By Claudia Villalona
In a flurry of open letters and announcements of new task forces, Columbia University officials and faculty this week have responded to a growing number of incidents of antisemitism, Islamophobia, doxxing, and other harassment of students in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
In a statement Wednesday, Columbia President Minouche Shafik announced a new, faculty-led Task Force on Antisemitism as part of a “commitment to ensuring that our campuses are safe, welcoming, and inclusive for Jewish students, faculty, and staff.” Shafik said the initiative was a response to the “series of antisemitic incidents on campus [that] have been reported in the three weeks following the October 7 terror attack in Israel and outbreak of war in Gaza.” Later Wednesday, Shafik announced a new Doxing Resource Group tasked with increasing security for Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students who have been “doxxed” – a form of harassment in which an individual’s personal data is made public, with the intent of intimidating or silencing them.
Shafik’s announcements were among several recent responses to what the Columbia president last week described as concerns over personal security in the “extremely charged atmosphere” on campus. On Tuesday this week, Keren Yarhi-Milo, dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), announced the formation of a SIPA Task Force on Doxing and Student Safety to develop recommendations “to prevent doxing, protect the identities and personal information of our students” and “reduce tensions among various students and student organizations.”
Last week, a doxxing campaign by the conservative Accuracy in Media (AIM) group targeted a number of students from SIPA by driving a truck with a digital billboard around streets near campus. The billboard displayed names and photos of Columbia students that AIM claimed had signed onto an open letter in “solidarity with Palestinian resistance.” Captions with the photos branded them “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites.”
On Wednesday, dozens of SIPA students held a walkout in solidarity with those targeted in the doxxing campaign, the overwhelming majority of whom were from Arab, Muslim and Palestinian backgrounds. “We demand that the administration do more to protect all SIPA students’ right to free speech, prioritize student’s safety and well-being, and provide full legal support to the victims,” said one participant.
Also this week, over 200 Columbia and Barnard University faculty members signed an open letter defending students’ right to protest the Israeli siege on Gaza. The letter denounces the “egregious” forms of harassment, including “doxing, public shaming, surveillance by members of our community, including other students, and reprisals from employers,” that have targeted students and other members of the community. It calls on the university’s leadership to “do more to protect all of our students” while preserving Columbia as a beacon for “fostering critical thinking and opening minds to different points of view,” a goal cited by Shafik in an earlier message to the Columbia community.
In an opposing open letter, over 400 Columbia and Barnard faculty members said they recognized the need for “robust debate” but denounced attempts to “recontextualize” Hamas’ attacks as an “exercise of a right to resist” occupation. “We ask the entire University community to condemn the Hamas attack unambiguously,” the writers of the second letter said. “We are appalled by the spate of antisemitic incidents on campus since October 7 that are growing in frequency and are creating a hostile and unsafe environment.” Among those signing the letter were faculty members Shafik has appointed to head the new task force on antisemitism.
This week’s developments follow weeks of vigils and protests on campus from both pro-Israel supporters and students who expressed solidarity with Palestine and concern regarding the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Amid these demonstrations, tensions have escalated on campus. In addition to the doxxing and anti-Palestinian harassment, several incidents of antisemitism have been reported, including an assault of an Israeli student and a graffitied swastika found on campus. As a result, students from these communities have expressed concerns over their personal safety, fearing they are targeted for their political or religious affiliations and for exercising freedom of expression.
They have also criticized the university’s response, saying measures taken so far, such as limiting access points to campus and increasing the use of security firms and police, haven’t gone far enough.
At recent protests organized by Students for Justice and Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voices for Peace, as well as the Wednesday walkout organized by SIPA student leaders, participants distributed surgical masks and were encouraged to cover their faces to protect their identity.
“We have been careful in protecting our members’ identities online and at protests and events,” said an SJP organizer of an October 25 campus walkout protesting Israel’s siege on Gaza and the University’s ties to Israel. “We are not intimidated,” said the organizer, who declined to be identified to WSR, “but we have voiced these concerns to the administration for weeks now.”
