Evidence Surfaces of Iran Financing anti-Israel Campus Protests
Jewish students at Columbia University have been chased from their dorm rooms and driven off campus, spat upon, shoved to the ground, ostracized by fellow students and publicly humiliated by faculty, according to a shocking report released Aug. 30 by the university’s Task Force on Antisemitism.
The findings of widespread antisemitism at Columbia, the epicenter of anti-Israel campus protests, were not in themselves surprising. The Ivy League school has a deplorable history of antisemitic prejudice, and a track record of doing nothing in response to documented graphic evidence of discrimination and harassment of Jewish and Israeli students.
What was chilling was the report’s documentation of the mounting virulence of the hate and violence directed at Jews at the Ivy League campus, and even more, its normalization. The report attested that pervasive antisemitism on campus has “affected the entire university community.”
Columbia University’s President Minouche Shifek stepped down in mid-August, yielding to demands for her resignation from congressmen and public figures who condemned her failure to act against antisemitic harassment of Jewish and Israeli students.
But she leaves behind a culture of deeply embedded antisemitic rot, where top administrators mock Jewish suffering and use ugly anti-Jewish stereotypes in casual conversation with one another. [See sidebar]
Mezuzah on Her Door Ignited Jew Hatred
To compile the 91-page report, released just before the weekend, Columbia’s task force interviewed close to 500 students at the end of May, who described a pattern of soaring antisemitic harassment and physical intimidation, as antisemitic mobs increasingly dominated the campus after October 7.
In the sessions the antisemitism Task Force held with Jewish students, descriptions poured forth of an environment at Columbia “approaching a war zone” where the students felt acutely unsafe, and where the antisemitic discrimination impacted their day to day lives, studies and mental health.
“One student who had moved into her dorm room in September, told us she placed a mezuzah on her doorway. In October, people began banging on her door at all hours of the night, demanding she explain Israel’s actions. She was forced to move out of the dorm.”
The report also details dozens of other antisemitic episodes and incidents on campus, including students wearing yarmulkas who were spit on and reviled, a Jewish girl and her brother who were chased off campus at night, and keffiyeh-clad mobs who shoved Jewish students and pinned them against the wall, screaming epithets.
Other incidents mentioned in the report include a professor branding Jewish donors to the university “white capitalists” guilty of dealing in “blood money.” Israeli students were “singled out for particularly terrible treatment,” according to the report.
“We heard about crushing encounters that have crippled students’ academic achievement. We heard about exclusion from clubs and activities, isolation and intimidation,” the task force said in the report.
The authors recommended sweeping changes in the university’s policies governing student protests and the boundaries of free speech. They called for the revamping of procedures for reporting of antisemitic harassment and hate speech, and better mechanisms to enforce compliance with anti-discrimination laws. Much of the focus was on implementing new programs for “inclusiveness training.”
Notably, the report fell short of urging specific disciplinary measures for hateful and violent conduct, such as suspension, expulsion and the termination of employment.
Campus Rabbi: ‘For Your Safety, Go Home’
Underscoring concerns about student safety, Rabbi Elie Buechler, a rabbi associated with Columbia University’s Orthodox Union Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, confirmed on CNN that he had sent text messages in late April to a group of about 300 mostly Orthodox Jewish students “strongly” recommending they return home and remain there.
In his message, Buechler wrote that recent events at the university “have made it clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety.”
“It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved,” the message said.
Columbia’s former president Minouche Shafik came under scathing criticism at the time for not doing enough to combat concerns about antisemitism on Columbia’s campus. The Egyptian-born university president was accused of following a policy of placating and protecting antisemites.
She was among the university leaders called for questioning before Congress earlier this year, following the congressional hearings with the former presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, Claudine Gay and Liz Mcgill, respectively.
[Both women resigned in the wake of their disastrous testimonies, in which they could not say that calling for the genocide of Jews violates the policies of their respective universities. The disgraced Mcgill was later hired by Columbia University’s Law Department for a senior position, drawing harsh criticism from many who saw it as reflecting the once-esteemed university’s lowered standards, and its tolerance for morally confused, weak leadership.]
Pro-Palestinian protesters first set up tent encampments on Columbia’s campus during Shafik’s congressional testimony in mid-April. The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, only for agitators to return and re-install them, setting off a wave of similar protests at campuses across the country.
The Violent Takeover of Hamilton Hall
After talks between Columbia administrators and the protesters came to a standstill in late May, the school set a deadline for the activists to clear out. Instead, a group of extremists upped the ante with a violent takeover of Hamilton Hall at Columbia’s Manhattan campus.
Protesters, led by what NYPD spokesmen labeled “outside instigators,” broke windows, carried furniture and metal barricades to block the building’s entrances, and chained themselves to one another to prevent access to the hall.
