The Continuing Turmoil at Columbia

Columbia University business professor, Shai Davidai, who is of Israeli-Jewish background, is charging that the university’s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office is investigating him. Davidai claims that this is in retaliation for his criticism of the university’s alleged failure to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment. The (Los Angeles) Jewish Journal has a report here.

In querying the campus newspaper of Columbia, the Spectator, I found this article on Davidai dated February 13, 2024. It concerns a complaint against Davidai by a group of Columbia students who allege that he has “targeted” pro-Palestinian students, as well as other “vulnerable racial groups”.

So it appears that Davidai has criticized both the university and certain pro-Palestinian student groups in regards to the anti-Semitic climate at Columbia. In return, some students are complaining that Davidai has targeted them in some manner, which Davidai explicitly denies in the above Jewish Journal article.

Davidai is not alone on the campus. He is part of a group called Faculty and Staff  Supporting Israel. On March 8, the Spectator published this article, which is an open letter from the group. 

On the other side, a group of anti-Israel Columbia faculty issued their own letter dated October 30 basically defending the October 7 attack by Hamas as a legitimate military operation. Hamas itself, a terrorist organization, is not mentioned. Two of the most notable signers of the letter are Columbia professors, Rashid Khalidi and Joseph Massad.

In fact, Columbia has been suffering campus anti-Semitism for several years now disguised as pro-Palestinian advocacy. In 2016, Algemeiner published the results of a survey in which Columbia was rated number one among the top forty universities in terms of anti-Semitism. The Amcha Initiative, a group founded to expose and confront campus anti-Semitism, keeps a database of universities and reported incidents of anti-Semitism. Here is their page for Columbia. 

There are too many Columbia-related articles on this blog to even count, but like so many other campuses, Columbia’s problem has exploded since October 7.

Personally, I find it repulsive that professors at Columbia could write such a letter about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that basically excuses the barbarous attack on October 7 and not even mention the perpetrators of the attack, Hamas. How ironic that they choose a name for their group like “Columbia University and Barnard College Faculty in Defense of Robust Debate About the History and Meaning of the War in Israel/Gaza” when anti-Israel student groups at Columbia and virtually every campus refuse to engage in any civil discussion with pro-Israel students. Instead, their preferred tactic is robust disruption and intimidation.

Equally disgusting is that the campus Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office at Columbia is investigating Professor Davidai for his criticism of the actions of pro-Palestinian students against Jewish students and his criticism of Columbia itself. Maybe they should take a look at the findings of Algemeiner and the Amcha Initiative if they want to find real problems on their campus.