Earlier, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine set up an internal form to report anti-Palestinian harassment in response to what it said was a lack of institutional support. The group also refers students to Palestine Legal, a Chicago-based group that provides legal support to students and activists who have faced harassment and censorship attempts.
“For my own safety, I am much more careful about how I express myself online, on campus, and in class,” one of the students targeted by the doxxing campaign told the West Side Rag. Like others interviewed, this student asked to not be identified by name.
The student did report the doxxing incident to the Columbia administration, and the case has since been referred to authorities. Nevertheless, “I think it [doxxing] is going to get much worse,” the student said.
Some students have expressed continued frustration at the administration’s response. The statements’ “minimal acknowledgment of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza” have only served to compound the “hurt and isolation felt by the Palestinian students and allies,” a SIPA student told WSR. “The Dean has shown she is not actually interested in serving all students.”
In a story posted Thursday, Columbia Spectator, a student-run news site, said students with pro-Palestinian views reported being spat at and called “terrorists” or “ISIS” on campus. In another story posted at the same time, the Spectator said it interviewed more than 50 Jewish students, including some Israelis, and found the majority said they felt unsafe on campus now. Several students reported they had been harassed physically or online, and some said they skip classes and avoid campus out of concern for their safety.
“As a Jewish and Israeli student, I have felt very unsafe on campus,” one student told WSR, speaking on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.
“The tone on campus is extremely unpleasant, to put it mildly,” said Barnard College student Noa Fay in an interview with Fox Business. “This is a level of generational discord that we have not seen before,” she said. “As a woman of many identities, I have always felt accepted in these liberal institutions, and I now see that is conditional and does not extend to my Jewish identity.”
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I don’t envy the administrators at a time like this. The struggle to keep all students safe and able to have reasonable discussions about a horrible situation while fools, bigots, and grifters toss metaphorical Molotovs around has got to be awful.
In the end, *in the U.S., at least*, most anti-Semitism and most Islamophobia stem from the same sources, who glory in the opportunity to spread hate and pit vulnerable groups against each other. They’re the real opponents here.
If you look at all the divisive articles, they are from Fox News outlets.
Harassment of those wanting to express their disagreement with murder of civilians on all sides needs to stop. Equating all support for the plight of Palestinian civilians as anti- Semitic is convenient to stifle questions about international law. I don’t support Hamas or their brutal killing of Israelis but but I’m also disgusted by the obliteration of civilians. In Gaza and the abuse by settlers in the West Bank. Do I deserve to have my face and name put on a list of shame and have my employment future ruined? NO!
I agree that the labeling of any criticism of the Israeli government at anti-Semitic is frustrating. But it has definitely been a successful ploy by Netanyahu and cronies to distract from criticism over settlement policies in the West Bank and repression of Palestinians more broadly. That said, I can absolutely understand the current drive to absolutely eliminate Hamas as a political entity and movement.
It’s only a list of shame if you’re ashamed of yourself. It will only ruin your job prospects if your prospective employers don’t want employees that support mass murder.
People are not having their face and name put on a list of shame for what you expressed in your comment. People are having their face and name put on a list of shame, or having job offers rescinded, for celebrating Hamas’ butchery on 10/7 and implying or explicitly stating it was justified; for labeling all Israelis “colonizers” and chanting “From the river to the sea,” which effectively means eradicating the state of Israel; for not distinguishing between Hamas (a terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews) and any attempt by Israel (a democracy legally founded by U.N. charter) to defend itself; for incorrectly characterizing Israel’s military activities against Hamas as genocide; and for not calling for the release of the 200 or so persons that Hamas took hostage on 10/7, even as they demand Israel stand down and unilaterally agree to a ceasefire.
