The President of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, praised the “persistence” of students for pursuing their pro-Palestine activism despite accusations of antisemitism.
Shafik, along with the President of Barnard College, Laura Rosenbury, sent a joint statement to students condoning student activism on campus and condemning harassment said students have faced.
“The deliberate harassment and targeting of members of our community by doxing, a dangerous form of intimidation, is unacceptable,” the memo said, referring to the trucks that have blasted activists’ names around campuses among other things.
“We are grateful for the persistence and perseverance of the students, and their families, in the face of this harassment. We are assembling available resources to support them and the staff and faculty who are by their side.”
The President of @Columbia University just sent everyone an email expressing support for the Hamas terrorist sympathizers because they were exposed.
She says that "we are grateful for [your] persistence… in the face of this harrassment"
Unbelievable. Antisemitism runs deep. pic.twitter.com/12JIIgAieZ
— Daniel Di Martino 🇺🇸🇻🇪 (@DanielDiMartino) November 2, 2023
Learn the benefits of becoming a Valuetainment Member and subscribe today!
This follows a letter signed by over 100 Columbia professors defending students for voicing their support for Hamas’ “military action.”
Similarly, students staged a walk-out of Hillary Clinton’s class in protest of the doxing trucks. They joined about 300 others for a sit-in inside the lobby of the school’s International Affairs Building.
Shafik was born in Alexandria, Egypt, but fled when she was four years old due to political and economic reasons. She worked as Vice President of the World Bank, as a bureaucrat for the U.K. government, as Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. Currently, she serves on the board of directors of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Shafik is a well-connected individual whose administration seems to be trying to play down both sides of the conflict. The University just launched an antisemitism task force Thursday as well in an outreach effort to Jewish students. It also sent out a letter to express solidarity with Jews that have experienced antisemitism.
But this might not be enough to prevent wealthy donors from pulling their highly significant contributions from the school. Hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman, who claims to have given over $50 million to the school, said he was rescinding all future donations to protest its harboring of antisemitism unless something changes.
Add comment