Pro-Israel activists demanded on Thursday that the Trump administration strip federal funding from Columbia University and Barnard College, accusing the prestigious institutions of failing to protect Jewish students amid escalating anti-Israel protests on campus, The New York Post reported.
The advocacy group StopAntisemitism has also urged the Department of Justice to take action, including launching an investigation into the radical Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization.
“The university administration has completely failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff, allowing a hostile and dangerous environment to fester unchecked,” StopAntisemitism’s executive director, Liora Rez, wrote in a letter to Leo Terrell, who is leading the Trump administration’s new task force to combat antisemitism.
The letter further demands that the DOJ revoke visas and deport foreign students involved in violent protests while holding school administrators accountable for allowing what it calls “lawlessness” to thrive.
The call for action follows a disruptive SJP-led protest at Barnard’s Milbank Hall on Wednesday, where demonstrators assaulted a security guard, officials said.
The mob stormed the college building in response to Columbia’s expulsion of two masked students who had invaded a class on modern Israel in January, throwing antisemitic leaflets.
By Thursday, protests had reignited, with roughly 100 anti-Israel demonstrators gathered outside Barnard, masked and draped in keffiyehs, chanting “free Palestine” and “one solution, intifada revolution”, according to The New York Post.
A group of Jewish students staged a counter-protest nearby, waving Israeli flags.
During the Wednesday protest, law enforcement sources said a group of about 20 students stormed the academic building, shoving a 41-year-old security officer to the ground. He was later transported to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, complaining of chest pains.
Columbia University, which received approximately $1.3 billion in federal grants in 2024—around 20% of its budget—has come under fire for its handling of anti-Israel demonstrations, which have been on the rise since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
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.