None of this is to say that anyone must agree with any or all Israeli policies since Benjamin Netanyahu became Prime Minister (or that he himself isn’t reprehensible); that illegal settlements on the West Bank ought not to be removed as part of a comprehensive peace agreement; that the Palestinian people haven’t suffered terribly; or that the Palestinian people do not deserve their own country alongside Israel. It is to say that there is no justifiable reason for supporting or defending Hamas in any way…and that there’s been far too much misguided and unfair criticism of Israel–either because of profound ignorance of the history of the region, or because a very large and concerning amount of anti-Semitism has been unmasked.
I mean the original statement that led to the “doxxing campaign” was explicitly in support of the Hamas attack and was released before the Israel response
This is a crying shame. It should be possible to see that the Hamas attack was atrocious and inexcusable. It should also be possible to see that much of what the settlers do on the West Bank (and some of what the Israeli government does) is equally atrocious and inexcusable (in kind if not in scale). But people seem not to be able to hold two thoughts in mind at once. In an academic context, this situation should be the basis for analysis and debate on the basis of analysis. Instead, we see both sides slinging ideological, name-calling tags of dubious relevance (and zero utility), such as “antisemitism” and “anti-colonialism”, and endlessly rehearsing equally unhelpful history as weapons against the other group. Ms. Shafik seems to be doing as good a job as could be hoped in getting this within bounds, but Columbia and other universities need to focus on pragmatic, concrete actions to calm the atmosphere and provide the basis for genuine analysis and debate, rather than obsessing absurdly about “statements” and trying to be all things to all “identities”.
“…equally atrocious…in kind…”
Can you provide an example or two of actions by the Israeli government or by Israeli settlers that’s equal in kind to targeting babies for murder?
Yes, we must remember who began this war, and who sheltered them.
Nice cherry-picking a few words and not getting the point of Newcavedish’s post. Everyone agrees what Hamas did was atrocious, but all Palestinians are not Hamas. And yes, Palestinian babies are dying as well, actually more…but I guess a bomb on an apartment building by the Israeli government that kills families with babies is not equally atrocious to you? A frank discussion about ‘settlers’ and how to have peace and why this is happening is long overdue.
What bombs were falling on Palestinian apartment buildings with families and babies on Oct 1? August 15? March 12?
What’s in the basement of those buildings? Playrooms? Yoga studios?
What flyers did Hamas distribute to Israel towns 48 hours before their attack to warn Israelis to leave or risk having their babies cooked in ovens, or ripped from the breathing mothers’ wombs?
What happens to the entirety of Israel if the walls and the weapons are put down? The Hamas “freedom fighters”, the government of Palestine, walk in and go grocery shopping to bring some much needed food and medicine back to Gaza? Hezbollah joins in for the music festival?
If you can’t get your facts straight, get any remaining humanity and reason sorted out.
If the Palestinians are “not Hamas”, then where in the world are Palestinians protesting against Hamas.
Palestinians and their “supporters” in the free world are free to protest. Yet non protest Hamas.
So does that mean that Hamas in fact does represent Palestinians?
I think they’re not so ‘free’. Hamas will arrest and possibly do worse to dissenters.
Disagreeing with what the Israeli government is doing does not make you anti-Semitic. Expressing outrage at what Hamas has done does not make you pro-Palestinian.
Do you mean, “anti-Palestinian”?
I like the doxxing truck. If these ‘Palestine supporters’ feel comfortable marching the streets screaming ‘From the river to the sea…’ and ‘Death to Jews’, they should be proud of seeing their faces on the truck calling them what they are. And yes, they are terrorist supporters and Jew haters, which should be self explanatory from the slogans
Same… I was putting up a poster of a kidnapped baby and had someone yell at me “ Die Jew”
This is not the behavior that’s acceptable in the workplace. I work for a law firm, and our behavior outside reflects the law firm.
We would be fired immediately for this kind of hatred being expressed.
