Over the past two weeks, Columbia University has been in the headlines due to vast student protests in support of the terrorist organization Hamas and Iran, disrupting campus life and affecting daily routines. The severe issue has drawn responses from US President Joe Biden and other US officials and political personas, and celebrities such as David Schwimmer, asking to "show your support for your Jewish neighbors, friends, and colleagues," saying that "silence is complicity." This also created heated debates among users all over social media. Chants such as "burn Tel Aviv to the ground," and "Oct. 7 will be every day," – undoubtedly targeting Jewish students – were repeatedly heard on campus, escalating tensions and leading to violent incidents, in which a student was struck with a flagpole in her eye.
This volatile situation, first emerging from Columbia, has now spread nationwide – with students setting up encampments and occupying buildings on campuses at the University of Michigan in the Midwest, California State Polytechnic University on the West Coast, and Yale in Connecticut – refusing to leave, preventing Jewish students and even professors from moving freely around campus.
"As extreme as the protests were, what truly bothered me and many of the Israeli and Jewish students, was the ridiculous, groveling way the university president and administration handled the situation," 24-year-old Israeli Columbia computer science freshman Matan Ossy says, "I, who greatly appreciated the president's conduct until two weeks ago – lost all respect I had for her. She did not stand by the deadlines and conditions she had set for the protesters, set up a team to negotiate with them, and simply allowed them to take over the public space. The students she had suspended – were simply allowed to attend classes via Zoom. The situation appeared to lack any mature leadership or established authority figure, with teenagers merely 18 years old essentially steering the course of action and having the final say." He also criticizes members of the American-Jewish community taking part in the pro-Palestinian protests, using the slogan "not in our name". "Not in our name?" he asks rhetorically, "we all saw Hamas terrorists shouting 'slaughter the Jews!' as they were viciously murdering entire families on Oct. 7."
"The atmosphere at Yale is better than other places – but that doesn't mean it's comfortable here," Israeli student Dr. Meital Peleg Mizrachi, a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Economics, said. "A few days ago, protesters demonstrating in memory of a terrorist were cleared, and in the ensuing confrontation, a woman was struck with a flagpole. Ultimately, there is a huge event on campus dedicated to a man who was a terrorist and murdered Jews. It's a very difficult feeling...as scholars, we rely on collaboration across all fields, especially research – and there is undoubtedly a boycott of Israeli post-docs, both covert and overt. It severely limits our work, bordering on impossible," she said, adding, "To them, it's just #watermelon," referring to the symbol used by pro-Palestinian demonstrators because of its resemblance to the Palestinian flag. "In the end, it's students unconnected to the Middle East who don't understand this is about people's lives and the impacts on them."
She also recalls getting an invitation to celebrate the "successful Palestinian resistance of Oct. 7" mere days after the attack: "Isn't it clear that murder and rape are not 'resistance'?" she asks. "Apparently, it's not as clear as I thought."
Renny Grinshpan, a comedic host and video creator and a Columbia alumna caused an uproar on social media after she tore up her diploma in protest of the university's inaction towards the violent protests against Israel. "Today, I'd like to renounce my degree…after months of harassment, Jewish students are now being physically blocked from entering classes by protesters... The Jewish students need to take their classes remotely. This is ethnic cleansing of Jews on an Ivy League college campus in 2024." She continues: "Those students who shamelessly glorify Hamas and yet face zero consequences for doing so, represent your values now – and they should be your graduates."
The almost unprecedented New York Police Department raid on Columbia's Hamilton Hall eventually led to the arrest and evacuation of the anti-Israel demonstrators, but for students like Matan and Meital, it is not a matter of if, but when the wave of Jewish hatred will hit their campuses with renewed ferocity.
