70+ Columbia student groups publish anti-Israel manifesto, demand school reinstate clubs suspended for threats and intimidation

After Columbia University suspended two anti-Israel student groups for “threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” the two suspended groups and a coalition of 70 other student groups have issued a list of demands, including their own reinstatement and that the school cut all ties with Israel. 

A manifesto published in the Columbia Spectator from a coalition calling itself “Columbia University Apartheid Divest” states its mission as “working toward achieving a liberated Palestine and the end of Israeli apartheid by urging Columbia to divest all economic and academic stakes in Israel,” adding, “We seek an end to all interlocking systems of oppression through collective action and solidarity with oppressed people worldwide.”

”As a coalition, our chief goal is to challenge the settler-colonial violence that Israel perpetrates with the support of the United States and its allies,” states the group.

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The school’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace have lost their recognition as official student groups “through the end of the fall term,” according to a Nov. 10 announcement from Senior Executive Vice President of the University and Special Committee on Campus Safety Chair Gerald Rosberg.

Now, with the rest of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition, the groups are demanding a reinstatement as well as an apology for their “unjust suspension.

”We cannot take action to stop further atrocities if individuals and authoritative bodies at the University distort and stifle our message,” reads the document “The Columbia administration’s negligence severely compromises the safety of students, and threatens our ability to advocate for this issue. The Columbia administration has set a dangerous precedent by erasing the Palestinian struggle through one-sided decisions and emails that threaten and suppress the voices of students who support justice for Palestine, enabling a violent, repressive environment that puts Palestinian students, as well as all their Arab, Muslim, Jewish, and BIPOC peers, at risk through surveillance and policing.”

[RELATED: Columbia suspends anti-Israel groups, citing ‘threatening rhetoric and intimidation’]

The coalition also demands that the university cut all ties with Israel, including a partnership with Tel Aviv University and plans for the new Columbia Tel Aviv Global Center, announced in April. The group claims these initiatives violate the school’s anti-discrimination policies because “Palestinian affiliates of Columbia would be restricted from access to [them] given Israel’s apartheid policies.”

The coalition called on the university to “Stop repressing and vilifying pro-Palestinian activism and vigorously protect the academic freedom and right to political speech of students, staff, and faculty as they face McCarthyite smear campaigns,” and to “change policy so that protests and events can be sanctioned within three days to allow students to organize under urgent circumstances, such as the current Palestinian genocide.”

”The more Columbia attempts to silence us, the louder we will be,” the group promises.