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Columbia University President Denies Deceiving Trump Administration Over Antisemitism Policies
Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong on Tuesday strongly denied a Wall Street Journal report which said that she privately told faculty that school officials misled the Trump administration to believe that they had accepted its conditions for restoring $400 million in federal funding canceled by Education Secretary Linda McMahon earlier this month to punish the school’s alleged failure to quell “antisemitic violence and harassment” on its campus.
On Friday, the university issued a memo announcing that it acceded to key demands put forth by the Trump administration as a precondition for releasing the funds — including a review of undergraduate admissions practices that allegedly discriminate against qualified Jewish applicants, the enforcement of an “anti-mask” policy that protesters have violated to avoid being identified by law enforcement, and enhancements to the university’s security protocols that would facilitate the restoration of order when the campus is disturbed by unauthorized demonstrations.
The news prompted high praise from Trump administration officials, including McMahon and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy. However, according to a report published by the Journal on Monday, Armstrong told faculty behind closed doors over the weekend that the memo was issued to buy the university time in which to explore other, potentially legal, options that could result in the school’s reclaiming the canceled grants.
During a mutinous meeting with angry faculty, Armstrong said, among other things, that the anti-mask ban — a policy that is widely supported by the Jewish community for achieving the same end as federal anti-Ku-Klux-Klan laws — will not be enacted, according to the Journal. In response, the paper added, some professors denounced what they perceive as a duplicitous public relations strategy in which Columbia makes commitments it does not intend to honor.
On Tuesday, Armstrong disputed the WSJ‘s account of her conversation with faculty, maintaining in a statement published on the university’s website that she will proceed with the policies enumerated in Friday’s memo.
“Implementation of these measures is fundamental to sustaining our academic mission without disruption and ensuring the safety of Columbia’s students and campuses. Let there be no confusion: I commit to seeing these changes implemented, with the full support of Columbia’s senior leadership team and the Board of Trustees,” Armstrong said. “We need to continue to restore the public’s faith of the fundamental value of higher education for the nation and the longstanding partnership between ground-breaking universities like Columbia and the federal government.”
She continued, “Any suggestion that these measures are illusory, or lack my personal support is unequivocally false. These changes are real, and they are right for Columbia.”
The statement came one day after anti-Israel students staged an unauthorized protest replete with keffiyehs, face masks, and demands that Columbia become a sanctuary campus for illegal immigrants. Demonstrators also hung a large “Free Palestine” sign from a building and reportedly chanted so loudly that they could be heard inside nearby buildings in which active classes were being held. Armstrong took no action against them.
The Trump administration has not yet commented on the Wall Street Journal‘s report or the latest unauthorized protest, which came after Columbia’s Hillel International chapter told The Algemeiner on Friday that Columbia’s agreement to combat antisemitism in higher education is “promising” and expressed hope that it “further moves us in the right direction.”
McMahon similarly praised the university.
“Columbia is demonstrating appropriate cooperation with the Trump administration’s requirements, and we look forward to a lasting resolution,” she said in a statement as part of a press release issued on Monday by an inter-agency task force on antisemitism. “I have been in communication with Columbia University interim president Katrina Armstrong over the last few weeks and appreciate her leadership and commitment to advance truly meaningful reforms on campus.”
Monday’s release also contained a statement by Kennedy, who said the institution is beginning to “restore itself as a garden of tolerance, reason, compassion, and respect.”
Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), an office which assists the federal government’s purchasing of goods and services, said, “Columbia’s early steps are a positive sign.” He added, however, that school officials in the Armstrong administration “must continue to show that they are serious in their resolve to end antisemitism.”
Columbia University has produced some of the most indelible examples of campus antisemitism since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel — among them a student who proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself, brutal gang-assaults on Jewish students, and administrative officials who, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting. However, it is not the first Ivy League institution to allegedly pantomime a commitment to addressing antisemitism to repel public scrutiny and government action.
