‘Columbia doesn’t give a damn about its Jewish students’

This complete disregard for what Jewish students have gone through since Oct. 7, Davidai said, sends the message that nobody cares about their safety.

By Amelie Botbol, JNS

“They will not stop if we don’t stop them,” professor Shai Davidai told JNS on Wednesday amid renewed pro-Hamas demonstrations at Columbia University as the fall semester gets underway.

In the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, anti-Israel protests popped up across U.S. campuses nationwide, with Columbia University taking the lead.

Soon enough, the protests turned into tent encampments that commandeered school property in violation of regulations.

Davidai, an assistant professor of management at Columbia who entered the spotlight last year when he appeared in a viral video blasting the university for failing to protect Jewish students, said that nearly 11 months later not a single step has been taken to address the rise of rampant antisemitism on campus.

“Almost everyone who was arrested was released within 24 hours. I’ve had headaches that lasted longer than what these people had to pay for vandalizing and terrorizing,” Davidai told JNS.

“No one is facing consequences. Columbia has not fired a single individual for terrorizing Jews, calling for an intifada and for supporting and celebrating Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Iranian regime,” he added.

In April, pro-Hamas rioters barricaded themselves inside Hamilton Hall while briefly holding at least one university staff member against his will.

While 46 people were arrested, 30 were released without charges.

A month later, the university had to cancel its commencement, normally attended by 50,000 people, and instead held smaller college-level ceremonies due to security issues.

According to a report by Columbia’s task force on antisemitism released last week, hundreds of Jewish and Israeli students think that the Ivy League school “has not treated them with the standards of civility, respect and fairness it promises to all its students.”

The 91-page report, which draws on interviews with almost 500 students, found that Jew-hatred on campus is “serious and pervasive.”

Shai Davidai. (Twitter Screenshot)

This week, as college students returned to Columbia, dozens of demonstrators gathered at the entrance of the school and yelled slogans opposing the institution and the Jewish state.

They chanted, “Over 100,000 dead, Columbia, your hands are red,” and “Don’t cross the picket line, we must honor Palestine.”

They wore keffiyehs, banged drums and waved signs like “Columbia Kills.” On campus, someone vandalized the school’s alma mater bronze statue with red spray paint.

“Protests started at Columbia on Oct. 12. When the school year ended, they moved to downtown New York,” explained Davidai.

“There was a protest outside the Nova festival exhibit, then they moved to D.C. They move all around the country,” he added.

“It’s the same organization, it’s the same movement and they are back at Columbia. On the first day of school, we already had protests, we already had vandalism and we already had arrests,” he added.

Minouche Shafik, President of Columbia University, testifies before Congress. (YouTube Screenshot)

Last month, citing a “period of turmoil” that had taken a “considerable toll on my family,” Minouche Shafik announced that she was stepping down as Columbia president.

However, Davidai said her resignation did not signal the end of Columbia’s laissez-faire attitude toward pro-terror organizations on campus.

“When Shafik resigned, she sent out a letter in which she did not even mention antisemitism. She resigned because she got a better job. The Board of Trustees then also sent a letter stating how great she was; they should have fired her,” Davidai told JNS.

“The new president introduced herself and, again, no words about antisemitism or about Jewish students. This is clearly a step in the wrong direction,” he continued.

This complete disregard for what Jewish students have gone through since Oct. 7, Davidai said, sends the message that nobody cares about their safety.

“Hamas supporters feel that they can keep going as long as mummy and daddy can post their bail. It won’t even go on their record,” he said.

“What the university really does is allow Hamas supporters to keep going and tell Jewish students to keep hiding. I can’t accept that. If we don’t expel the organizers of the movement, throw them in jail when they break the law or deport them if they are not citizens and break the law, it is not going to stop.”

To put a permanent end to this assault on Jewish students, Davidai outlined the measures he believes the university must take.

“First, pro-terror student organizations must be completely banned and the leaders must be expelled. If one spent 10 months being a leader on campus, they should never come back,” he said.

“Faculty advisers of these student organizations should be fired and all the professors who have been physically and ideologically supporting this terrorizing movement should be sanctioned,” he continued.

“Finally, the university should start taking Jewish students and the community seriously. It means passing a definition of antisemitism on campus and passing a law that one cannot protest with masks on,” he added.

In April, Davidai’s security card was deactivated, preventing him from entering the main campus due to the possibility of being harmed by violent pro-Palestinian protesters who had illegally camped on the main lawn.

The move came under intense fire, with many claiming that the university was punishing the victims rather than the perpetrators.

While he has been allowed back on campus, he is still being investigated by the university for speaking up.

“Columbia is trying to silence me. When an imam last week called on students at Columbia to target me, to jeopardize my career, to jeopardize my personal life, I emailed the university and nothing,” he said.

“Columbia doesn’t give a damn about its Jewish students and it definitely doesn’t give a damn about Shai Davidai,” he continued.

AntisemitismColumbiaGaza encampmentsShai Davidai