Numerous students who took part in demonstrations against Israel’s occupation of Gaza have been subject to severe punishments at Columbia University in the United States, including expulsion, suspension from classes, and revoked academic degrees.
Nearly 80 students have been expelled or suspended for up to three years as a result of their participation in antiwar protests, according to a statement released by the student activist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which has demanded that the university cut all financial ties to Israel.
Columbia announced on Tuesday that its most recent student punishment was related to the “disruption of Butler Library in May 2025 and the encampment during Alumni Weekend in spring 2024.”
The university wrote that “disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and rules, and such violations will inevitably lead to consequences.”
The CUAD group claimed that the university’s student sanctions “hugely exceed precedent for teach-ins or non-Palestine-related building occupations.”
“We won’t be deterred,” he declares. The organization continued, “We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”
In 2024, the pro-Palestinian student camps at Columbia University sparked a global movement to protest Israel’s unrelenting occupation of the Gaza Strip. When Columbia University allowed hundreds of New York City police officers to work on the campus, which resulted in dozens of arrests, the protest sites eventually were disbanded.
Students protesting the Butler Library during final exams in May of this year occupied the university, demanding divestment from businesses connected to the Israeli military and showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
After what it called a “disruption during” the “reading period,” the Columbia University’s Judicial Board confirmed that it had issued expulsions, suspensions, and degree revocations. This was “the final set of findings from that period,” it said, not how many students were expelled.
The Ivy League university is negotiating with US President Donald Trump’s administration to recoup about $400,000 in federal funding. The New York City-based institution received funding from the Trump administration because it “inadequately protected Jewish students from severe and pervasive harassment” it claimed.
Students booed former trustee Claire Shipman, the acting president of Columbia, during a May graduation ceremony for her role in repressing pro-Palestinian protests.
Harvard University, a fellow Ivy League institution, has responded to pressure to alter its policies by suing the Trump administration, which has also been subject to billions in funding cuts from the government.
At least 15 people, including a six-week-old baby, died from hunger and malnutrition within a 24-hour period, according to health officials, as a result of Israel’s ongoing siege on the Gaza Strip, according to the latest disciplinary measures taken by Columbia against students on Tuesday.
Source: Aljazeera
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