Doxing is a legitimate fom, of expression.; Students also have a right to anonymity. to express their opinions., but that doesn’t give them the right to deny others the right to expose. them. In any case,however, ss President Truman once said if you can’t stand the heat stay out of kitchen..
150+ professors @Columbia signed a letter this week spreading misinformation, calling the brutal barbaric act by Hamas on Israeli men, women and children as “military action”, needing to be “contextualized” and spreading misinformation. These are people teaching students in colleges apparently @Columbia and elsewhere. Teaching that the barbaric killing by a terrorist organization as “military action”, providing wrong history and teachings, leads to the mess at Columbia and other colleges. Hamas is a terrorist organization backed by Iran. Israel gave Gaza to Palestinians in 2005 and in 2006 they elected Hamas that has always called for the destruction of Israel and killing of Jews, and have demonstrated they do not value Palestinian lives. Hamas has used most if not all the money to fund terrorism and has given nothing to help the civilian population in Gaza,.
Columbia has a big problem and it needs to cleanup the academic environment of such educators. We expect more of our educators to facilitate debate that is not backed by their own prejudice and propaganda. Yes, debate and free speech is what we believe in. But having educators teaching hatred and false information should not be tolerated.
I didn’t see many demonstrations in support of the Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh. I guess it’s because Armenia has accepted them. Along these lines, when Russia invaded Ukraine, how many Ukrainians fleeing the war went to Poland, Germany, UK, Canada, and even the USA? Millions, I believe. My point is that part of the humanitarian tragedy of the Gazans is that for some reason they don’t seem to be receiving the same sort of asylum as the Armenians and Ukrainians. Now, in those two cases, the receiving countries were those where the asylees might feel not too alien, ethnically, and religiously. So, looking that the situation, presuming Israel would cooperate with a humanitarian asylum-seeking plan, then where might Gazans seek asylum? Would it be Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or where?
The present population of Jordan is almost majority Palestinian exiles/refugees from the 1948 era on. There are large populations equally in Lebanon and all over. No shortage of Palestinians living elsewhere, nor of Palestinian refugees. Egypt has its own problems with the Muslim brotherhood in Sinai and doesn’t want them. But more to the point- Peaceful civilians being pushed out of their own territory- where they are not allowed passports or recognition and effectively have no where to go, these days, should NOT be the neighbors’ problem. It is up to Israel to behave as if this is shared territory, even as they take military retribution against Hamas. (The Israeli reluctance to count the human cost, or see the likely political cost, is horrifying.) The Israeli history of pushing out Palestinians and not allowing them back to their land also, most understandably, makes many people unwilling to go. From Jaffa to Nablus to Gaza – and enough. Some do not want to go further. Hamas counts on this – “our people are willing to be martyrs” some leader announced today. (That’s what was said; I’m not suggesting it is true…Hamas won the representative vote but not the popular vote, and has held an election since 2006.) The dream of peaceful coexistence seems so far away as to be beyond imagining now, but in fact there is no way forward, only more horror and exploitation, except together. Only together. The most beautiful country, inhabited for thousands of years. Facing terrible climate change. Wonderful cultures. And impossibly bad government. Both sides need leaders of vision and humanity. Can it ever happen?
When did Israel push out the Palestinians when it wasn’t related to a war started against Israel? In 1948, Israel accepted a 2-state solution implemented by the UN at the end of the British Mandate. Israel was attacked but wasn’t defeated and gained rightfully won territory. In 1967, Israel was attacked by neighboring Arab countries and captured the West Bank. Jordan’s King Hussein relinquished control of the West Bank not to Israel but to the Palestinians AFTER he lost it in a war he should have stayed out of. Don’t forget that Israel was able to make peace with Egypt and Jordan using UN Resolution 242 as a framework. Hamas can’t be trusted to provide the mutual security aspects of 242.
