From the Liveblog of
Monday, April 22, 2024
Pro-Israel professor denied entry to Columbia University campus: ‘This is 1938’
An Israeli assistant professor at Columbia University’s business school has been denied entry to the main campus, according to posts on social media, amid a week of tense anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests.
In a post on X, formerly, Twitter, Shai Davidai says the reason he was refused entry to campus was because the university “cannot protect my safety as a Jewish professor.”
“This is 1938,” he adds, referring to the dismissal of Jewish staff from universities in Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the Holocaust.
In video footage of a confrontation between Davidai and Columbia University COO Cas Holloway, the assistant professor claims he is being denied entry because of his Jewish identity.
“I have not just a civil right as a Jewish person to be on campus, I have a right as a professor employed by the university to be on campus,” he says.
“You cannot let people that support Hamas on campus and me, a professor, not go on campus,” he can be heard saying in the video.
"MY card has been deactivated? Why?" – Shai Davidai, Pro-Israel professor at Columbia attempted to swipe his card to go inside the 'Liberated Zone' encampment with his supporters.
Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/Poyt1JekGP
— Oliya Scootercaster ???? (@ScooterCasterNY) April 22, 2024
Davidai broke into public view in the weeks after Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel, which triggered widespread anti-Israel protests on college campuses, when a video of an impassioned speech he gave went viral.
Since then, he has emerged as a leading voice criticizing universities for permitting anti-Israel sentiment to flourish and bleed into antisemitism.
The incident follows antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents at the New York City university which sparked a rabbi linked to the Columbia to urge Jewish students yesterday to remain at home.
US President Joe Biden has blasted the “blatant antisemitism” during the protests on campus.
