In New York City, two Barnard College students were expelled Friday for allegedly disrupting and protesting a Columbia University Israel history class, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) announced on Saturday.
The alleged expulsions for the January 21 incident, according to anti-Israel student activist group CUAD, would represent the first official expulsions of Columbia affiliate students for pro-Palestinian campus protests. In response, CUAD said on X, it would organize a week of activism from Monday until Thursday.
The group took responsibility for the January 21 protest of the History of Modern Israel course taught by Israeli historian Dr. Avi Shilon and called for further class disruptions, stating, “We disrupted a Zionist class, and you should too.”
“History of Modern Israel isn’t the only Columbia class training future foot soldiers and managers of genocide. We have an even greater duty to disrupt them all as students of elite universities, expected to be passed the torch of genocide,” CUAD said Sunday. “Zionist classes should not exist without disruption. It is our duty to disrupt.”
The Columbia University Public Affairs Office on Monday condemned the call for class disruptions, warning that it would not be tolerated. The university reiterated in its statement that CUAD was not recognized, authorized, or supported by the institution.
The two students were interim suspended on January 24, according to CUAD, a day after Barnard issued a statement condemning “any disruptions in academic spaces.”
A betrayal of principles
“When uninvited visitors enter classrooms with the intention of interfering with learning – let alone when they target specific courses, communities, or individuals – they betray the very principles of intellectual exchange that underpin our community,” said Barnard College President Laura Ann Rosenbury.
Columbia announced on January 27 that two participants from an affiliated institution had been identified as participants in the incident, which saw masked activists give a speech and distribute flyers with violent imagery. The activists were barred from the campus and referred to their home institution.
A third activist, identified as a Columbia student on January 23, was suspended in the interim pending a full investigation and disciplinary process.
One of the flyers distributed on the first day of class incident called to “Crush Zionism,” depicting a boot stepping on a broken Star of David. Another poster urged to “burn Zionism to the ground,” accompanied by a drawing of a masked man carrying a burning Israeli flag.