‘[W]hen there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act,’ president says
Barnard College expelled two protesters who disrupted a History of Modern Israel class to pass out anti-Israel propaganda, Columbia University Apartheid Divest announced Sunday.
“This is the first official expulsion of a Columbia affiliate over the Israeli genocide of Palestine and marks a serious escalation in the crackdown against students advocating for divestment from the Israeli war machine,” the group stated in a post on X.
The group also stated the expulsions were carried out by the newly created Barnard Office for Student Intervention and Success, “a new disciplinary body established just last fall with only one employee and near-total freedom to penalize students for political speech.”
Furthermore, the student activists were expelled “under pressure from billionaires, donors, and government officials” who “heavily influence Barnard’s urgency and brutality,” the group stated.
CUAD called on its followers to take part in “an upcoming WEEK OF ACTION demanding Barnard reverse the expulsions.”
Barnard college EXPELS two students for pro-Palestinian activism under pressure from billionaire donors
Follow @ColumbiaBDS for details on an upcoming WEEK OF ACTION demanding Barnard reverse the expulsions! pic.twitter.com/sngbcSpYc8
— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) February 23, 2025
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine also decried the news, writing in a post on X, “The Barnard College administration are and have historically been hostile enemies of Palestinian liberation, wielding harsh disciplinary sentences against protestors to stifle dissent in an attempt to erase their complicity.”
“BARNARD, BARNARD, YOU CAN’T HIDE. YOU SUPPORT GENOCIDE,” the group wrote.
Barnard President Laura Rosenbury told the Columbia Spectator the school “will always take decisive action to protect our community as a place where learning thrives, individuals feel safe, and higher education is celebrated.”
“This means upholding the highest standards and acting when those standards are threatened,” she stated.
“When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act,” she stated. “Expulsion is always an extraordinary measure, but so too is our commitment to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the academic experience.”
Brian Cohen, the executive director of a support center for Jewish students at Columbia, affirmed Barnard’s decision in a post on X Sunday.
“These former students disrupted a class, handed out antisemitic flyers, and harassed students who only wanted to learn. These individuals don’t belong on campus – and now they won’t be,” he stated.
The anti-Israel protesters barged into the Israeli history class at Columbia University last month to pass out pro-Hamas flyers that showed the Star of David being destroyed and an Israeli flag on fire, The College Fix previously reported.
Other flyers read, “The enemy will not see tomorrow,” “Burn Zionism to the ground,” and “Crush Zionism.”
The professor teaching the course “offered the protesters seats in the classroom but that they declined and continued to disrupt the class,” the Columbia Spectator reported.
Two days later, Rosenbury condemned the protest in an email to students and staff.
“When uninvited visitors enter classrooms with the intention of interfering with learning—let alone when they target specific courses, communities, or individuals—they betray the very principles of intellectual exchange that underpin our community,” Rosenbury stated.
MORE: Concordia spent nearly $300,000 to repair damage done by anti-Israel protesters
IMAGE: LishiBaker/Twitter
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