Grab Your Emotional Support Rabbit: Columbia’s President to Testify About Anti-Semitism on Campus

Columbia’s President will be on the congressional hot seat tomorrow, following the trail blazed by three other university presidents last year, two of who later lost their jobs. President Nemat Shafik has the advantage of at least knowing what she’s in for ahead of time. 

On Wednesday, Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, will testify about antisemitism before the same House committee that grilled the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When asked a question about whether calling for the genocide of Jews would break their universities’ rules, the presidents responded with lawyerly answers that sparked a spiraling backlash…

This hearing may be different, because Dr. Shafik and Columbia University already know many of the questions they will face and have had months to prepare.

If that’s the upside for Shafik the downside is that Columbia seems to be home to some of the most extreme undergrads in the country. Even after the presidents of Harvard and UPenn resigned, the campus activists at Columbia seem to have doubled down. Last month they held an unauthorized event on campus called “Resistance 101.” 

As I pointed out here, participants in the event praised Hamas fighters and praised the group’s willingness to collaborate with Marxist organizations supporting them. “There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,” one participant said.

President Shafik suspended four (some reports say five) students over that event, giving them 24 hours to vacate their dorms. But just a few days later the same group held another unauthorized event on campus at which some of those students complained about their treatment. The Washington Post reported on that event today.

…a phalanx of students suddenly appeared alongside the school’s administration building, marching in black with kaffiyehs covering their faces. Another masked group appeared on the other side, descending the stairs. Soon protesters were massed at the center of campus, holding signs with messages such as “GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA.”…

“We will honor all the martyrs!” a tightly masked speaker called out. Protesters spoke of the deadly bombing of a hospital in Gaza, and — using a phrase heard by some as a Palestinian rallying cry and by others as an outright call to annihilate Israel — chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

The fact that these masked students don’t seem to care about observing the rules on campus is made clear later on in the story.

While students routinely come together without incident, as at a spring music festival earlier this month, fault lines can be thrown suddenly into stark relief. At the recent protest, after speeches punctuated by protesters drumming, blowing horns and banging pots together, pro-Palestinian protesters abruptly began to march away from the school’s central Sundial directly past Jewish and Israeli students. Rosen said the move made him nervous; his mind flashed to the idea that they might form a sort of wall around them.

A few counterprotesters, waving an Israeli and an American flag, kept taunting the crowd. “Free, free Palestine,” a student chanted sardonically, “ — from Hamas!”

As the protest moved toward academic buildings, a university official handed papers to marchers warning that they were violating campus rules. Some fluttered to the ground as people refused to take them, or dropped them in disdain.

The pro-Palestinian students see the current crackdown, including the suspensions, as part of an attempt to shield President Shafik from congressional criticism. [Bonus points for the pro-Palestinian extremist having an emotional support rabbit.]

“It’s not a coincidence that this is happening right before Minouche Shafik has to appear before Congress,” said Aidan Parisi, 27, a suspended student from the School of Social Work. He is still fighting his eviction, which would mean finding housing that would accept his emotional support rabbit. “Unfortunately, she is willing to risk our housing, and overall well-being, for her career.”

You can’t make this stuff up. In any case, President Shafik really should do better than her predecessors, both because she’s had time to prepare and because she seems to genuinely be willing to tell the extremists to get bent on occasion. However, her critics have also had additional time to prepare and have demanded a bunch of material from the school about how it dealt with anti-Semitism on campus that could turn out to be embarrassing. The bottom line is that tomorrow’s testimony should be another sign to other administrators around the country that they need to remain vigilant and now allow the far left to run rampant.

Update: Here’s something Columbia’s president might be asked about tomorrow.

Well, we’re in the business of propaganda, whether we like to admit it or not,

and so the question is, do people want a revolution, an actual revolution, a real revolution?”

asks Mohamed Abdou, the Arcapita Visiting Professor in Modern Arab Studies at @Columbia University. pic.twitter.com/raPyDRWr2o

— V24_Investigations (@V24Investigates) April 16, 2024