Bronx and Westchester Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman accused Columbia College Thursday of finishing up “political reprisals” after the daughter of fellow “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar was suspended for her involvement in anti-Israel protests on the Morningside Heights campus.
Bowman, 48, mentioned Omar (D-Minn.) had “questioned Columbia management’s dedication to free educational expression” throughout a heated congressional listening to on Wednesday — just for her daughter, Isra Hirsi, to be disciplined “the day after.”
“It’s clear what is going on right here. Our academic establishments shouldn’t be within the enterprise of political reprisals,” declared Bowman.
In actual fact, Hirsi is a scholar at Barnard Faculty, one in all 4 Columbia undergraduate faculties which has an impartial admissions course of, curriculum and monetary construction — in addition to a separate administration.
Hirsi and the 2 different college students — Maryam Iqbal and Soph Dinu — have been disciplined for persevering with to take part in an “unauthorized encampment” after “repeated requests” to vacate the premises, based on an electronic mail from Barnard Dean Leslie Grinage.
Hirsi, an organizer with Columbia College’s Apartheid Divest group, mentioned in a subsequent social media submit that she “is not going to be intimidated.”
“We are going to stand resolute till our calls for are met. Our calls for embrace divestment from corporations complicit in genocide, transparency of @Columbia’s investments and FULL amnesty for all college students dealing with repression,” she added.
Omar, who final yr misplaced her place on the highly effective Home Overseas Affairs Committee over her previous antisemitic remarks, described anti-Israel demonstrators at campuses nationwide Wednesday as “anti-war protesters” who’ve been focused and harassed in a direct “assault on the democratic rights of scholars throughout the nation.”
In a press convention earlier than the Home Training and Workforce Committee listening to, Jewish college students at Columbia recounted ongoing antisemitic harassment and violence, together with being assaulted for sporting a Star of David necklace and listening to chants of “F– the Jews” within the kosher part of campus eating halls.
As a part of the protest that received Hirsi suspended, dozens of an identical inexperienced tents have been erected in entrance of Butler Library.
“I’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege I’ve by no means been reprimanded or acquired any disciplinary warnings,” Hirsi, 21, mentioned in her submit.
“I simply acquired discover that I’m 1 of three college students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians dealing with a genocide.”
Video footage of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” captured Wednesday as Columbia President Minouche Shafik sat in Congress confirmed protesters shouting “We’re all Hamas” and “Lengthy dwell Hamas.”
Shafik in her testimony declined accountability for the rising tide of hateful speech in opposition to Jews at Columbia — acknowledging solely that phrases like “From the river to the ocean, Palestine will probably be free” and “globalize the intifada” weren’t “personally” acceptable and “hurtful” to some college students.
NYPD officers in riot gear cleared Columbia’s campus of no less than 100 demonstrators within the encampment on Thursday after Shafik licensed the crackdown.