“Columbia University’s iconic Hamilton Hall was left looking like a war zone after pro-terror activists smashed windows, set up barricades and destroyed furniture during their occupation of the building, causing an untold amount of damage,” reported the NY Post.
Protesters defied orders from university authorities to disperse and announced they would remain barricaded at the hall until the university conceded to three demands: divestment from Israel, financial transparency and amnesty for all those arrested.
Columbia’s administration finally called on the NYPD to enter Hamilton Hall to quell the mob and remove the rioters from the premises. Emergency Service Unit officers used a massive armored vehicle to push a bridge into a second-floor window through which they broke into the hall. Officers with riot shields were seen removing the blockages and forcing doors open to reach the chaotic mob.
They arrested and handcuffed over 100 rioters.
The NYPD also dismantled the tent encampments and maintained a presence on campus for another week to prevent agitators from re-establishing them.
“This is far beyond First Amendment-protected speech and peaceful protest,” an NYPD spokesman said, adding that at least a dozen of the protesters were from outside Columbia, “unaffiliated with the campus.”
Antisemitic Mobs Revealed Tip of the Iceberg
The antisemitic mobs at Hamilton Hall demonstrated the ease with which pro-Palestinian rallies, not only at Columbia but at campuses across the country, swiftly devolved into Jew-baiting, vandalism and criminal trespassing.
In an appearance on Fox News, Columbia Economics Professor Ron Kivetz said what unfolded at Columbia “was the tip of the iceberg.” The riots are exposing what has been going on for decades, he said.
Jewish students and alumni keenly understand the depths of the antisemitic rot at the university, where virulent anti-Jewish hate thinly masquerading as criticism of the Jewish state has long been given a platform – and has only intensified since the October massacre,
“There’s a minority of very radical professors at Columbia—they don’t represent the silent majority—but for decades they’ve been actively brainwashing and inciting undergraduates,” Kivetz said. “They’re aiming not just against Israel and Jews but against America, indoctrinating students with Marxist propaganda to believe America is an evil colonial force, the military is evil, the free-market system is evil.”
Under increasing fire for her inept handling of campus protests that saw massive property destruction and rising anarchy, President Shafik announced her resignation just weeks before the start of classes on Sept. 3.
‘Three Down, So Many to Go’
In response to Shafik resigning, House Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-NY, released a statement hailing her departure. “THREE DOWN, so many to go,” she wrote.
“As I have said consistently since her catastrophic testimony at the Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Minouche Shafik’s failed presidency was untenable and that it was only a matter of time before her forced resignation.”
“After failing to protect Jewish students and negotiating with pro-Hamas terrorists,” the NY congresswoman said, “this forced resignation is long overdue. We will continue to demand moral clarity, condemnation of antisemitism, protection of Jewish students and faculty, and stronger leadership from American higher education institutions.”
During April 2024 hearings held by the House Education and Workforce Committee, Rep. Stefanik sharply interrogated Shafik and Board of Trustees members about Columbia’s failure to adequately respond to the spread of antisemitism on their campus, following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.
The hearing opened a window on how Columbia University, by its indifference and inaction, actually fueled the growth of rampant antisemitism among the student body and faculty.
On the heels of the hearing, Stefanik organized a letter from the New York Republican delegation to President Shafik, urging her to resign for failing to put an end to the roving mobs of students and agitators involved in Jew-baiting on Columbia’s campus.
Then, in May, following the takeover of Hamilton Hall by a mob of antisemites, Stefanik sent a letter to senior Trustees of Columbia urging them to act immediately to remove President Shafik from her position, and to quickly secure the safety of student, faculty and staff with the help of police.
Columbia’s president finally saw the handwriting on the wall and announced she would step down.
“I stood in President Shafik’s office in April and told her to resign, and while it is long overdue, we welcome today’s news. Jewish students at Columbia beginning this school year should breathe a sigh of relief,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said after Shafik bowed out.
“We hope that President Shafik’s resignation serves as an example to university administrators across the country that tolerating or protecting antisemites will have consequences.”
Columbia Gets a Facelift
“As faculty and students return to Columbia ahead of classes resuming this week, they are already noticing new restrictions and other changes to its campus,” a Reuters article reported.
The article went on to detail numerous external changes on the Columbia grounds. “The hedge-lined south lawns that had been yellowed by tent encampments are now lush and green, with public safety officers guarding the entrances and new signs noting that camping is banned by school rules.”
Columbia administrators are obviously hoping to avoid a repeat of the protests that took over the university earlier this year.