Arab countries have repeatedly denied Palestinians to come to their countries. This is true of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. King Abdullah on Gaza on 101/7: ‘No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt’ BERLIN, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday warned against trying to push Palestinian refugees into Egypt or Jordan, adding that the humanitarian situation must to be dealt with inside Gaza and the West Bank. Egypt also closed its border since 10/7, perhaps scared of having terrorists from Gaza to enter Egypt. Imagine if we made this excuse all the time when people sought to flee elsewhere. Arab countries have not helped the Palestinians much in the history except for rhetoric and words. Though Iran has provided Gaza with a lot of money and weapons on the condition they use it against Israel and Jews.
emptying Gaza of residents is known as ethnic cleansing.
Actually, Bruce, what you wrote isn’t true. Emptying residents, as in killing or displacing them (permanently) based purely on ethnicity or nationality, is ethnic cleansing or even genocide. Announcing in advance that you are going to prosecute a military campaign against a terrorist group dedicated to your destruction–one that has just butchered your citizens in a heinous nighttime surprise attack– and warning residents in the area that they should leave because you are going to destroy (or try to destroy) the military capability of the terrorists (including an extensive network of underground tunnels), is not ethnic cleansing (or genocide).
Yes, there is an enormous amount to criticize Israel for, and one dead innocent is just as dead as another dead innocent, no matter how or why they were killed. But words still matter. Motivations and intentions still matter. Accurate understandings of history still matters. Eschewing false equivalencies matters.
The butchery of ~1700 Israelis was ethnic cleansing.
The airstrikes in Gaza are IN RESPONSE to that butchery.
Israel did not and does want to kick Palestinians from Gaza. They wanted to live peacefully with Gaza residents. Israel gave Gaza to Palestinians in 2005 in the hope that if it worked, then they can also do so in West Bank. However in 2006 Hamas (a proxy of Iran backed by the regime there) came to power, that does not want peace and has always stated they wanted to destroy Israel and kill Jews. Israel has always been scared about its security and that fear came true on 10/7. One of the key problems for Israel is how do you make peace with those who have sworn to destroy you and do what they did on 10/7? Palestinians unfortunately in Gaza are being governed by Hamas that does not want their own people to have a good life in Gaza (because Iran does not want that). Their objective is to eliminate Israel and kill Jews. Iran wants to destroy Israel and US but wants their proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to do that for them. One should definitely feel bad for Palestinians people who are being manipulated this way. There is so much misinformation and lack of knowledge that leads to more misinformation and accusations.
So is chanting “From the river to the sea.”
An elite American with some of the country’s brightest minds on the faculty and highly selected students, amny expected to become leaders in their fields of study acting disgracefully. Shameful!
Columbia and many universities have sullied their reputations. I wouldn’t hire graduates at this point without very, very careful vetting.
Part of the problem is indoctrination that poses as education. For years, many professors of humanities and the social sciences have embraced crude theories of identity politics that divide the world into victims and victimizers, locked in a zero-sum competition for power. These theories include “intersectionality,” which asserts that “axes of privilege, domination, and oppression” combine to marginalize certain social groups, and “decolonial theory,” which teaches that European modes of knowledge and power victimize indigenous peoples. A generation of graduates, especially from elite universities, have applied these ideas in governmental policy, philanthropy, culture, and the media.
The recategorization of Jews as oppressors follows inevitably from the scapegoating logic of identity politics. According to that logic, oppressors achieve their “privilege” on the backs of the oppressed, who are passive, helpless, and miserable. This is how activist professors and students see the Palestinians. The Jews, by contrast, are manifestly dynamic and flourishing. After the Holocaust, the surviving remnant of European Jewry rose from the ashes. Together with hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from Arab nations after 1948, they built the state of Israel and made the desert bloom. Others set down roots and found success in the United States. How could these people be victims, if they don’t act like it?
