Columbia University suspends and evicts students involved in event that featured Israeli-designated terrorist group
Columbia University has suspended four students and evicted them from campus housing after they were allegedly involved in a pro-Palestine virtual event that featured an Israeli-designated terrorist organization.
Columbia University has suspended four students and evicted them from campus housing after they were allegedly involved in a pro-Palestine virtual event that featured an Israeli-designated terrorist organization.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Within Our Lifetime hosted the virtual event titled “Resistance 101,” on March 24 with Samidoun, a Palestinian advocacy group. Faculty for Justice in Palestine also promoted the event, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense designated Samidoun as a terrorist organization and “a subsidiary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)” in February 2021, according to NGO Monitor.
The German government announced on Nov. 2, 2023, that Samidoun was banned from “all activity” in the European country, stating that the group celebrated the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack in Israel.
Following the March 24 event, which a university spokesperson previously said was “unsanctioned” and “unapproved,” was held in a campus residence hall, prompting an investigation.
According to the Columbia Spectator, the university notified four students on April 3 who were involved in the event that they are indefinitely suspended and gave the individuals a 24-hour notice of eviction from campus housing.
Disciplinary documents obtained by the Columbia Spectator state that one of the suspended students received preliminary charges from the university of violation of law, disruptive behavior, endangerment, violation of University policy, and “failure to comply.”
“You may remain in your Columbia residence for 24 hours after which time your access to your residence and dining services will also be suspended,” the university wrote in the document.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik wrote in a statement on April 5 that he “did not become a university president to punish students.”
“At the same time, actions like this on our campus must have consequences. That I would ever have to declare the following is in itself surprising, but I want to make clear that it is absolutely unacceptable for any member of this community to promote the use of terror or violence,” Shafik wrote.
Shafik wrote that the March 24 event featured “speakers who are known to support terrorism and promote violence,” adding that law enforcement was notified.
“I want to state for the record that this event is an abhorrent breach of our values. I also want to update our community on the actions which have been underway as a result,” Shafik wrote.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Samidoun leader Khaled Barakat talked to attendees at Columbia about his “friends in Islamic Jihad.”
Barakat’s wife, Charlotte Kates, also participated in the event, discussing her support for Hamas.
“Hamas is a mass Palestinian movement that is in a leadership role right now, and there is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,” Kates said. “The action that the Palestinian resistance took on the seventh of October was an earth-shattering undertaking.”
Kates called the terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7 a “necessary action.”
“It is incumbent on us that when we do go out and speak at demonstrations, and we do go out and organize, to say that we stand with the Palestinian armed resistance. And that we support them. And that this is a struggle that we want to be part of,” she added.
