Former Columbia president may be sidelined on Israel matters in new UK gov role amid criticism
Former president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, could be disallowed from work related to Israel in her new role in the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office due to her failure to address anti-Semitism at Columbia during the spring semester.
'Columbia University, once a jewel in the crown of higher education, has been exposed as ground zero for campus antisemitism in NYC,' a Democratic congressman said.
Former president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, could be disallowed from work related to Israel in her new role in the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office due to her failure to address anti-Semitism at Columbia during the spring semester.
Shafik, who is a British-American citizen and a baroness in the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, was hired by the British government’s Foreign Office following her resignation as president of Columbia earlier this month.
Specifically, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy requested that Shafik lead a review of the government’s international development policies. This appointment has been widely criticized.
A source within Britain’s Labour Party, which took power after Britain’s elections in July, told The Jewish Chronicle that Shafik might be quarantined from the Gaza-Israel issue.
“The Foreign Office should be defending her appointment, especially if they are saying that she may not be working specifically on Gaza or Israel, so her background could be seen to be less relevant,” the source said.
“I’m not keen to have a go at her because she was attacked by students for bringing in the cops and was decisive in restoring order to campus,” the source continued.
Under Shafik’s presidency, anti-Israel demonstrators occupied a building, Hamilton Hall, on Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus after the administration backtracked on a deadline they had previously set for the encampment to be removed.
As a result of the protests, Columbia was forced to offer a “remote option” for students to take their final exams from their dorms instead of taking them in classrooms as they normally would.
Additionally, during Shafik’s tenure, three deans at Columbia resigned after a text-message scandal revealed them sending messages widely criticized as anti-Semitic to each other during an event at the school.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) posted on his X account on Aug. 14, in the wake of Shafik’s resignation, lamenting the state in which she left Columbia.
“Columbia University, once a jewel in the crown of higher education, has been exposed as ground zero for campus antisemitism in NYC,” Torres stated. “I hope the new leadership will summon the moral clarity and the moral courage to confront the deep rot of antisemitism at Columbia’s core.”
Campus Reform has contacted Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
