2025-01-21 Modern Zionism Class Disruption


Metadata

  • When: 2025-01-21

  • Where: Columbia University

  • Who:

  • Organizations: CUAD

  • Tags: tagDisruption

Description

Additional evidence: folder

Jessica Costescu and Jessica Schwalb for The Washington Free Beacon:

Four student activists, donning keffiyehs, marched into the class, "History of Modern Israel," filming themselves as they recited a script, passed out propaganda, and harassed students, most of whom are Jewish, according to a student in the class.

"THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW," read one flyer, which used an upside-down triangle symbol that Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets to spell "TOMORROW." The flyer depicts a truck full of Hamas terrorists brandishing heavy artillery, including two RPGs and machine guns.

Another flyer, with the caption "CRUSH ZIONISM," depicted the Star of David underneath a boot. A third depicted an Israeli flag in flames with the threat to "BURN ZIONISM TO THE GROUND."

Video of the incident shows Avi Shilon, a visiting professor from Israel affiliated with Columbia’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, asking the protesters to leave: "We want to study," he said. Enrolled students can also be seen handing back the flyers, asking them to "get out." One told the intruders, "This is a civil rights violation. We’re trying to learn."

One anti-Israel protester read from a script: "We are going to give you an inside scoop into Columbia University’s normalization of genocide."

Update February 23, 2025

Barnard expels two students involved in the incident. This is the first expulsion at Columbia.

See the related incident: 2025-02-25 Barnard Expulsion Picket

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