Columbia suspends four pro-palestinian students

Columbia University is suspending multiple pro-palestinian students for an unsanctioned campus event with “known” supporters of terrorism, as the university tries to respond to campus tensions during the Israelhamas war, President Minouche Shafik announced Friday.

At least four students face disciplinary action in connection with the panel, “Resistance 101,” on March 24, according to student newspaper Columbia Spectator. Another two students who were initially suspended had the discipline reversed, it said.

“An event took place at a campus residential facility that the university had already barred, twice, from occurring,” Shafik said in a statement.

“It featured speakers who are known to support terrorism and promote violence,” she continued. “I want to state for the record that this event is an abhorrent breach of our values.”

According to social media posts, the webinar, which students could view remotely or with a group on campus, featured Khaled Barakat, a Palestinian activist, among other speakers. In the clip, Barakat tells students that his “friends and brothers” in Hamas and Islamic Jihad are looking to “students organizing outside Palestine” as they try to “stop the Israeli aggression and defeat Israel.”

“I did not become a university president to punish students,” Shafik said. “At the same time, actions like this on our campus must have consequences.”

“That I would ever have to declare the following is in itself surprising, but I want to make clear that it is absolutely unacceptable for any member of this community to promote the use of terror or violence,” the statement read.

Columbia is still interviewing students and faculty and gathering facts, Shafik said.