DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ColumbiaUniversity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ColumbiaUniversity</span></a> Bent Over Backward to Appease <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RightWing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RightWing</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ProIsrael" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ProIsrael</span></a> Attacks — And <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a> Still Cut <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FederalFunding" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FederalFunding</span></a> </p><p>Instead of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/outrage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>outrage</span></a>, the school’s interim president responded to the cuts by vowing to continue its misguided crackdown. </p><p>by Natasha Lennard, March 8 2025</p><p>"Columbia University could hardly have been more draconian in the last year and a half since students began speaking out against Israel’s assault on <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Gaza" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Gaza</span></a>.<br>In early November 2023, four months before the Columbia <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GazaSolidarity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>GazaSolidarity</span></a> encampment even began, the university banned its chapters of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/StudentsForJusticeInPalestine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>StudentsForJusticeInPalestine</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/JewishVoiceForPeace" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>JewishVoiceForPeace</span></a>. A few hundred students from the groups had had the audacity to walk out from classes and hold a “die-in” protest on campus — some of the most widely celebrated nonviolent protest tactics available.</p><p>"The crackdown was just getting started. </p><p>Since then, the university has ordered police raids on campus three times, leading to the arrests of over 100 students. Last week, the school expelled four students, three from <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BarnardCollege" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BarnardCollege</span></a> one from Columbia. Many dozens of students have faced discipline and suspensions for participating in pro-Palestine protests and speech. </p><p>"Professors have been slandered before Congress, censured, removed from positions, and reportedly pushed into retirement over their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel. The campus has been essentially locked down for almost a year. </p><p>"Again and again, Columbia has shown a willingness to throw <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/students" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>students</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/faculty" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>faculty</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FreeSpeech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FreeSpeech</span></a>, and academic freedom under the bus in acquiescence to a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RightWing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RightWing</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ProIsrael" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ProIsrael</span></a> narrative that treats support for Palestinians as an affront to Jewish safety. </p><p>"For all Columbia’s <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/appeasement" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>appeasement</span></a>, President Donald Trump’s Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced last week that it would cancel $400 million in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FederalGrants" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FederalGrants</span></a> and contracts to the university.</p><p>"'Columbia has worked overtime to appease,' wrote Layla, a student at Columbia’s School of Social Work, who asked to withhold her last name having faced doxxing attacks and harassment from Zionist groups. 'Students are miserable. Campus is a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/panopticon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>panopticon</span></a>. And their funding was still cut.'</p><p>"The Trump administration can be expected to use its perverted conception of antisemitism to further its explicit plans to decimate, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/corporatize" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>corporatize</span></a>, and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ReWhiten" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ReWhiten</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HigherEducation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HigherEducation</span></a>. The shame here lies with university leaderships — at Columbia and schools nationwide — that have failed to stand up for their purported missions of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/CriticalThinking" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>CriticalThinking</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AcademicFreedom" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AcademicFreedom</span></a>. Instead, they have put some of their most vulnerable community members, particularly international students and students of color, at risk.</p><p>"There is no appeasing a political force like the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TrumpianRight" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>TrumpianRight</span></a>, intent on a program of destruction. And there is no appeasing a nationalist <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Zionist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Zionist</span></a> worldview that, defying reason, sees <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/antisemitism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>antisemitism</span></a> in every call for <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Palestinian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Palestinian</span></a> freedom. Columbia is proof of the failure of caving in; the administration has offered up a platter of repression for more than a year and is still slated to lose $400 million."</p><p>Read more:<br><a href="https://theintercept.com/2025/03/08/columbia-trump-funding-gaza-israel/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">theintercept.com/2025/03/08/co</span><span class="invisible">lumbia-trump-funding-gaza-israel/</span></a></p><p>Archived version:<br><a href="https://archive.ph/jrNva" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">archive.ph/jrNva</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Fascism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Appeasement" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Appeasement</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FreePalestine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FreePalestine</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Gaza" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Gaza</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RightToProtest" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RightToProtest</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Censorship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Censorship</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Fascism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ICE" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ICE</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ACAB" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ACAB</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Authoritarianism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Authoritarianism</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>USPol</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FreeSpeech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FreeSpeech</span></a></p>