According to a May 2024 report by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Harvard University allegedly conspired to achieve similar aims during a tumultuous 2023-2024 academic year which saw its students quote terrorists during an “Apartheid Week” event and its professors share an antisemitic cartoon. The report claimed that Harvard formed an Antisemitism Advisory Group (AAG) largely for show, refusing to consult it at key moments during an explosion of antisemitic incidents on campus. It also said that Harvard never took meaningful action to address antisemitic hatred and the flouting of school rules against harassment and discrimination, a policy failure that allegedly contributed to the eruption of a nearly three-week-long demonstration in which a group calling itself Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP) commandeered Harvard Yard and refused to leave unless the administration agreed to divest from and boycott Israel
Writing to The Algemeiner on Tuesday, Middle East expert and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Asaf Romirowsky said that Columbia’s apparent playing both ends against the middle is a cause of eroding trust in the higher education system, which he says tramples on the true purpose of a liberal arts education in order to promote a far-left political agenda.
“There is a collapsing of public faith in the politics and costs of universities like Columbia, all necessitating immediate reform,” Romirowsky said. “Armstrong needs to understand that successfully rehabilitating its image requires a sincere, top-down driven approach that can serve as a model of reform for all university leaders. A conception of the liberal arts and sciences should be promoted in which the primary goal of learning is individual growth and exploration and the goal of research is the conservation and expansion of knowledge and thought.”
He continued, “Scholar-activism in the sense of politically aligned teaching and research or social justice in the sense of remaking society through undemocratic means cannot be goals, nor should they be publicly funded.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Netanyahu Backs Trump’s ‘Voluntary Migration’ Plan for Gaza Civilians, Urges Hamas Leaders to Go Into Exile
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Feb. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said over the weekend that Israel still supports and plans on going forward with US President Donald Trump’s “voluntary migration” plan for civilians in Gaza, offering Hamas terrorist leaders exile if the group disarms.
While speaking to the Israeli cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said that Israel plans on intensifying military “pressure” in Gaza with the aim of forcing Hamas leaders to surrender and evacuate, allowing “Trump’s voluntary migration” plan to take effect.
“Hamas will lay down its weapons. Its leaders will be allowed to leave. We will see to the general security in the Gaza Strip and will allow the realization of the Trump plan for voluntary migration,” the Israeli premier said. “This is the plan. We are not hiding this and are ready to discuss it at any time.”
Netanyahu reiterated that Hamas must disarm, although the Palestinian terrorist group has rejected such calls as a “red line” it will not cross. He added that Israel was committed to negotiating a solution that would see the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza who Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists kidnapped during their Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
On Saturday, a top Hamas leader said the terrorist organization had accepted a new ceasefire plan put forth by mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and the United States and called on Israel to back it.
Israel confirmed receiving the proposal and has submitted a counterproposal, according to Netanyahu’s office.
On Monday, Israeli officials said the government has proposed an extended truce in Gaza in exchange for the return of about half the remaining hostages.
The latest proposals, which would leave open a final agreement over ending the Israel-Hamas war, would involve the return of half the 24 hostages believed still to be alive in Gaza – and about half the 35 assumed to be dead – during a truce lasting between 40 and 50 days, Reuters reported.
Last week, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed that the cabinet approved a proposal by Defense Minister Israel Katz to organize “a voluntary transfer for Gaza residents who express interest in moving to third countries, in accordance with Israeli and international law, and following the vision of US President Donald Trump.”
Israel would also take responsibility for “establishing movement routes, pedestrian checks at designated crossings in the Gaza Strip,” to ensure safe passage for Palestinian civilians.
Trump in February proposed the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, calling the enclave a “demolition site” and saying residents have “no alternative” as he held critical talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
“[The Palestinians] have no alternative right now” but to leave Gaza, Trump told reporters before Netanyahu arrived. “I mean, they’re there because they have no alternative. What do they have? It is a big pile of rubble right now.”
Trump argued that Palestinians would benefit from leaving Gaza and expressed astonishment at the notion that they would want to remain in the beleaguered enclave.
