Columbia University added "anti-Palestinian discrimination" to the list of reportable offenses on its University Life Anti-Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment Reporting website, the Columbia Spectator student newspaper reported.
The update was made on February 14. The website already listed anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination. While antisemitic discrimination is listed, anti-Zionist discrimination is not. No other specific nationality is listed, only Palestinian. All other nationalities would presumably fall under the "National Origin" category listed.
A university spokesperson told the student newspaper that the change was made "in direct response to concerns that were raised in our community.”
“Students have always been able to report discrimination in this category and other discrimination based on national origin, and the addition of this specific category helps further eliminate barriers to reporting incidents of bias or discrimination on campus,” the spokesperson said.
Barnard College has expelled two senior students who disrupted an Israeli history class last month by banging drums, chanting “Free Palestine,” and distributing fliers that depicted a boot stomping on a Star of David, JTA reported on Monday.
The incident, which took place on the first day of the semester, quickly gained widespread attention on social media. Videos circulating online showed four individuals wearing keffiyehs as masks entering a Columbia University course titled “History of Modern Israel” and interrupting the lecture.
The university suspended one of the protesters enrolled at Columbia and referred two others to an “affiliated institution” for disciplinary action. Columbia and Barnard, which share many classes, are neighboring institutions located in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights.
The disruptions last month were the latest in a series of incidents at Columbia related to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. Columbia has come under increased scrutiny over the rise in antisemitism on campus since the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators at Columbia set up dozens of tents in April of last year, demanding that the university divest from its Israeli assets. The university administration called in police to dismantle the encampments.
On April 30, at the request of university leaders, hundreds of officers with the New York Police Department stormed onto campus, gaining access to the building through a second-story window and making dozens of arrests of the pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators who had taken over Hamilton Hall.
Before the anti-Israel encampment on campus, the Chabad rabbi of Columbia University and a group of Jewish students were forced to leave the university campus for their own safety during a pro-Hamas demonstration.
In August, three Columbia University deans resigned from the school, after it was discovered that they had exchanged “very troubling” texts that “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes”.
Later that month, Columbia University President Dr. Minouche Shafik announced her resignation, following months of criticism for her handling of campus antisemitism.
In September, on the first day of classes, dozens of masked anti-Israel protesters gathered at the entrance to Columbia and at Barnard College.
