“I want to send a message to Mr. Cass Holloway from Columbia University. You are a good guy, I saw it in your eyes today, so I can’t understand why you didn’t allow me to enter the university, while the pro-Hamas protesters were allowed to demonstrate.” This is how the tweet of Shay Davidei, a professor at the university’s business school, whose entry was banned, began.
I want to send a public message to Mr. Cas Holloway, the COO of @Columbia University:
Cas, you’re are really great guy. I know it. I saw it in your eyes today. This is why know that, deep-down, you know I’m right. You may not like my style, but I know you agree with almost…
– Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 23, 2024
In the background are the growing protests by pro-Palestinian students and activists at elite universities in the US in the past week. At Columbia University in New York, face-to-face classes were canceled following the campus protests, and dozens were arrested at Yale University after setting up a tent camp calling for the liberation of Gaza.
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, condemned the protests at Columbia University on Twitter: “I am appalled and disgusted by the rising anti-Semitism on and around the Columbia University campus. Hate has no place in our city. I have directed the New York Police Department to investigate any violations of the law that are reported and arrest anyone who is found to be trespassing.” on the law”.
I am horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism being spewed at and around the Columbia University campus. Hate has no place in our city, and I have instructed the NYPD to investigate any violation of law they receive a report about and will arrest anyone found to be breaking…
– Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) April 21, 2024
Today’s demonstrations come after over a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at Columbia University on Thursday. The protesters demand that the university end its ties with Israel and that the US stop sending Israel weapons and money.
The protests gained momentum after a number of senior officials from the university were invited to a congressional hearing regarding how they protect Israeli and Jewish students at the university. The president of the university, Minush Shafik, who is of Egyptian origin, learned from the presidents of MIT, Harvard, and Pennsylvania that received extremely negative public relations following a similar hearing a few months ago, and replied that calls for the extermination of the Jewish people explicitly violate the university’s regulations (and not that it “depends on the context”, as the presidents claimed in the previous hearing ). She also answered a question regarding the call to liberate Palestine ‘from the sea to the river’, saying that this seems problematic to her, and also promised to examine the terms of employment of several lecturers who lead the pro-Palestinian movement at the university, among them one of the stars of the anti-Israel movement at Columbia, D. Rabbi Yosef Massad.
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