2, 000 people claiming to get Columbia University alumni have signed a text pledging to “withhold all economical, program, and intellectual help” from the institution until it meets the demands of anti- Israel protesters. The end result is a$ 77 million donation risk.
National Review reports that the letter, addressed to Columbia leader Minouche Shafik and the university’s trustees, expresses help for the protesters who oppose the school’s” continued collaboration with the Jewish government’s continued murderous violence against Palestinians”.
” The movements for Israeli independence, on campus and worldwide, is usually led by Jewish citizens of many governments”, the letter says. ” Weaponizing claims about hatred to silence student statement is based on faulty logic, harms Jewish students, and distracts from true hatred, including the attempts by a savage American right to tokenize, exploit, and appropriate Jewish pain and resilience”.
There is n’t a way to verify that the signers are actual Columbia alums. It allows people to sign anonymously.
The letter condemns the “administration’s brutal repression of student speech and assembly”, specifically president Shafik’s decision to call in the New York Police Department Strategic Response Group on protesters. On April 30, hundreds of anti-Israel protesters were detained at Columbia and City College of New York, some of whom erected a barricade inside the building that houses the campus admissions office.
Signatories of the letter are pledging to withhold donations until the university meets 13 demands, including: that it divests from companies that “fund or profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation of Palestine”, calls for a ceasefire in the Israel- Hamas war, removes Shafik as president, bans the NYPD from campus, and drops charges against student activists, reverses disciplinary measures against them, and finances the healthcare for students who were “brutalized” by the police.
The signatories have previously provided more than$ 67 million in financial contributions to Columbia, according to the website where the letter was shared, and more than$ 77 million in donations are now in danger.
The letter also claims that the university “failed to hold accountable the former Israeli soldiers who staged a chemical attack on students in January 2024.” That makes some sense given an incident involving anti-Israel protesters who claimed they were spraying “skunk,” a chemical developed by the Israeli Defense Forces, on a demonstration earlier this year, at Columbia Spectator.
Although the anti-Israel protesters ‘ supporters are the subject of this letter, Columbia has also received criticism from opponents who claim the school knowingly allows protesters to circumvent the law, obstruct the educational environment, and harass Jewish students, according to National Review.
13 federal judges wrote to Columbia leaders on Monday, pleading that the school’s students ‘ behavior and the administration of anti-Israel protests had caused them to be fired as clerks. They also wrote that Columbia has disqualified itself from training the next leaders of our nation.
Robert Kraft, a Columbia alumnus, the owner of the New England Patriots, announced in April that he would withhold donations from the university as a result of the anti-Israel protests.
In a statement, Kraft said,” I am deeply saddened by the vicious hate that permeates our country and on campus.” I do n’t feel comfortable supporting Columbia until necessary adjustments are made, and I’m not confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff.
