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Columbia University’s Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace remain suspended as new semester begins
(New York Jewish Week) — When Columbia University suspended its chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in November, it said they could be reinstated in the spring semester if they show “a commitment to compliance with University policies.”
The new semester began on Tuesday. But the two pro-Palestinian groups remain suspended, the New York Jewish Week has learned.
A university official said the groups have not yet agreed to adhere to university rules that would allow their reinstatement. The official said administration staff had met with representatives from the groups to discuss steps toward ending the suspension.
“The groups would have to agree to fully comply with the university’s long-standing policies and procedures” to regain their recognition, the official told the New York Jewish Week. “If the groups agree to follow these prescribed steps and fully comply with university rules that apply to all student groups, they may be reinstated.”
The official added, “At present, they have not yet committed to doing so and remain suspended.”
The suspensions mean the groups cannot receive university funding or hold authorized events on campus.
The student groups did not respond to requests for comment. In a post Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, Columbia SJP accused the university of “attempting to intimidate and harass Palestinian students from speaking out about genocide.”
“The more you try to silence us, the louder we will be,” the group said.
The two clubs were suspended as pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activities roiled the campus and universities nationwide, following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. Their suspension marked a significant crackdown on two of Columbia’s most outspoken pro-Palestinian student groups. The university said the two clubs had violated university policies and expressed “threatening rhetoric and intimidation.”
Ahead of the suspension, the two groups held a series of protests and other actions calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas and accusing Israel of “genocide.” Other protests included a “die-in” in front of the school’s Low Library and a demand that Columbia end its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University. SJP also promoted a nine-hour sit-in at the Columbia School of Social Work in violation of school rules.
Columbia’s senior executive vice president and chair of its Special Committee on Campus Safety, Gerald Rosberg, said in November that the decision to suspend the clubs “was made after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events.”
The final decision came after the groups held a rally “that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” Rosberg said in a statement.
In response, the two groups said, “You can shut our organizations down, but can’t stop our hearts from beating for liberation, humanity and the freedom of Palestine.”
On Wednesday, a university spokesperson, Samantha Slater, told the New York Jewish Week that the administration hopes “to get the non-complying groups back to working with their official advisers and in compliance with university policy to help keep our campus safe for all.”
Columbia was a focal point for controversy in the weeks after Oct. 7, amid dueling protests for and against Israel and the reported assault of an Israeli student. But the campus has received less attention since the presidents of three other elite universities — Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — gave testimony to Congress last month that the drew the ire of Jewish an other critics. Those university presidents told lawmakers that calling for the genocide of Jews did not necessarily violate university policy, provoking a firestorm of controversy that preceded Penn’s and Harvard’s presidents stepping down.
Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, was invited to appear before Congress at the same hearing, but declined, citing a scheduling conflict. Shafik attended a United Nations climate change conference in Dubai that day.
SJP, whose national umbrella celebrated Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught against Israel, has been suspended at several schools, including Florida’s public universities, George Washington University and Brandeis University. Columbia’s suspension of JVP appeared to be the first time a university suspended the Jewish anti-Zionist group.
Rutgers University in New Jersey, meanwhile, has reinstated its SJP chapter and put it on a one-year probation, according to the Bergen Record.
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The post Columbia University’s Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace remain suspended as new semester begins appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.