Ilhan Omar elicited the testimony of Columbia President Minouche Shafik at the House Education Committee hearing yesterday that she had seen no “protests” at Columbia “saying we are against Jewish people.” See the video below at 0:40. Omar also regurgitated the canard that students had been attacked by “a toxic chemical substance.” That appears not to be the case. I think it might more accurately be deemed the raspberry statement.
While President Shafik was testifying, Columbia enjoyed a pro-Hamas/anti Israel “protest” at the heart of the campus. The production included a makeshift “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
The “protest” continued into the evening and may be continuing now for all I know. The New York Post covers it here. The video below is time stamped 8:47 p.m. (EDT, I assume) yesterday.
HAPPENING NOW: Columbia students have formed a human chain around the Palestine solidarity encampment at Columbia University pic.twitter.com/ZX6FXwqrR5
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) April 18, 2024
Yesterday’s “protest” is of course a replay of the other such pro-Hamas demonstrations on campus since October 7. For example, the Columbia Daily Spectator posted the December 1 video below of the “Columbia University Apartheid Divest Tree Lighting Protest.” President Shafik’s denial to the contrary notwithstanding, I think this may fairly be described as a “protest saying we are against Jewish people.”
The rest of the Columbia witnesses were not entirely on board with President Shafik when Rep. Elise Stefanik revisited Omar’s question with them. Board co-chairman Claire Shipman actually used air quotes to describe one such “protest” at the law school.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.