Barnard College expels 2 students who disrupted Israel history class with pro-Palestinian protest

Columbia University Apartheid Divest said in a statement that the punishment “marks a serious escalation in the crackdown against students advocating for divestment against the Israeli war machine.”

By Philissa Cramer, JTA

Barnard College has expelled two seniors who disrupted an Israeli history course last month by banging on drums, shouting “Free Palestine” and distributing fliers showing a boot stomping on a Star of David.

The incident drew widespread attention on social media when it took place on the first day of classes for the semester.

Four people wearing keffiyehs as masks entered a Columbia University course titled “History of Modern Israel,” interrupting instruction, as captured on videos that circulated in the aftermath.

Columbia — whose president condemned the protest and said in a statement that “any act of antisemitism” was “unacceptable” — suspended one of the protesters who was enrolled there and referred two others for discipline at an “affiliated institution.”

Columbia and Barnard are adjacent to each other in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan and share many classes.

Now, two protesters who were Barnard students have been expelled, according to reports in Jewish Insider and the Columbia Spectator student newspaper.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a pro-Palestinian student coalition that has driven protests since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, said in a statement that the punishment “marks a serious escalation in the crackdown against students advocating for divestment against the Israeli war machine.”

The coalition said the expulsions had been issued on Friday and were the first in connection to protests against Israel. It called for a week of heightened protest activity on campus.

“We disrupted a zionist class, and you should too,” the group said on Instagram, where it reposted video from the initial incident.

Barnard President Laura Rosenbury said in a statement first reported by Jewish Insider that the school could not comment on students’ disciplinary records but “will always take decisive action to protect our community as a place where learning thrives.”

She continued, “When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act. Expulsion is always an extraordinary measure, but so too is our commitment to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the academic experience.”

Students have five days to appeal punishments meted out by Barnard’s “conduct administrator,” according to the Spectator. It was unclear whether the expulsions followed an appeals process.

Brian Cohen, the director of Columbia/Barnard Hillel, praised Rosenbury’s “strong action and words” in a post on social media on Sunday.

“These former students disrupted a class, handed out antisemitic flyers, and harassed students who only wanted to learn,” he wrote. “These individuals don’t belong on campus — and now they won’t be.”

In entering a classroom, the protest marked a sharp departure from the pro-Palestinian protests that rocked Columbia and Barnard last year and resulted in dozens of arrests and suspensions, as well as the closure of Columbia’s campus to outsiders.

Those demonstrations included a weeks-long encampment on the college lawn that spurred copycats at dozens of schools and the takeover of an administrative building but did not target individual classes.