Enough of the psychobabble and euphemisms: anti-semitism is the oldest hatred….responsibility for recognizing it opposing it without qualification lies with the professors and teachers of history. It is their job to teach its past and present and to teach the facts about the current situation: Hamas and other Iranian proxies have ONE aim: the destruction of the Jewish people…….not all the Holocaust museums, memorials and attempts to conflate the issue as one of prejudice are misguided. History will tell us that!!!!!!
150 or so professors @Columbia signed a letter spreading misinformation, calling the brutal barbaric act by Hamas (a proxy of Iran) on Israeli men, women and children as “military action”, needing to be “contextualized” and spreading misinformation. Some @Columbia law!These are people teaching students in colleges apparently @Columbia and elsewhere. Teaching that the barbaric killing by a Hamas as “military action”, providing wrong history and teachings about the region, leads to the mess at Columbia and other colleges. These profs are very misguided (or antisemites) on how to go about effective dialog, debate, and change. Columbia must address this along with other educational institutions. Having educators teaching hatred and false information should not be tolerated by anyone particularly those in charge of our young people’s education.
Get these non students off campus. Let the kids study. They are causing a lot of problems.
The far left supporting the Palestinians now finds themselves on the other side of the doxxing. Now they are being shamed and having their employment threatened etc. This is of course is the same tactic they invented and that was used against Trump supporters who were called Nazis, fascists and white supremacists and had their employers called and jobs threatened. It wasn’t American for them and it isn’t American for these protestors either. Disagreeing with the actions of Israel or the policies in the region is not anti-semitism. At some point, we need to abandon this condemnation of anyone who disagrees with us and have debate. Name-calling and vilification are not how you change minds.
A “pro-Palestinian” protest would be a protest against Hamas. It would include protesting against Iran. It would include protesting against the legacy of various Palestinian “leaders” who have repeatedly refused past offers of statehood and even opportunities to negotiate for their statehood.
A “pro-Palestinian” protest would respect that Palestinians are smart enough to mark their own path to freedom by choosing leaders who respect them and don’t prioritze the death of Jews over the lives of their own. It would stop the belittling of black and brown people by assuming they are all helpless victims of oppression and too weak or too stupid to choose a path of life and not destruction.
I think there is a difference between harassing someone for their views versus deciding if you still want to frequent their business after they have made those views public. For example, if I found out that a person who is a Columbia professor who signed that very public letter that in my opinion is anti-Israel and anti-Semitic also owns a restaurant, I would not want to frequent that restaurant.
Or if he had a side job as a personal trainer, I would not hire him because I know I do not want to spend time or money on people whose views I find abhorrent. He has the freedom to say what he wants, I have the freedom to spend my time and money elsewhere.
Yes, you are right about the point that you can stop going to their business, etc. but these are professors who are supposed to “teach” the student minds to not follow rhetoric, to be a good thoughtful member of society. But instead they are telling them lies and green lighting hate and barbaric massacre of Israeli civilians and Jews. So in this case, their business is “educating” our kids and they are instead either deliberately or intentionally brainwashing them with hateful and misguided information. Please contact universities to do something about them. If they cannot fire them because they are tenured, they can put them on leave. Our future depends on this. Many universities are filled across the country with these type of “Professors”!
trust me, I’m trying!!
So to be clear, young people who post their lives on social media, are upset that their information is being posted online.
They hide their faces behind masks. They want to be anonymous.
Too bad. If you support mass murderers and terrorists, at least have the bravery to do it openly.
I don’t see pro-Israel protesters hiding behind masks. Maybe that’s because they have nothing to hide.
I live up there and pass through the W. 116th Street pathway through the campus on the way to the 1 train. You would not know that anything was going on there except for the fact that NYPD is often posted on both the Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway entrances to the pathway
Can someone point me to the document where a 150 columbia professors signed.
i just had a unwanted disturbing conversation with a supposedly Barnard professor who was speaking of extinguishing people.
I want to see if he is truly a professor, he said his name that I could not find in the directory.