“Gates to the campus that have been traditionally kept open to the surrounding city streets are closed under a new system restricting access. Guards will allow inside only those with Columbia ID and pre-registered guests,” the article said. Other changes administrators came up with include fences and gates on wheels which can be rolled across walkways to cordon off small areas.
Whether these changes will prove effective as the new school year gets under way and renewed student protests are already revving up is doubtful, campus watchers say.
“Blowing whistles and banging drums, pots and pans as well as the iron railings of the closed campus gates, about 50 protesters marched on the sidewalk, bellowing pro-Palestinian chants,” as a convocation ceremony for 1000 undergraduates was underway, the Reuters article said.
Dr. Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s new interim president, was somehow “able to make herself heard over the protesters’ din.”
“She described to the new students her vision of the campus as a place of open debate where everyone has a voice and no one feels excluded,” the article continued.
Nobody tried to quiet the rowdy noisemakers. That would have deprived them of a voice, or made them “feel excluded.” Columbia University may not be perfect but it is above that, at least when it comes to pro-terror agitators.
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Iranian Money and Logistical Support Fueling Anti-Israel Rallies
A NY Post report unveiled new evidence that Iranian operatives are behind many of the anti-Israel campus protests across the country. Many who join the protests don’t realize who is behind them because of the organization’s innocuous-sounding names, the article notes.
To illustrate, Texas-based Rise Against Oppression (RAO) says it is a “collective of Muslim grassroots activists” but downplays its links to the government of Iran, Sam Westrop, director of Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch project, told the NY Post.
“For decades, the Iranian regime has worked closely with far-left, far-Right and Islamist groups across Europe and North America,” Westrop said. “Following the October 7th attacks . . . Tehran has poured money and logistical support into anti-Israel and pro-terror rallies, encampments and civil disorder.
“We’ve uncovered evidence of this in Houston, where the Iranian regime appears to operate mosques, activist and student groups that are deeply involved in pro-terror demonstrations, alongside Hamas-aligned groups,” he said.
Another example of Iranian subversive activity in Houston is the IEC, a Shiite community center that includes a mosque and runs a free health clinic and a private education center. It is currently renting space from the Alavi Foundation, a nonprofit that is associated with the Iranian government, according to a report.
In another example, the Alavi Foundation donated $100,000 to Columbia University after the Ivy League school agreed to host former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While in office from 2005-2013, this wild-eyed extremist repeatedly ranted about “wiping Israel off the map.”
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines stated last month that “Iranian actors” are financing many of the anti-Israel protests on college campuses earlier this year,” the NY Post article attested.
“Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use,” Haines said. “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests and even providing financial support to protestors.
Iranian-backed non-profit organizations filter many of their donations through the Tides Foundation, which in turn has doled out millions to progressive groups, including anti-Israel organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace (staffed by anti-Israel agitators posing as Jews), IfNotNow, and CODEPINK, among others.
“Students who are being lured by this broad-based Iranian campaign,” and are receiving compensation for their activism on behalf of the Palestinian cause, “may not be aware that they are interacting with or receiving support from a foreign government,” Haines said. “People need to be more vigilant as they engage online with actors they do not personally know.”
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Telltale Text Messages That Got Their Authors Fired
Antisemitism is so deeply rooted at Columbia that top administrators mock Jewish pain and use antisemitic stereotypes in casual conversation with one another. An extraordinary incident in June exposed this toxic environment, demonstrating that arrogance and bigotry can be one’s undoing.
Senior level faculty were attending a May 31 Columbia University conference about Jewish life on campus after Oct. 7—the school’s effort to show it was “sensitive” to the current crisis enveloping Jewish students.
The two-hour panel let Jewish students and faculty share their personal experiences facing rampant Jew-hatred and harassment on Columbia’s campus. As they spoke up, some of the deans began exchanging texts.
An audience member sitting behind the deans caught their scornful smirks as they texted one another and covertly photographed the messages with his phone. He sent the texts to the Washington Free Beacon and ultimately to the House Education and Workforce Committee.
The texts show these deans– Chang-Kim, Matthew Patashnick and Cristen Kromm—whose duty was to care for students at Columbia, mocking Jewish students who were asking for increased support and protection in the face of vicious harassment.
The deans demonstrated their contempt with the use of “vomiting” emojis and ugly antisemitic stereotypes about the Jewish students. The Free Beacon published the texts along with the names of the deans, heaping disgrace on the university along with their bigoted faculty.
President Shafik, whose own standing at the time was precarious, removed the deans from their posts but kept them on paid leave. In July, with the backlash against them and the school growing in intensity, all three deans announced their resignation.
“All three got fired but that won’t change the bigger picture: Hate doesn’t just have a home at Columbia, it’s running the place,” the NY Post article asserted. “No alum should give a dime until the whole school is disinfected, from the board of trustees on down.”