“Look, the Gaza thing has not worked. It’s never worked. And I feel very differently about Gaza than a lot of people. I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land. We’ll get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable and enjoyable,” he said.
Arab leaders of Israel’s neighboring states slammed the plan, vowing not to absorb any refugees from Gaza.
Trump said earlier this month that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians” from the enclave, seemingly suggesting that any resettlement outside of Gaza would be voluntary.
The post Netanyahu Backs Trump’s ‘Voluntary Migration’ Plan for Gaza Civilians, Urges Hamas Leaders to Go Into Exile first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Higher Education Community Fires Back at Anti-Zionist Faculty Letter
A pro-Palestinian protester holds a sign that reads, “Faculty for justice in Palestine,” during a protest urging Columbia University to cut ties with Israel, Nov. 15, 2023, in New York City. Photo: Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Jewish lawyers and nonprofit leaders fired back at an anti-Zionist open letter which, while condemning the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Hamas activists on college campuses, presented itself as being a voice for all Jews.
“Not in our name … We are united in denouncing, without equivocation, anyone who invokes our name — and cynical claims of antisemitism — to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our communities,” Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff-Boston Area (CJFS) wrote earlier this month, drawing signatories from higher education institutions across the country. “We specifically reject rhetoric that caricatures our students and colleagues as ‘antisemitic terrorists’ because they advocate for Palestinian human rights and freedom.”
The blistering letter went on to accuse the Trump administration of holding “Christian Nationalist” views and setting off an “existential terror” by preconditioning federal funding universities on their enacting reforms which reduce antisemitic discrimination and left-wing bias. It has done so, CJFS further charged, while appropriating the Hebrew language, using “Jews as a shield to justify a naked attack on political dissent and university independence.”
CJFS Boston Area circulated the missive following US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) arrest and detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University alumnus who was an architect of the Hamilton Hall building takeover and other disturbances in the New York City area this past academic year. Similar action has since been taken against others, including Cornell University graduate student Momodou Taal, a dual citizen of Gambia and the United Kingdom, and Columbia University student Yunseo Chung, a noncitizen legal resident from South Korea.
The group is not representative of the Jewish community and should stop claiming to be, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a scholar and the executive director of antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative, told The Algemeiner in a statement.
“Shame on these Jewish faculty members. As [the University of California] was heating up to be ground zero for BDS [the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel] and antisemitic harassment, Jewish students used to come to me crying because they felt abandoned by their Jewish professors, many of whom turned out to be not only unsympathetic to their plight, but actively contributed to campus antisemitism,” Rossman-Benjamin said. “More than 50 signatories of this statement are members, and in some cases chairs, of Jewish or Israeli studies programs. And instead of speaking up on behalf of Jewish students who are facing an unprecedented explosion of antisemitic assault, violent threats, intimidation, and harassment on their campuses since 10/7 [Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel], they’ve chosen to speak out on behalf of an individual who is actually responsible for fueling such antisemitism, and to gaslight Jewish students by denying that antisemitism is even a problem at their schools.”
She continued, “These faculty are throwing Jewish students under the bus because of their hatred for Trump. I have one message: If you can’t put the safety of Jewish students above your politics, stop identifying yourself as a Jewish professor.”
Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), concurred, noting that the group seems driven by partisan opposition to US President Donald Trump and indifferent to the rise of antisemitism on college campuses that began after Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel.
“Beleaguered Jewish students on campus need support and protections from harassment, ostracism from educational spaces, and attacks on their identities — not their professors minimizing the serious problem of campus antisemitism as something made up by the Trump administration,” Elman said. “Faculty should be defending and championing the bedrock academic principles of campus free expression, open inquiry, and academic freedom while also insisting on meaningful reforms and remedies that meet the real needs and concerns of Jewish and Zionist students. This is what the Jewish and Zionist faculty affiliated with my organization — the Academic Engagement Network — are doing to meet the current moment, and it’s why they didn’t sign on to this misguided and inflammatory petition.”
