Columbia University Israel course disrupted by anti-Semites on first day of class

Columbia President Katrina Armstrong: ‘We want to be absolutely clear that any act of antisemitism … against members of our community is unacceptable and will not be tolerated’

Columbia University students in a class about the history of Israel had their first day disrupted on Tuesday when four masked Jew-haters burst into the classroom. They were banging drums, chanting "free Palestine," and handing out posters that said "CRUSH ZIONISM" with a boot over the Star of David.

The irony is, there was a time when Arabs referred to Jews in Israel as Palestinians, but they seemed to have forgotten that tidbit of information.

These demonstrators also displayed and tried to stick up a sign showing Hamas terrorists with guns, labeled "THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW."

Lishi Baker, a junior studying Middle East history, described the scene to the media outlet, Jewish Insider. "They started throwing fliers at us all and talking about how terrible it is that this class is even happening and that we have an Israeli professor," she said. She commended the professor, Avi Shilon, for his calm response. "He said to them we’re here to learn [and] offered for them to learn, [otherwise] if they don’t want to learn, they should leave," Baker recalled. However, the protesters ignored this, continuing their noisy protest before leaving to join larger demonstrations.

Dozens of other cowardly protesters, with faces covered, gathered at Columbia's main quad and entrance, chanting for an "intifada revolution" and other anti-Semitic slogans.

These classroom disruptors were likely students or university affiliates. Columbia has tightened security this academic year, with gates now locked and guarded to control who enters.

Columbia Interim President Katrina Armstrong and Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Hillel, quickly condemned the disruption.

"Today a History of Modern Israel class was disrupted by protesters who handed out fliers. We strongly condemn this disruption, as well as the fliers that included violent imagery that is unacceptable on our campus and in our community," Armstrong stated.

She emphasized that disrupting academic activities violates university conduct rules and possibly other policies, promising a swift investigation and action against such acts.

Cohen highlighted on X that this demonstration not only breaches Title VI of the Civil Rights Act but also university rules, urging quick and strong action against the perpetrators.

This incident followed closely after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which had been a key demand of campus anti-Israel protests since the conflict escalated after the October 7 attacks.

"This was never about ceasefire and it was never about the war in Gaza," Baker remarked. "It was always about a broader existential mission to eradicate the state of Israel. If that wasn’t clear before, it better be clear now."

She added, "One of the main talking points of the [anti-Israel campus] movement has been a defense of the things that they say on the grounds of academic freedom. Well, so much for academic freedom when you barge into a classroom and interrupt it and intimidate the students and the professor."

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Winsome Sears says Ketanji Jackson is a diversity hire

Virginia Lt. Governor Winsome Sears, said Thursday that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Jackson is a diversity hire when discussing Jackson's dissent to the SCOTUS affirmative action decision. And Sears is correct, because it was Biden who bragged that he would nominate a black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, so that white, brown and any other race need not apply. But it's ironic that Jackson admitted in her hearing that she didn't know what a woman is because she is not a biologist.

The Court ruled against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina's affirmative action policies that favored black students over non-black students, especially Asians. This will, of course, have an enormous effect on the admissions process at other universities across the country. 

Lt. Governor Sears appeared on Fox News where host Martha MacCallum asked her how she would respond to Justice Jackson and the other dissenting justices who claimed the court's decision was a step back for equality.

“Well, what you have is a justice who was chosen because she’s black and because she’s a woman,” Sears said. “That’s what we’re understanding now, what a woman is.”

Sears added that the state of education in the country is in a crisis level.

“While we’re playing these stupid games, I’m saying that education and the lack of it in America is risen to a national crisis. China is not playing these stupid games. China is interested in total world domination, and so is Russia and the rest of them. That’s what we have to be concerned about. Our children are not learning.”

Sears said that about 60% of entering college students require remedial academic courses in their first year at a cost of $1 billion a year, according to the left leaning Center for American Progress.

“I’m pulling for school choice. School choice now. Our children are in need,” Sears said.

“The slaves did not die in the fields so we could be saying in this century that we are victims,” Sears said later in the Fox segment. “They would say to us, ‘Is that what we died for? No. We died for you to have an opportunity. Take it. You have that.’ We have had a black president.”

The case landed in the Supreme Court after Students for Fair Admission sued the two aforementioned schools, saying they unfairly use race to factor into their admissions process. They pointed to the high test scores of Asian Americans and white applicants who were rejected merely because of their race.

The Supreme Court ruled that the race-based admissions programs at Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The court voted 6 -3 in the University of North Carolina case and 6 -2 in the Harvard case. Jackson, a Harvard graduate and former Harvard board member recused herself from that case.

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion for the majority.

“Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. But, despite the dissent’s assertion to the contrary, universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today,” the court’s opinion stated.

Justices Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor both penned dissents because they apparently think they're working for Slate.

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