Israeli Columbia prof targeted by protesters: I invited them to join the class, they just shouted

Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.

An Israeli historian targeted by anti-Zionist protesters says he invited the activists to join the class, but was shouted down.

Avi Shilon, an Israeli historian, was teaching a class on the history of modern Israel on Tuesday, the first day of the semester, when three anti-Israel activists barged in to read a speech and throw anti-Israel fliers at the students.

Shilon tells The Times of Israel he was teaching about the conflicting Israeli and Palestinian narratives surrounding Israel’s 1948 War of Independence at the time of the disruption by the protesters, whose faces were covered in keffiyehs.

“I was trying to be unbiased as I’m used to being and then they knock on the door and for me, as an Israeli, they looked like mehablim,” he says, using the Hebrew word for terrorists.

He says he was surprised, but mostly concerned for the students in his class.

“I didn’t know how to react because if you would be aggressive they can claim that you pushed them or something, and if you’re going to be more calm they can continue, so I suggested to them to join the class and to learn about the conflict,” he says. “They just shouted ‘genocide,’ ‘criminals,’ and didn’t reply.”

Shilon, a Mizrahi Jew whose family came to Israel from Baghdad, tried speaking with the protesters in Arabic.

“They didn’t understand Arabic, of course. They don’t understand the conflict,” he says.

Columbia’s administration sent security shortly after the protesters left, and Shilon’s department head called him immediately. Campus security will likely guard the class going forward, he says.

Other courses on Israel and Zionism at Columbia are taught by harsh critics of Israel who are not Israeli. Shilon believes the administration hired him, the only Israeli historian teaching at the university, to provide some balance. He was a visiting professor at New York University from 2019 to 2022 and taught one course at Columbia during that time.

Columbia President Katrina Armstrong condemned the disruption to Shilon’s class and vowed a swift investigation.

Most Popular