Republicans Grill Columbia Leaders on Antisemitism at Fiery Hearing
Several hours after students at Columbia University set up a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in the middle of campus on Wednesday—demanding “divestment and an end to Columbia’s complicity in genocide”—the Ivy League school’s president was questioned by a congressional panel in a fiery back-and-forth about antisemitism among the student body.
Members of the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce grilled Minouche Shafik, Columbia Board of Trustees co-chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald, and Columbia Law School Dean Emeritus David Schizer, a leader of the school’s newly formed Task Force on Antisemitism, during the highly animated session. Jewish students have recently been assaulted and spat on by others at Columbia, and pro-Palestinian students have publicly chanted slogans such as “Death to the Zionist state.” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) called for the hearing after accusing Columbia’s leadership of not doing enough to tamp down anti-Jewish sentiment.
The assembled administrators turned in a markedly more decisive performance than then-Harvard President Claudine Gay and then-University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who both were slammed for appearing to equivocate in their answers about what or would not constitute violations of their campus codes of conduct. On Wednesday, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) told the four that she wanted “to clarify something with a simple yes or no question for all of the witnesses: does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Columbia's Code of Conduct?”