Rona Kitchen, associate professor of law at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, went further, defending Trump’s deportation policy as legal and consistent with federal law which prohibits providing material support to a terrorist organization, a crime of which Mahmoud Khalil is accused of committing in violation of the terms of his visa.
“They’re making it seem as if most American Jews are opposed to taking action against those who engage in unlawful — and I stress the unlawful nature of their conduct — antisemitic and also anti-American activity on college campuses over the last year and a half,” Kitchen said. “Most American Jews support taking action against that, and this group wrote this letter proclaiming that it shouldn’t happen in ‘our name’ because it is unhelpful to Jews, but, in fact, it is helpful action.”
She continued, “And that does not mean I agree with everything the administration is doing. I don’t. But detaining a person who was leading encampments in which there was serious violence and who is now a defendant in a lawsuit which alleges that he violated federal law by providing material support to terrorist organization is legal.”
CJFS is not content with just issuing letters, as the group has its sights set on abolishing the protections afforded Jewish students and the US Jewish community by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, a reference tool universities and governing bodies have adopted — and, in some cases codified in law — to help them determine what does and does not constitute antisemitism. Harvard University, for example, has applied the definition to its non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies (NDAB) to recognize the centrality of Zionism to Jewish identity, and explicitly state that targeting an individual on the basis of their Zionism constitutes a violation of school rules. New York University has also adopted the IHRA definition as part of an effort to recognize the subtleties of antisemitic speech and its use in discriminatory conduct that targets Jewish students and faculty. Over 30 states have adopted the IHRA definition as well to enhance their investigations of antisemitic hate crimes perpetrated by both far-left and far-right extremists.
CFJS advocates such a policy despite data showing that antisemitic incidents on college campuses have risen by upwards of 321 percent across the country.
Seth Orenburg of the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law told The Algemeiner that CJFS Boston “politicizes Jewish identity while demanding ideological conformity.” The professor, who is Jewish, added that its latest initiative “is ironically, not in my name — and not in the name of justice either.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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‘Revealed His Antisemitic Face’: Erdogan’s Call to ‘Destroy Israel’ Prompts Feud With Top Israeli Diplomat
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressing a pro-Hamas rally in Istanbul. Photo: Reuters/Dilara Senkaya
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for Israel’s destruction over the weekend while accusing the Jewish state of perpetrating “genocidal policies” in the Middle East, sparking a war of words with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.
“We see what is happening in Palestine. May Allah destroy Zionist Israel in his holy name,” Erdogan said during a speech after visiting a mosque to commemorate the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“We must see what is happening there, and therefore, we must unite, be strong, and be brothers here. May Allah always strengthen our unity,” he continued in remarks reported by Turkish media.
Israel resumed its military operations against Hamas in Gaza earlier this month, saying the Palestinian terrorist group refused to release more Israeli hostages kidnapped during its October 2023 invasion of the Jewish state and rebuffed proposals to extend the ceasefire between them.
In response, Sa’ar on Sunday accused Erdogan of being antisemitic and warned the countries in the NATO alliance, of which Turkey is a member, to recognize him as a threat.
“The dictator Erdogan has revealed his antisemitic face,” Sa’ar posted on the X social media platform. “Erdogan is dangerous for both the region and his own people, as has been proven in recent days. We hope that the countries in the NATO alliance understand this, and hopefully sooner rather than later.”
Hours later, Turkey’s foreign ministry lambasted Sa’ar’s comments as “disrespectful and baseless” before once against criticizing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
“We categorically reject the outrageous statement made by the Foreign Minister of the Netanyahu government,” the statement read, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“These disrespectful and baseless allegations are part of an effort to cover up the crimes committed by Netanyahu and his associates,” the Turkish foreign ministry added, expressing concern that Israel will intensify its military campaign in Gaza and accusing Jerusalem of seeking to “destabilize” the region.
Turkey has long been one of Hamas’s top international backers, hosting members of the Palestinian terrorist group.
