Columbia U Students Walk Out of Hillary Clinton’s Class Over Anti-Israel Controversy

Columbia U Students Walk Out of Hillary Clinton’s Class Over Anti-Israel Controversy

Edited by:  Fern Sidman

A group of thirty students at Columbia University walked out of Hillary Clinton’s class, expressing their disapproval of how the Ivy League school handled a situation in which students who signed an anti-Israel statement were publicly named and pictured, as was reported by the New York Post on Thursday.  This protest was part of a broader demonstration in which nearly 300 students staged a sit-in in the lobby of the International Affairs Building on campus, the Post report added.

The Post reported that rhe student letter which sparked the controversy — released via Palestine Solidarity Groups at the school — placed blame on Israel for the ongoing war, writing: “The weight of responsibility for the war and casualties undeniably lies with the Israeli extremist government and other Western governments, including the US government, which fund and staunchly support Israeli aggression, apartheid and settler-colonization.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the middle of her two-hour lecture on women’s involvement in peace processes when the students gathered their belongings and left, as reported by The New York Times. Notably, Clinton departed through a side door and has not publicly addressed the walkout.

The students’ demonstration and walkout were prompted by their concerns about the university’s response to the public naming and picturing of students who signed an anti-Israel statement, as was indicated in the Post report. These students’ images appeared on trucks that drove near the Morningside Heights campus the previous week, with the words “Columbia’s Leading Anti-Semites.”

The photos used on the trucks were reportedly sourced from a “private and secure” server for students in the School of International and Public Affairs, for a perceived “doxxing” campaign, according to the Post report. While it remains unclear who leaked these photos, the university, as the potential copyright holder, could have taken action to prevent their public display.

The protesting students are demanding “immediate legal support for affected students” and are calling on the university to demonstrate a “commitment to student safety,” according to The New York Times. The Post report indicated that the controversy originated with a student letter released by Palestine Solidarity Groups at the university. This letter attributed responsibility for the ongoing war in the Middle East to Israel and condemned the school for alleged discrimination against Palestinians, the Post reported. It also called for Columbia to end its ties with Israel, referring to it as an apartheid state.

Notably, more than 100 professors at Columbia University signed a letter in support of students who endorsed what they termed a “military action” by the Hamas terror organization on October 7. It was on that day that thousands of Hamas operatives staged a surprise attack on communities in southern Israel, in which they barbarically murdered over 1400 Israelis and others and left 5000 seriously injured. The Hamas miscreants not only shot their victims in an execution style but they raped women to the point that their pelvic bones were completely shattered, murdered pregnant women and cut their fetus’ out of their bodies, beheaded Israeli soldiers, civilians and babies, burned people alive and even placed a baby in an oven.

The professors who were signatories to the letter asked the university to protect these students and demanded that Columbia cease issuing statements favoring one side over the other in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorists.

In response to the incidents and the rising concerns of anti-Semitism on campus, the university has established an anti-Semitism task force to address the issue, the Post reported. University President Minouche Shafik expressed her concerns in a letter to students and pledged to provide support to those affected by the harassment.

The demonstration and walkout at Columbia University highlight the complexities and sensitivities surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as the rapidly rising rate of virulent anti-Semitism that has pervaded the Western academy.