Columbia University, one of the world’s most prestigious varsities and institutions of higher learning is known for producing intellectuals, policy makers and trend setters which have contributed to international peace, prosperity and progress. On the Palestine issue however, CU assumed a hypocritical and anti-freedom of speech orientation which goes against the very tenets that it stands for. While it expresses an unwavering commitment to intellectual exploration and promotion of diversity and inclusivity, CU has also expelled and arrested pro-Palestinian students protesting against the Israeli genocide while suspending/ revoking degrees of those agitating against the Israeli genocide in Gaza and awarded punishments to students based on their current and past behavior.

Such ruthlessness from the administration is reprehensible and demonstrates that Columbia University has regressed on its intellectual standards by nabbing pro-Palestinian voices. This can be contrasted with the criminal silence it exhibits on pro-Zionism voices which are being allowed to fester in an enabling environment.

Trump’s DOE Letter Accepted as Gospel

Columbia’s draconian move is not an isolated one. It is concomitant with the Trump administration’s wider national push to muzzle out anti-Israeli voices in public discourse which includes university campuses. The administration has so far, issued letters to sixty institutions across the United States, informing them that they are under investigation for anti-Semitic vilification, discrimination against Jewish students and harassment of pro-Israeli voices on campus. Trump’s letter also threatens perpetrators with severe consequences in the form of possible apprehending by law enforcement agencies which is addressed to various elite schools which are recipients of US federal funding such as Princeton, Harvard and Columbia.

The letter which seeks to mainstream Zionism at the expense of anti-apartheid and anti-genocidal advocacy came as Columbia witnessed $400 million of funding cuts for failing to protect Jewish students. Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon went on to state that what unfolded at CU were ‘relentless anti-Semitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life.’  

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Examined closely however, Trump’s move is not about anti-Semitic eruptions. It targets anyone who is advocating for Palestine’s just right to self-determination which includes non-Zionist Jews as well. It is a regressive, anti- educational measure and anti-status quo measure which seeks to stifle dissent, undercut intellectual traditions and promote fascism on campus.

Given the circumstances, Columbia University should have ideally contested this ongoing vicious crackdown on freedom of expression, assembly and thought. However, instead of issuing public reprimands and censuring the Trump administration’s directives, the varsity simply caved into Washington D. C’s bigotry. The justification and subsequent action is also bizarre with the administration claiming that while federal cuts gravely impacts their research and operations, students are to be held responsible for ‘anti-Semitism.’ This resulted in CU awarding multiple year suspensions for students who protested during the 2023 Hamilton Hall protests and revoking degrees of those who graduated since.

Also, there were no protests from within the CU establishment against Trump’s directives where preference was accorded to adopting knee jerk reactions instead. This involves isolating pro-Palestinian student voices and accepting Trump’s official bigotry as Gospel. Such mindsets are not indicative of academic institutions but mirror global far-right Zionists and nativist white supremacists in the United States domestically instead. Many of them continue to contend that Muslim/ Palestinian identities should not exist or be visible in public discourses. What Columbia is essentially doing is parroting the Israeli narrative that a Palestinian state or Palestinians as an ethnic group should not exist.

As a result, such glaring lack of resistance from CU against Trump’s directives must be considered as an abetment or a deliberate enabling of far-right Zionist supremacy at the expense of legitimate Palestinian resistance in American academia. It constitutes a hypocritical approach towards freedom of expression which is unbecoming of a world-renowned institution.

Zionists To Be Mainstreamed

By nabbing pro-Palestinian voices, Columbia University has sent a clear message to the international community that pro-Zionist voices (which are not necessarily pro-Jewish) will be given the requisite academic freedom to carry on with their anti-resistance narratives on campus. Voices such as Mahmoud Khalil who was a key negotiator during the 2024 campus protests however, will be muzzled out with his student visa revoked, threats of deportations looming large and expulsions on the horizon. Anyone who calls for the Israeli so called right to defend itself, regardless of the Netanyahu regime’s open flouting of principles of war such as the imminence of the threat and proportionality will be tolerated.

While freedom of expression, assembly, religion and the right to petition the government is a fundamental freedom enshrined in the First Amendment of the US constitution, it is clear that Columbia University stands for none of these principles. It is becoming an increasingly rogue institution with regard to the Israeli Palestinian issue which is ambivalent to the tenets of the American constitution and is preventing academic freedom, literary works and pro-Palestinian intellectuals from voicing their concerns. 

Such policies constitute brazen criminalization of dissent and lack of legal support being extended to students who continue to voice their discontent against apartheid on occupied Palestinian territories. This is despite the fact that pro-Palestinian protestors which include many non-Zionist Jews are protesting against similar status quos which prevailed during the civil rights movement and apartheid in South Africa when the white minority occupied black majority lands and segregated them.

For Columbia University, this is shameful, reprehensible and unbecoming of a prestigious academic institution.