Israeli chosen as student body president of Columbia amid anti-Israel protests

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israeli student Maya Platek was selected as student body president of Columbia University even amid intense anti-Israel protests on campus.

Platek will serve as president of the student body for the 2024-2025 academic year.

She declared her determination to fight for the rights and safety of Jewish students and is a member of Students Supporting Israel (SSI), an organization whose stated name is to support pro-Israel voices at Columbia.

Following a successful election, Platek gave a speech during which she said, “I am an Israeli rising senior and was recently elected as the Student Body President at Columbia University.”

She added, “As Columbia hits a peak of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, I am honored to have been elected as next year’s Student Body President. More than ever before, it is critical that our voices are heard and our safety is protected.”

In the past week and a half, violent anti-Israel protests have shaken the Manhattan campus, with a rabbi recommending that Jewish students depart campus and stay at home.

Following a congressional hearing on Columbia’s administration’s handling of antisemitic incidents, president Minouche Shafik declared that there would be hybrid learning-both in-person and remote classes-until the end of the semester.

Many Jewish students criticized the move as penalizing Jewish students rather than the anti-Israel students and faculty who were creating an unsafe environment.

Platek called out those responsible for fostering antisemitism on campus, and said, “Our classmates and professors choose to manipulate history in order to demonize us as people have done all throughout history.”

She added, “They choose to rewrite our identity in order to justify terrorist regimes. They choose to cheer in our pain and in our suffering, and they choose to delegitimize the only Jewish state in the world when there are dozens of Christian and Muslim ones.”

“They choose to advocate for our removal from this campus over our nationality. That is discrimination,” Platek declared.