around 300 arrests were made. Although the number of residents is increasing, they remain marginal compared to the number of students at the college.

Left-wing students and teachers are outraged by the violation of freedom of speech. Those on the right condemn the leadership’s failure to end anti-Semitism expressed on campus. Politicians will intervene. “Calling police during nonviolent demonstrations by young students on campus is an act of escalation, reckless and dangerous,” condemned Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez five days after Republican House President Mike Johnson came to demand the resignation of the campus president before face of “chaos,” brandishing the threat of calling in the National Guard.

President Biden tried to take a compromise position, condemning anti-Semitic protests and “those who do not understand what is happening to the Palestinians.” A very lethargic position for demonstrators.