OPINION:
Columbia University, occupied for weeks by what administrators termed as pro-Palestinian protesters but were really pro-Hamas agitators — and occupied under the protection of what school officials said were free speech freedoms — has just now found its voice and speedily banned a loudmouth. His name is Shai Davidai. He’s an assistant professor in the business school. And interestingly, he’s an avid pro-Israel advocate.
The optics just ain’t good on this.
Columbia’s been a breeding ground for antisemitism for months now, allowing students and outsiders alike to put up tents and put out pro-terrorist narratives, all the while calling such displays “protected speech.” But when a pro-Israel professor wants to play a similarly bold game and push back vocally against campus peeps of anti-Jew, anti-Israel bias — all of a sudden, this is when Columbia administrators want to get tough on speech?
Do better.
This is a classic textbook case, a “do better” moment.
“Davidai,” The New York Times reported. “has been a polarizing presence on campus since October. 7, 2023, when Hamas led an attack on Israel that has turned Gaza into a battlefield. He has accused Columbia of not doing enough to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests, which he says are broadly antisemitic and support terrorism.”
That’s ’cause they are. Duh.
“He often makes videos of student activists and administrators and posts them online, actions his critics say blow past the boundaries of civility and policy,” The Times went on.
Davidai has posted on his social media account the name and email address of a fellow professor he’s labeled as “OK with rape, murder, torture and kidnapping,” the newspaper said. He’s called out a Columbia scholar as a “spokesperson for Hamas.” He’s followed Columbia’s chief operating officer and videotaped him while throwing questions his way about the university’s tolerance of pro-Palestinian protesters.
Finally, Columbia said enough was enough. Administrators sent a letter to him prohibiting him from campus. Davidai, in turn, took to social media to condemn the school’s action and accuse administrators of suspending him because he “was not afraid to stand up to the hateful mob,” The Times wrote.
He has a point.
In leftists’ minds, it’s free speech when it advances their agenda and narrative; when it counters their narrative and agenda, it’s hateful rhetoric that’s worthy of silencing.
And on at least the perception front, Columbia University certainly shares in that logic.
In April, Columbia became the center of antisemitic shows on college campuses, allowing an encampment to spread across school grounds and remain as a hostile presence for weeks; defending protesters from critics by couching their blatant antisemitic catcalls as expressions of free speech; downplaying and denying the thuggish behavior of protesters as intimidating to Jewish students; coddling protesters and enabling their continued encamped presence by negotiating with them and granting them generous deadlines to disperse — and then extending those deadlines when they were ignored; and ultimately calling in police to disband the protesters, while canceling classes and inconveniencing both students and staff who simply wanted access to class to learn and to teach.
Yes, Columbia finally called cops to arrest protesters.
Yes, Columbia finally suspended students who refused to leave.
But it was too little, too late. By then, college campuses across America had joined in the example set by Columbia and opened their grounds to thuggish radicalized activists.
Even after Columbia tried to crack down, dozens of protesters took over Hamilton Hall, barricaded doorways and hung their “Free Palestine” nonsense banners from windows.
Commencement ceremonies were canceled.
And the whole fiasco threatened to repeat in the new school year, this fall.
“In a new report released as students return to campus, a Columbia University antisemitism task force has found the school failed to stop hate on campus and has not treated Jewish student concerns ‘with the standards of civility, respect, and fairness it promises,’ calling the problem ‘serious’ and ‘pervasive,’” ABC News wrote on August 30.
So the university’s next move is to suspend its most vocal pro-Israel professor.
Wow. That’s tone deaf, at best — shockingly antisemitic, at worst.
In a sane world, Columbia’s professor Davidai wouldn’t run around with a camera and pester fellow staff with questions to capture their answers on tape to post to social media. But Columbia created the bizarro world — the one where pro-terror activists could take over the campus and shut down school and learning and civil order. Davidai was simply operating within the model Columbia itself made.
Columbia created this problem.
Columbia opened the doors to antisemitic evil, then stood by and did as close to nothing as possible as that evil ran roughshod over the campus — over other campuses around the nation — and that ultimately sent strong messages around the world that America had become a nation that tolerated antisemitism.
Banning the campus voice that loudly opposed the evil just doesn’t seem to be the proper means of fixing the problem and addressing the antisemitism.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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