Two Barnard College students were expelled for disrupting a class at Columbia University on the history of modern Israel — in what appear to be the first expulsions for pro-Palestinian activism on the campus since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.
The protesters — who had been suspended since the disruption last month and barred from campus, including their dorm rooms and dining halls — were notified of their expulsion on Friday afternoon, according to Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the organizers of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus last spring.
Barnard, the women’s college affiliated with Columbia, released a statement that under federal law, it could not comment on student disciplinary records.
“That said, as a matter of principle and policy, Barnard will always take decisive action to protect our community,” Barnard President Laura Rosenbury said in the statement.
“When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act. Expulsion is always an extraordinary measure, but so too is our commitment to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the academic experience.”
The heightened discipline comes amid renewed pressure from the federal government to root out any protest activity that could be seen as antisemitic.
Columbia became the epicenter for campus protests last spring after former Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s decision to call the police launched a series of copycat encampments across the country. The demonstrations came to a head in April when protesters occupied an academic building, Hamilton Hall, spurring another call to the NYPD.
Within the first couple weeks of his presidency, Trump’s Education Department launched a civil rights probe into allegations of Jewish hatred at Columbia. His administration has also promised to deport campus demonstrators on student visas.
On Jan. 21, the first day of the spring semester, protesters disrupted a graduate program class — the History of Modern Israel — with flyers of a storm trooper boot crushing a Star of David and calls to “Burn Zionism to the Ground,” photos and videos on social media show.
The lecturer, Avi Shilon, invited protesters to join the session and learn about the conflict, but they continued the disruption, the student newspaper Columbia Spectator reported.
The backlash was swift. Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong quickly condemned the disturbance and announced one Columbia participant had been suspended, while other disciplinary action was referred to Barnard. Faculty who had been vocal about the rights of students to protest penned an op-ed in the campus paper to denounce the episode.
One of the former students in a statement through Columbia University Apartheid Divest said they learned activism at Barnard — while likening Israel’s military response to the Holocaust, an analogy frequently condemned by Jewish groups.
“I was told countless times the value of voicing my opinions and standing up for what I know to be true and good,” said the expelled student, whose identity could not be independently verified by the Daily News.
“The fact that my removal has taken place so baselessly, simply because I believe that a Holocaust of the Palestinian people is unequivocally wrong has completely shattered the illusion of what I thought Barnard stood for.”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest said it was the first expulsion of any student affiliated with Columbia in connection with the protests and marked a “serious escalation in the crackdown against students advocating for divestment.” Dozens of Barnard students suspended last year were ultimately allowed back on campus.
The protest group — that while smaller in size this school year has grown more militant in its postures — appeared to be undeterred by the actions. On Sunday afternoon, Columbia University Apartheid Divest announced a “week of action,” including a university-wide “sick-out” on Thursday. It was quickly condemned in a statement by Columbia as unauthorized and an “unacceptable call to disrupt our academic mission.”
Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Hillel, threw his support behind Barnard’s “decisive action” and called on Columbia to follow suit in past and future demonstrations.
“When students have their right to get an education trampled on by masked protesters who burst into their classroom, those protestors need to be held accountable,” Cohen said. “This will send a clear message that the harassment of Jewish students and faculty will not be tolerated at Columbia.”