No Room for Hate: Columbia President Puts Foot Down on Anti-Semitism
University Takes Stand Against Violent Rhetoric But Remains Culpable For Professor Edward Said's Wholesale Academic Embrace of Jewish Genocide
NOTE: The following is an opinion piece by Richard Luthmann, a Columbia University graduate (B.A. - Philosophy - Columbia College, 2001).
By Richard Luthmann, CC ‘01
When I hear about my alma mater in the news, it’s usually because someone extremely intelligent said or did something insanely stupid. Here are just a few capers from recent memory.
In February 2022, Columbia University suspended Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, the head of the psychiatry department, after he made a bone-headed tweet about model Nyakim Gatwech's skin color, referring to her as a "freak of nature." While Lieberman intended to describe Gatwech as a "beautiful sight to behold," he was immediately criticized as sexist and racist. Lieberman apologized, but it didn’t stop his removal from duties at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
The year before that, I remember taking flak about a book one of the C.U. Professors wrote about the virtues of his heroin addiction. This guy is tenured. I shit you not.
Or there was the episode where the Columbia University (CUMB) Marching Band “canceled itself” in 2020. The group, which has a storied reputation for pranks and off-color humor on Orgo Night, had become, in the opinion of its members, a “structure founded on the basis of racism, cultural oppression, misogyny, and sexual harassment.”
Sometimes, I wonder if the co-eds still screw in the Butler Library “Stacks.” During reading week and finals, that’s where we went to get laid. It was a rite of passage - and was an exercise in efficiency and time management. Now, these woke little morons are probably too worried that traditional coitus is somehow “oppressive.” You can probably only go up there if you want to get pegged.
But on Thursday, there was actual news from Morningside Heights.
Over 100 students were arrested at Columbia University during a pro-Palestinian protest a day after President Minouche Shafik testified before Congress, affirming the Ivy League university's stance against anti-semitism. This crackdown follows her declaration that phrases like "from the river to the sea," which she and many others interpret as a call for the eradication of the Jewish people in Israel, would not be tolerated on that campus.
Thank fucking God.
President Shafik’s actions are a breath of fresh air and an invitation to the entire Ivy League to adopt policies that smack of sanity in an era where universities are not just educational institutions but also battlegrounds for ideological conflicts.
"This is not just about maintaining order; it's about protecting our community from rhetoric that crosses into the territory of hate speech," Shafik explained in a statement following the arrests.
The global academic community is watching closely as Columbia’s actions set a precedent for how universities should handle conflicts between free speech and the imperative to protect against hate-filled calls for ethnic cleansing masquerading as free expression.
Columbia's updated protest policies—which include designated times and zones for demonstrations—are part of broader efforts to contain disruptions while respecting freedom of expression. As the University President noted during her Congressional testimony, "The challenge we face is balancing the rights of all students in a manner that does not compromise their safety or dignity."
With Shafik's leadership, Columbia University positions itself as a beacon of responsible discourse and safety in higher education. It demonstrates that while student activism is vital, it should never foster anti-semitism or genocide.
While under the Congressional firing line, Shafik and her colleagues differentiated Columbia’s stance from the approaches of past university presidents, including from Ivy League rivals Harvard and Penn, some of whom lost their positions after failing to navigate their Washington inquiries competently.
But then again, Harvard and Penn both suck. Boston and Philly are where they put you out to pasture. Just ask Warren Wilhelm.
Shafik's testimony came amid heightened tensions on college campuses nationwide, driven by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and the latest brazen, unprecedented missile barrage by Iran. Shafik’s firm position against what she considered genocidal rhetoric on Wednesday became hard line on Thursday when Columbia’s administration called in the NYPD.
Equipped with riot gear, the police moved decisively to dismantle an encampment dubbed the "Gaza Solidarity Encampment." Protesters, who had set up around 50 tents, were warned through loudspeakers that they would be arrested for trespassing if they did not disperse.
“I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances,” Shafik stated, underscoring her decision to invite police intervention at the protest.
The University's actions were a direct response to months of what the vast majority of Jewish students perceived as anti-semitic demonstrations, creating a hate-filled on-campus atmosphere with calls ranging from violence to outright annihilation. Shafik stressed balancing free speech with a secure environment for all students.
The day began with the South Lawn resembling a California tent city. It crescendoed to a standoff with students chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. And it ended with the police making arrests and filling at least two buses with detainees.
As officers, equipped with riot gear, moved in, a spokesperson through a loudspeaker declared, "Since you have refused to disperse, you will now be placed under arrest for trespassing."
The protesters countered loudly, "Columbia, Columbia, you will see — Palestine will be free!"
Then they were carted off.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams supported Columbia’s decision, emphasizing adherence to policies.
"While Columbia has a proud history of protest, students do not have the right to violate university policies and disrupt learning," he stated, reinforcing the need for balance between protest and policy.
The arrests highlight a significant shift in Columbia's approach to handling campus dissent, reminiscent of tactics not widely seen since the 1968 student protests. These rekindled memories of past campus activism but have also sparked a debate on the limits of free speech and the role of universities in policing it.
Critics of the University's actions argue that it stifles free speech. However, supporters, including Jewish students and faculty, view it as necessary to ensure a safe and inclusive educational environment. Some of the protesters were nevertheless emboldened in their “advocacy.”
