The recent wave of pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University has sparked a fierce debate on campus, marked by concerns over anti-Semitism and the perceived failure of the university administration to protect Jewish students. Last week, the NYPD arrested over 100 protesters for illegally camping on the campus quad, but a second encampment has emerged, larger than the first.
Jewish students have expressed concerns about the anti-Semitic rhetoric and discrimination they have faced within the protest movement. Erin McNulty, a Jewish pre-med student, told The Post, “Even if they’re not calling for our death right now, if they’re not saying anti-Semitic things to our face right this minute, that doesn’t take away the fact that they’re anti-Semitic, that they’ve been pushing these anti-Semitic tropes.”
Protesters have set up a peanut butter and jelly station at the encampment, as if in search of comfort food from their childhood. I saw one student wearing a Moncler beanie (costing north of $300) under her keffiyeh and overheard another ask a fellow camper, “Do you want, like, a cappuccino or something?” These students could have set up camp when war broke out in October, or any time since then. Instead, they waited for good weather – a nice stress-reliever to hang out with friends just before finals.
Zoom classes are now an option for the rest of the semester, as the university has given up on controlling its campus. But I noticed very few laptops open in the encampment, and little evidence the protesters were showing up to remote classes. I overheard one brag to another that a sympathetic professor had excused all her absences. In fact, a handful of pro-Palestine professors volunteered to stand guard at the encampment’s entrances to make sure no outsiders could gain access. One told me I was “not allowed to film” or “zoom in on their faces.” Says who? And aren’t these activists standing loud and proud for their cause? Well, no – most were wearing keffiyeh and Covid masks, presumably to protect their future Goldman Sachs job prospects.
In clear violation of long-established school policies that require “tenting [be approved and] ordered through Columbia Facilities Events Administration,” the “liberated zone” represents an enormous failure on the part of the administration. And, for many Jewish students on campus, it’s a betrayal. “The university needs to take a strong stance, and they’re not. They’re emboldening [protesters] … ,” Mendi Hecht, a 23-year-old pre-med major and former IDF soldier, told The Post. “They’re consistently failing the Jewish students on campus. Every day and every hour they let this go on, they’re failing.”
The university’s administration has been criticized for its lack of action in controlling the protest and for failing to protect Jewish students on campus. McNulty believes the answer shouldn’t be taxing for Columbia. “I think that [administrators] really just need to follow their policy,” the 23-year-old said. “It’s written out for them. They don’t have to do much thinking about it.” The NYPD, to their credit, wants to get in and help out again. But Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber said on Monday that the university “does not want NYPD present on campus.”
“The truth is, we don’t want to be here,” McNulty said. “We deserve to be here. But we don’t want to endure this every day.” The ongoing protests have highlighted deep divisions on campus and raised important questions about freedom of speech, anti-Semitism, and the role of the university in protecting its students.