Israel’s foreign ministry responded to the Turkish statement with a social media post of its own calling Erdogan a “dictator” and an “antisemite” while referencing recent domestic opposition he has faced.
“What bothered the Turkish Foreign Ministry? Here’s a way to clarify the dictator’s words: Clearly state that Erdoğan is not an antisemite, that he is not an obsessive hater of the Jewish state,” the statement said. “Everyone knows what Erdogan has done to nations and peoples in the region — from Cyprus to Syria. Everyone sees what he does to his own people (and to Pikachu). And everyone hears what he wants to do to the Jewish state. The true face has been exposed to all.”
What bothered the Turkish Foreign Ministry?
Here’s a way to clarify the dictator’s words: Clearly state that Erdoğan is not an antisemite, that he is not an obsessive hater of the Jewish state.Everyone knows what Erdoğan has done to nations and peoples in the region — from… https://t.co/WCNCoo3DDh
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) March 30, 2025
Erdogan has faced widespread criticism abroad and large protests inside Turkey for the jailing of Istanbul’s mayor and a top figure in the political opposition, Ekrem Imamoglu, who is believed to be the only Turkish politician capable of challenging Erdogan in a presidential election. Imamoglu was arrested on contested corruption and terrorism charges
Turkey and Israel also had a spat over the weekend over the latter’s military actions against the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“We condemn Israel’s strikes against Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “We stand firmly by the people of Lebanon.”
“These attacks have once again exposed Israel’s flagrant disregard for international law and its ongoing threat to the region’s security and stability,” the statement continued. “The international community must stand united against Israel’s efforts to create a perpetual state of conflict in the region.”
In a post on X over the weekend, Israel’s foreign ministry responded by slamming Erdogan’s government, stating that Turkey does not need his “ridiculous moral sermons.”
“While violently suppressing his own citizens and carrying out mass arrests of political opponents, Erdogan presumes to preach lofty values to the international community,” the statement read. “In Erdogan’s Turkey, there is no justice, no law, and no freedom.”
“Israel acts to defend itself and its citizens against real threats and actual attacks — and it will continue to do so.”
While violently suppressing his own citizens and carrying out mass arrests of political opponents, Erdoğan presumes to preach lofty values to the international community.
In Erdoğan’s Turkey, there is no justice, no law, and no freedom.
Israel does not need Erdoğan’s ridiculous… https://t.co/9U68UH8CaY— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) March 29, 2025
Last week, Israel carried out its first major airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in months, retaliating for an earlier rocket launch from Lebanon. The Israeli strike targeted a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold, which Israel said was a drone storage facility belonging to the Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim terrorist group.
In November, Lebanon and Israel reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a year of fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah. Under the agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel’s northern border.
Last month, however, Israel announced it would keep troops in five posts in southern Lebanon past a Feb. 18 deadline for its military forces to withdraw, as Israeli leaders sought to reassure northern residents that they can return home safely after evacuating due to relentless Hezbollah bombardments.
Meanwhile, Turkey has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel — and defenders of Hamas — since the outbreak of the Gaza war last October.
Last year, foe example, Erdogan made an explicit threat to invade Israel, leading Israel’s top diplomat to call on NATO to expel Turkey, which has the alliance’s second largest military.
That followed Erdogan in March threatening to “send Netanyahu to Allah to take care of him, make him miserable, and curse him.” He previously accused Israel of operating “Nazi” concentration camps and compared Netanyahu with Adolf Hitler.
Weeks earlier, Erdogan said that Netanyahu was a “butcher” who would be tried as a “war criminal” over Israel’s defensive military operations in Gaza. He has also called Israel a “terror state” and expressed solidarity with Iran, which also supports Hamas, after it attacked the Jewish state with a barrage of ballistic missiles.
The post ‘Revealed His Antisemitic Face’: Erdogan’s Call to ‘Destroy Israel’ Prompts Feud With Top Israeli Diplomat first appeared on Algemeiner.com.