Columbia students file lawsuit against 'Squad' members who supported anti-Israel encampment
Several members of the left-wing "Squad" were hit with a class-action lawsuit for supporting the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University during the spring semester.
Several members of the left-wing “Squad” were hit with a class-action lawsuit for supporting the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University during the spring semester.
The New York Post reported that five anonymous students filed the lawsuit, accusing Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Ilhan Omar (D-NY) of “inciting and encouraging” protesters at the Columbia University encampment.
The students also included a dozen other anti-Israel groups in the lawsuit, including Within Our Lifetime.
“The Gaza Encampment was extreme and outrageous conduct. It was illegal. It violated university rules. Its occupants harassed, followed, physically blocked, intimidated, and bullied Jewish students,” the students wrote in the lawsuit.
Students wrote that anti-Israel encampment protesters and those who supported them “not only consciously disregarded the rights of others, but the impact on the rights of others was the point of the protest: the more disruption [they] could cause for the University and the [students], the more leverage they thought they would have for their agenda.”
One of the anonymous students wrote in the lawsuit that he was told “Keep walking Zionist,” and was then chased by screaming protesters.
“Those were real damages sustained by the 36,000 students at Columbia who chose to obey university rules, go to class, and pursue their education, only to be frustrated at the finish line by the … acts of their classmates and professors, with the assistance and encouragement of outside activists,” the students wrote in the lawsuit.
