On Thursday, November 9, hundreds of students gathered in front of Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library for a “peaceful protest art installation” and demonstration organized by the Columbia chapters SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) and JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace). They were demanding that the university call for a ceasefire in Gaza, divest all endowments from corporations involved with Israel, and end Columbia's academic programs in Tel Aviv.

As part of their art installation, they had placed seven infant-sized bundles of white cloth on the steps, splattered with red paint. Behind them plywood boards were placed, reading “10,600 lives slaughtered,” “4,412 children,” and “let Gaza live,” next to images of Palestinian flags and olive trees.

Just one day after this powerful and dramatic statement Columbia's administration announced both student organizations were suspended and banned from campus through the end of the term, citing an “unauthorized event” that “included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” There was no evidence offered for these accusations.

This blatant act of repression has been met with outrage and condemnation by students and faculty at Columbia and Barnard,¹ while resonating throughout the country and beyond.

On Tuesday evening, November 14, 500 Columbia students and faculty members came together outside Butler Library. The passionate statements by the speakers expressed their outrage at the suspensions and demanded the decision be reversed. A member of SJP told the crowd, “To shut us down, you have only made us stronger.”

Two young women—a Palestinian and a Kashmiri—wearing keffiyehs and masks over their faces, addressed the crowd. For weeks, students on various campuses across the country supporting the Palestinian struggle and condemning what Israel is doing in Gaza have had to wear masks because of harassment and intimidation by pro-Israel students and outside Zionist groups. Pro-Israel “doxxing trucks” are driving around the campus (and many others), with neon signs posting their names and faces, calling them “Columbia's Leading Antisemites.”

But this night they said they'd had enough. The two women ripped off their masks and threw them to the crowd, saying:

We stand here as proud members of SJP. And we are here to tell you that we are done hiding. Why should advocates of ethnic cleansing be able to shamelessly proclaim their support for genocide, while we are forced to mask for simply calling for the liberation of a colonized people living under brutal occupation?

Before the demonstration, the University announced it was closing all the entrances to the campus to the non-campus community – for the fourth time in the last month. And dozens of NYPD cops were positioned on campus. One professor at the protest told the Spectator, the campus newspaper: “It’s the first time in 25 years I’ve seen the NYPD on campus, in force. It’s intimidating to students, it’s intimidating to faculty.”

The following day 100 faculty and graduate workers rallied on the steps of Low Library holding a big sign with 5 demands to present to the administration in support of academic freedom and free speech on campus. When they went to present their demands to the University President, they found the doors had been locked!

Then, on Thursday, Columbia University Jews for Ceasefire, a new ad hoc collective of Jewish students, held a demonstration at the entrance to the University. They unveiled a banner on the ledge between Dodge Hall and Lewisohn Hall reading “CU Jews 4 Ceasefire” and announced plans to take further action on Monday.

Powerful Open Letters by Jewish Students and Jewish Faculty Condemn the University

Just two days after the suspensions, two separate open letters were released, signed by hundreds of students and faculty—all Jewish—condemning the suspension of SJP and JVP. The faculty letter – “Jewish Faculty Denounce Columbia University's decision to suspend Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace”—was written by Jewish faculty across the United States and around the world. It says in part:

...We applaud these students for their organizing because we believe strongly in students engaging in their world and working for justice, which includes justice for Palestinians. We watch with horror as the people of Gaza are relentlessly bombarded by the Israeli military, even as more and more people join the urgent international call for a ceasefire. Every day that passes without a ceasefire is a day where hundreds of children and families are devastated by bombings paid for by the US government. Your students who bravely call for justice should be rewarded, not punished.

These are students doing exactly what we should all want our students to be doing: standing up for what they believe in and trying to make the world a better place. They are trying to stop a war. They are calling for a ceasefire to save lives.

And instead of praising these students, the administration has not only suspended their chapters, but allowed an incredibly harmful and dangerous climate to grow on campus - not just against Palestinian students and those who support Palestinian rights, but also against Jewish students who don't agree with the acts of the state of Israel...²

The student letter, signed by Jewish students at Columbia and Barnard, is titled “From Jewish Students: Protecting the Free Speech of our Peers.” It represented students coming from different points of views—“zionist, anti-zionist or somewhere in between.” But where they agree is in knowing that the schools' “vilification and censorship of some beliefs—but not others—not only threatens the safety of the students holding these beliefs but the sanctity of university life as a whole.” They too “applaud the bravery of JVP, SJP and others in the face of unprecedented censorship attempts – by the university itself and by fear-mongering watch dogs.” And they make this very important point: “In the administration’s attempts to paint Jewish voices as a monolith, they have contributed to the pinning of Jewish life and liberty as inherently at odds with Palestinian liberation.”³

In the face of ongoing, and intensifying repressive moves, this resistance needs to spread throughout all of society.