Isra Hirsi, daughter of US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and BDS activist, has been suspended with several other students from their studies at Barnard College at Columbia University in New York after participating in a "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" on Columbia University's campus.
According to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, she authorized the New York Police Department (NYPD) to clear the encampment on Thursday that students had set up beginning on Wednesday.
In a letter to the NYPD, the university president said that over 100 individuals were occupying the South Lawn of Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus as of Thursday. She said that all participants had been informed that they had been suspended from the university.
"At this time, the participants in the encampment are not authorized to be on University property and are trespassing," Shafik told the NYPD.
The encampment was titled "Gaza Solidarity Encampment." The mission of the encampment was to "stand against genocide," according to a flyer for the event published on Instagram.
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The University President said, "The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies. Through direct conversations and in writing, the university provided multiple notices of these violations, including a written warning at 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday notifying students who remained in the encampment as of 9 p.m. that they would face suspension pending investigation."
Ilhan Omar's daughter responds on social media
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, Isra Hirsi claims that she was suspended for her pro-Palestine activities on campus.
i’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege i have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warningsi just received notice that i am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.
— isra hirsi (@israhirsi) April 18, 2024
Hirsi was among the organizers of the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, where demonstrators chanted, "Long live the intifada." She was in attendance at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
In her post on X, she says, "Those of us in Gaza Solidarity Encampment will not be intimidated. We will stand resolute until our demands are met."
Several pro-Palestinian groups condemned the suspension of the activists. In a video published by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Columbia, one of their members who attended the encampment and was suspended said, addressing the University, "I refuse to be silenced in my demand for divestment, and I will remain vocally opposed to the genocide in Gaza."
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The Columbia University administration warned suspended anti-Israel groups and other campus organizations that students could face disciplinary action for an unauthorized protest the first week of April, shortly after six students were suspended for a pro-Palestinian demonstration in late March.
A US congressional committee on Wednesday accused Columbia University's president of failing to protect Jewish students on campus, four months after the bombshell House hearing when Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania were accused of not doing enough to address the antisemitism on their campuses.
The Columbia President responded to the accusations by strongly denouncing the antisemitic behavior by students and professors at Columbia and by pledging that there would be consequences.