Columbia University's students allege harassment by Pro-Palestinian protesters

The unrest at Columbia University is refusing to go down, now some Jewish students have alleged harassment and assault on campus by Pro-Palestinian protesters during the weekend. The classes already are in hybrid mode.

After the police arrested more than 100 pro-Palestinian protestors at Columbia University, the tension has only escalated on the campus. The classes are transferred to the hybrid mode and faculty members have conducted a huge walkout.

As per a CNN report, Jewish Columbia University student David Jonah Lederer alleged that he and his brother were harassed and assaulted on campus by Pro-Palestinian protesters over the weekend. 

"Me and 15 others decided to go out on campus with the Israeli flags and stand there peacefully. We stood for an hour, and we were harassed, thrown water, and my brother was assaulted. When someone took his flag and tried to take it back, he was surrounded by a mob. Just one hour standing there we felt we were not safe," he said.

The verbal attacks on around 5,000 Jewish students at Columbia University left them fearful for their safety on the campus and even drew condemnation from the White House and New York Mayor Eric Adams, as reported by Telegraph India.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable and dangerous,” said Andrew Bates, a spokesperson for the White House.

As per reports, scores of American students united in solidarity for Palestine, as crowds from Columbia University and MIT demanded an end to universities' investments in companies profiting Israel.

NYPD clear pro-Palestinian encampment at NYU

Other than the arrests that occurred at Columbia University, New York University also witnessed the arrests when NYPD reached campus to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment set up at the university. The protesting students are demanding divestment connected to Israel because of the continuous violence in Gaza. Amid the approaching election season, the protests by pro-Palestinians have become a big concern for the government. 

Recently IT giant Google also fired a total of 28 employees following a sit-down protest over Google's contract to provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government. The protests are only getting more intense with more universities like Yale, and NYU joining them. The arrests have been reported from all these universities.

Read more:

• Columbia University classes go hybrid; Faculty members conduct walkouts in solidarity with arrested students
• Columbia University: 108 anti-Israel protesters arrested by NYPD