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- Columbia president steps down with stained legacy of pro-Palestinian protests
Columbia president steps down with stained legacy of pro-Palestinian protests
Nemat 'Minouche' Shafik was criticized for allowing pro-Palestinian protests to run rampant amid the Israel-Hamas war and not doing enough to protect Jewish students complaining of being targeted
Columbia President Nemat "Minouche" Shafik resigned from her position in a statement released late Wednesday, ending a tenure marred by anti-Israel protests running rampant on her New York campus.
Critics slammed Columbia University for allowing the rallies to go unchecked and descending into antisemitism in the midst of the Israel-Hamas war, with Jewish students and faculty barred from entering parts of the campus because of protesters occupying the grounds.
She made no mention of the war or the protests, although she said in her statement that her it has "been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community."
The period took a "considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community," she said. "Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead."
The protests began after the October 7 terror rampage began in Israel, with thousands of terrorists crossing into Israel and killing soldier and civilians, while raping, looting, and razing southern Israeli communities. About 250 hostages were taken prisoner into the Gaza Strip, prompting Israel to launch an offensive against Hamas and other terrorist grounds in Gaza.
Rallies in solidarity with the Gazans came after Israel's swift action in the days after the attack, but the protest movement galvanized in from April to June 2024.
Shafik was grilled by a House Committee on Education and the Workforce in April over her inability to safeguard Jews on campus, who complained they were being targeted with little or no support from Shafik's administration.
The situation in Columbia was echoed in other prominent universities around the country, who spoke to US Congress about antisemitism in an earlier hearing.
Shafik's resignation comes after that of Harvard University's Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania's Liz Magill and Massachussetts Institute of Technology's Sally Kornbluth – all of whom were questioned in a congressional hearing last December.