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    • Zionist Israeli professor banned from Columbia campus
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    Zionist Israeli professor banned from Columbia campus

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    (New York Jewish Week) – Shai Davidai, an Israeli assistant professor at Columbia University’s business school and outspoken pro-Israel activist, said he has once again been banned from the school’s campus.

    In a video posted to Instagram on Tuesday, Davidai said his attorney was informed that Davidai had been barred from campus after he posted videos of himself confronting university officials about anti-Israel protests on Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack. .

    “The university has decided that I am no longer allowed to be on campus, my work. Why? Because of October 7th. Because I was not afraid to stand up to the hateful crowd,” he said.

    A Columbia spokesperson said Davidai’s access to the campus was temporarily restricted and the scope of the ban is unclear: Davidai teaches at the business school, which is not on Columbia’s main campus where the Oct. 7 confrontation took place.

    Davidai will not be teaching this semester and the access restriction will not affect his compensation or employment status. The school also linked the decision to Davidai’s confrontations on campus.

    Israeli professor Shai Davidai outside Columbia University, April 22, 2024. (credit: LUKE TRESS)

    “Columbia has consistently and continuously respected Assistant Professor Davidai’s right to freedom of speech and expression of opinion. His freedom of expression has not been restricted and will not be restricted now,” the spokesperson said.

    “However, Columbia will not tolerate threats of harassment, intimidation or other threatening behavior from its employees. Because Assistant Professor Davidai has repeatedly harassed and intimidated University employees, in violation of University policy, we have temporarily restricted his access to campus while he undergoes appropriate training on our policies regarding the conduct of our employees,” the statement said. declaration.

    Davidai, who did not respond to a request for comment, has emerged as an outspoken and controversial supporter of Jewish students on campus since shortly after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

    On October 7 this year, Davidai posted videos of himself confronting Columbia COO Cas Holloway, urging the administrator to take action against anti-Israel protesters.

    “How did you let this happen on October 7?” Davidai told Holloway. “You have to do your job and I won’t let you rest if they don’t let us rest. You have Israeli students crying and you are not here.”

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    In another video, Davidai told Holloway, “You’re indifferent and you know what? Hate arises when people like you are indifferent.”

    He also blamed Holloway for the protests. “This is because of you, this is not despite you,” Davidai said, referring to students chanting “intifada,” which he described as “a call against Jews and Israelis, suicide bombings.”

    In the videos, Holloway largely refrains from responding other than to say, “I understand” and “Thanks, Shai.”

    In other videos Davidai posted to X, he confronted a Columbia public safety official while a Jewish student said they felt unsafe on campus. In one of the videos, Davidai sings the Israeli national anthem as a large pro-Palestinian protest marches around him. The demonstrators do not seem to be concerned with him, although Davidai films in another video how he is apparently bothered by the protest.

    Columbia policy

    Columbia’s employee policy states that “respect for others is the central principle governing interactions among people at Columbia University” and that staff “must act courteously.”

    The policy states: “People have the right to disagree, even to strongly disagree; However, there is also a responsibility to be polite and maintain respect even if you disagree.”

    On October 7, there were dueling protests in Columbia to celebrate the anniversary. An anti-Israel protester was seen holding a sign reading “Long Live Al-Aqsa Flood,” Hamas’s name for the attack, with several symbols of the terror group. The activists also distributed fake newspapers reading “victory for the resistance” next to an image of Palestinians invading Israel.

    Pro-Israel students held a memorial service and set up an installation commemorating the hostages held by Hamas with giant milk cartons bearing the prisoners’ faces and names. Outside the campus gates, pro-Israel activists, who were largely non-students, held their own demonstration.

    Davidai was previously denied entry to part of Columbia’s campus in April, amid the school’s pro-Palestinian encampment, after saying he planned to enter the university’s main campus to conduct a “ peaceful sit-in” among the tents. He rejected an alternative location offered by the government as a “continuation of six months of gaslighting and humiliation of the Jewish community.”

    Davidai gave a viral speech about anti-Semitism on campus shortly after the October 7 attack and often clashed with Columbia administrators, demanding they take action against student activists and faculty who, he says, create a hostile and threatening atmosphere created for Jewish and Israeli students. . In April, referring to Holloway, he tweeted, “F- YOU CAS.”

    The restrictions against Davidai came as tensions over Israel in Columbia are once again in the spotlight. Last week, the most prominent pro-Palestinian coalition on campus returned with an apology for a student who said, “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” The statement from Columbia University Apartheid Divest, an alliance of more than 100 student groups, also said that “violence is the only way forward.”

    Columbia was rocked by anti-Israel protests last year, culminating in the student camp at the end of the spring semester, which sparked a movement of similar camps in schools across the United States.

    The university called police to campus after protesters violently occupied an administrative building. This resulted in dozens of arrests, most of which were dismissed, and caused widespread controversy. In April, students held an unsanctioned event called “Resistance 101” that featured speakers from Samidoun, an anti-Israel activist group based in Canada that was sanctioned this week by the United States and Canada for its ties to a Palestinian terror group.

    The unrest has continued since then. Columbia’s president resigned in August after three deans resigned amid criticism for sending text messages that were widely condemned as anti-Semitic during a panel on anti-Semitism.

    The university’s anti-Semitism task force reported in August that Jewish students faced “crushing” discrimination that “affected the entire university community.” A House of Representatives congressional committee is investigating anti-Semitism at the university.



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