"They can threaten us all they want with the police, but at the end of the day, it’s only going to lead to more mobilization," said Maryam Alwan, a senior and protest organizer, moments before the cops brought her to the pokie.
Isra Hirsi, 21, the daughter of U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar and Ahmed Elmi, was among those arrested. Her high-profile arrest drew significant media attention. Hirsi received a summons for trespassing.
According to a 2020 Daily Mail investigative report, Hirsi is the product of the incestuous marriage of the anti-semitic “Squad” member from Minnesota and her brother, both previously investigated by the FBI.
Late Thursday, Hirsi said she had been suspended from Barnard College, Columbia’s “sister school” on the west side of Broadway. An official statement from Barnard emphasized the priority of maintaining an inclusive environment conducive to learning, indicating a unified approach with the University administration.
Conversely, Barnard's Student Government Association said the suspensions were "illegitimate" and violated "the sanctity of the academic institution and its purpose to facilitate open dialogue."
And that’s where I call bullshit. The students were given ample opportunity for political expression with reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. Their plan for the day was to turn the center of one of the world’s most well-respected educational institutions into a sideshow. In “solidarity” with Palestinians, their aim was to make noise - in between bong hits and bathroom breaks. They could have cooperated with the Columbia University officials, and their voices would have been heard.
But their exercise is not about speech or political expression. It is about violent physical intimidation. It is about seizure and disruption. It is about lawlessness. It is a call for genocide “packaged” as an “exchange of ideas.”
We’ve seen these tactics employed before by the scum of humanity. We tell our children tales of the horrors of Kristallnacht and the camps. We hope and pray and educate so that these human atrocities will never happen again.
Anti-semitism is incompatible with an open and enlightened society. However, this offending element isn’t simply cavalier with their words. Columbia University’s firm stance is a necessary defense against a rising tide of latent bone-deep hatred that this world has not seen for the better part of a century.
Unlike stupid and drugged-up psychiatry professors or marching band members who can’t figure out how to play with their instruments, there is nothing comical here.
During my time on campus a quarter-century ago, there was great controversy about “The Professor of Terror,” Edward Said, and his rock-throwing incident along the Israel-Lebanon border in 2000. From the Hezbollah-controlled zone, Said hurled a rock at an IDF watchtower 30 feet away. And in many ways, what we have seen on the Columbia campus - every day until this Thursday - has been ripples in this pond of anti-semitism.
Edward Said's critical theory challenges the validity of fact-based Western scholarship on non-Western societies, labeling it as fundamentally racist. Said argues that no matter how thoroughly a Westerner, especially a white intellectual, might study these societies, their work would invariably be discredited due to inherent racism.
Said’s thought has become appealing, especially in academic fields. His intellectual successors can be found throughout the faculties of top Western Universities, particularly in America’s Ivy League. His claims and methodologies have become foundational for many. But Said’s ideas were and are nothing new. They are repackaged critical theory found in Gramsci, Foucault, and Adorno—Marxist to their core.
Inherent to understanding Said is the fundamental premise that white intellectuals - he takes a broadside here at Jews - are unsuitable for studying topics like African-American, gender, and transgender studies due to their perceived racial bias. Instead, under Said's “postcolonial” prism, those “poisoned” by “whiteness” and “Jewishness” will always provide morally and intellectually inferior perspectives on these topics, regardless of the actual facts and their depths of knowledge.
Had Said's theories been confined to hermeneutics and literary interpretation, they would not present the existential threat to Western civilization that they do today.
But Said was a political animal. He was a chief apologist for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which pioneered modern terrorism with tactics like airline hijackings and bus bombings. He even wrote Yasser Arafat’s 1974 “olive branch” speech before the U.N. General Assembly, regarding the terrorist as a father figure. Said’s urgings towards diplomacy weren’t ideological. They were entirely pragmatic, given the enormous disparities in military power.
Said viewed acts of violence, such as rock-throwing at Israeli targets, as justified beginnings of broader political battles against Israel and, by extension, the United States. He aimed to delegitimize scholars, Jewish and American, and, more broadly, Israel and the United States themselves as inherently racist and imperialistic entities.
This perspective fosters an intellectual environment that not only disregards and distorts factual evidence but also encourages political violence as a justified response to any alleged systemic oppression.
By providing a haven for Professor Said, Columbia University is directly responsible for propagating his dangerous, violence-based political ideology in America. President Shafik’s words on Wednesday and actions on Thursday are welcome. But they are welcome first steps. They cannot stand alone. To cleanse itself from culpability, Columbia University has an affirmative duty to act with vigilance to remedy the harms done to the marketplace of ideas and the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression and opinion.
Adherents to Said and his ideology do not embrace speech as a fundamental right; they embrace violence as a fundamental principle—an instrument to proliferate anti-Semitic and anti-Enlightenment values. With history as our guide, every movement with such violence and nihilism at its core leads in only one direction. Broken windows. Broken bones. Broken lives. Broken nations. Broken cultures. Annihilation.
Kudos to President Shafik and Columbia’s Trustees for embracing the side of academic honesty for the first time in a generation. We can only hope they have the wisdom and fortitude to stay the course to its logical conclusion. Our civilization is at stake.
Like it or not criticism of Israel is not anti-semitism. As for “from the river to the sea” I believe that the slogan originated with Likud in which case the river is probably the Euphrates in its winding course up towards Turkey. Would you support that version of the slogan?