ISRAELI-BORN PROFESSOR EVICTED FROM COLUMBIA'S MAIN CAMPUS THREATENS TO SUE

Israeli-born Professor Evicted From Columbia's Main Campus Threatens to Sue

Shai Davidai, who has led the campaign against the anti-Israel protests at Columbia, said deactivation of his ID card was 'part of a six-month pattern of retaliation'

April 23rd, 20PM April 23rd, 21PM

NEW YORK – Shai Davidai, the Jewish professor leading the campaign against the anti-Israel protests at Columbia, said on Tuesday that he plans to sue the university after it deactivated his campus identification card.

"For six months, I told my lawyers that I wasn't interested in suing the university," he told Haaretz. "Yesterday, I told them I'm ready to go ahead."

Without his university ID card, Davidai cannot enter the main campus, located in New York City's Morningside Heights area. The deactivation doesn't prevent him from accessing his office or the classrooms where he teaches, since he is employed at the business school, which is located on a separate campus.

Still, Davidai said that out of concern for his personal safety, he had canceled his last two classes of the semester, which were supposed to take place on Tuesday and on Wednesday.

"It's one of the hardest decisions I've had to make as a professor," he said.

Davidai was on his way to campus Monday morning, where he planned to hold a "peaceful sit-in" on a lawn occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters, when he discovered that his ID card had been deactivated. For more than a week, the university has restricted anyone but university ID holders from entering the main campus.

The professor was met at the entrance to campus by Columbia's chief operating officer, Cas Holloway, who told him he would be escorted to another venue on campus to hold his "counter-protest." Davidai, who was joined by dozens of supporters chanting "let Shai in," responded that he had no intention of holding a counter-protest, but was determined to exercise his right, as a university professor, to be anywhere on campus he wished.

Later in the day, students at the pro-Palestinian encampment accused Davidai of making racist remarks during their encounter outside Columbia's gates. "I told the dean that because of these false accusations, I didn't feel safe anywhere on Columbia grounds, and that's why I decided to cancel my classes," he said.

Davidai said he sent a letter to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, Holloway, and the university's general counsel early Sunday morning, informing them of his intention to hold the sit-in with a number of supporters and requesting a police escort to ensure their safety.

Early Monday morning, he received the following response from Holloway: "To maintain the safety and security, it is our standard operating procedure at any protest to establish a counter-protest area, which is where you will be required to hold your event (on the Math Lawn) To maintain the safety of the Columbia community, you are not permitted to enter the West Lawn.

"Because of the obvious risk to the safety of students and other members of our community, we strongly urge you to ask any students and colleagues who may have planned to join you to change their plans as well," the response continued. "Obviously, the safety of our community has to be our top priority right now. As a faculty member, you have a fiduciary duty to do everything in your power to help keep our students and campus safe."

A fierce critic of Columbia's president, Davidai has called her a "coward" and demanded her ouster on numerous occasions. At a Congressional hearing last week, Shafik revealed that 50 students had submitted complaints about Davidai and that he was currently under a university investigation.

He is the first faculty member at Columbia to have his ID deactivated. "This is not about me, Shai Davidai – it's about me, the most vocal spokesperson of the Jewish community here, not being wanted on campus," he said.

Davidai described the sanction as "part of a six-month pattern of retaliation against me for speaking up." As a faculty member on the tenure track, his contract is up for renewal every summer. He said he suspected it might not be renewed this year because of his recent activities.

The press department at Columbia refused to comment on the sanction taken against Davidai.

Responding to the increasingly explosive situation on campus over the Israel-Gaza war, Columbia University announced Monday night that it would be offering students the option of attending classes remotely for the last few days of the spring semester, which ends on April 29.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian students, in defiance of orders from the administration, are continuing to camp out on one of the main campus lawns, while protesters not affiliated with the university continue to gather outside its locked gates, where they have been documented intimidating and harassing Jewish students.

On Thursday, more than 100 students were taken into custody for refusing to dismantle an encampment on one of the main campus lawns that was set up to pressure the university to divest from Israel.

Despite this crackdown, hundreds of students immediately moved their protest to an adjacent lawn and, on Sunday, began pitching tents there as well. Many professors at the university were outraged that the administration had called in the police and demanded in an open letter that Shafik resign. Hundreds of faculty members joined the protesters at their encampment on Monday.

All the students detained on Thursday have been suspended, although Barnard, Columbia's sister college, has since offered to lift the suspensions for first-time offenders provided that they agree to abide by the university's rules.

Meanwhile, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots football team, announced on Friday that he would be withholding his donations to Columbia, his alma mater, because of concerns about antisemitism on campus. In a statement issued through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, the Jewish billionaire wrote: "I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff, and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken."

In solidarity with Columbia's "Gaza Solidarity Encampment," students at universities across the country – among them the University of Michigan, Emerson, MIT, University of California Berkeley, and Tufts – have set up their own encampments and are making similar demands that their administrations divest from Israel. Dozens of students were arrested on Monday during anti-Israel protests at Yale and at New York University.

2024-04-23T17:49:49Z dg43tfdfdgfd