Some Columbia University students filed a lawsuit this week against the anti-Israel individuals and organizations which organized the school’s pro-Palestinian encampment last semester, creating what the students called “incredibly hostile environment for all students, but particularly Jewish and Israeli students.”
Students are suing anti-Israel student groups, including Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Columbia-Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace, Within Our Lifetime, and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, as well as progressive “Squad” members, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.).
Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman encouraged and supported anti-Israel student groups; the two representatives both visited the encampment, with Ocasio-Cortez defending students against police action, and Bowman calling the “unwavering solidarity” of anti-Israel professors and students “inspiring.” Omar also visited the encampment, and said she was “in awe” of the participants’ “bravery and courage.”
Students are seeking more than $30 million for damages, including being subject to bullying, harassment, and canceled in-person classes and school events.
“This case is vital not only to secure justice for the students affected at Columbia but for all university students nationwide who pay to receive an education and are disrupted by violent and well-funded agitators whose only mission is to cause disruption and chaos to pursue their own radical political beliefs,” attorney Patrick Hughes, also of Hughes & Suhr LLC, the law firm representing the students, said.
Anti-Israel protesters at Columbia occupied classroom and school buildings in April, when the encampment first started, disrupting in-person classes and commencement ceremonies. Protesters vandalized school property, smashed windows, and refused to leave the encampment, which near the end of its tenure, became violent. Activists chanted antisemitic slogans, and videos from the campus protests even showed some activists yelling “I am Hamas,” “Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too,” and “We say justice, you say ‘how?’ Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!”
“The 36,000 students at Columbia University deserve financial compensation for being wrongfully denied access to the education, experience, and campus they pay to attend,” attorney Daniel Suhr said. “The illegal encampment at Columbia University that threatened the safety of students and shut down campus wasn’t the doing of a few rogue student agitators. It was a planned, funded, and coordinated strategy to intimidate and disrupt students’ lives.”