Columbia Students Chant ‘From the River…’ After University Says Calls for Genocide Are Prohibited

By Matis Glenn

Students at Columbia University and Barnard College used slogans widely seen as calls to murder Jews at a Monday protest, despite the university announcing that it would not tolerate genocidal language on campus.

Columbia, which is under investigation by the federal government for possible violations of Title VI rules prohibiting discrimination on the basis of shared ancestry, on Friday announced that calls for genocide against Jews will no longer be tolerated. The announcement followed an outcry from elected officials and community members who took the university to task for not doing enough to stop antisemitism on campus, and a congressional hearing last week featuring the heads of top U.S. colleges, none of whom would say definitively that calls for genocide against Jews were prohibited.

However, Monday’s demonstration, at Barnard College – an institution which refers to itself as both an independent college but also an “official college of Columbia University” – featured the use of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and calls for “intifada.”

Shai Davidai, an associate professor at the college’s business school, wrote on social media regarding the incident, that “Columbia has two choices: 1: Expel organizations that explicitly call for violence against Jews and Israelis 2: Show the world it can’t/won’t enforce its own rules (and face legal consequences for unequal enforcement).

“It’s been 24 hours since supposedly banned student organizations at Columbia chanted ‘Long live the intifada.’ The silence of Columbia’s President, Provost, and Board of trustees is deafening,” Davidai wrote in a different post.

Columbia suspended its chapter of the Hamas-supporting Students for Justice in Palestine and the Jewish Voices for Peace groups in November, however the group has only increased its activities since then, according to witnesses who spoke with Jewish Insider. Last Wednesday, a student who was attempting to videotape a pro-Palestinian event organized inside Columbia’s School for Social Work was seemingly threatened by a protestor with violence after refusing to stop recording the event.

That event, entitled “Significance of the October 7 Palestinian Counteroffensive,” took place despite being officially cancelled by the university.

Students at that event were praising Hamas’ October 7 terror attack as a “great feat,” and were using umbrellas to shield them from view. According to Columbia Professor Gill Zussman, administrators at the university’s School of Social Work provided these umbrellas specifically to help students remain anonymous.

While Columbia has not issued a public response to the above incidents, university’s spokesperson Samantha Slater told Hamodia that Monday’s protest was “an unsanctioned protest by an unsanctioned group.

“While it did not take place on Columbia’s campus, incitement to violence against members of our community is abhorrent and will not be tolerated, something we have repeatedly made clear. We suspended these groups when they refused to follow the rules, despite multiple reminders and warnings about the consequences. While we will not comment on specific cases and disciplinary processes for individuals, we are enforcing the rules and policies that are in place to ensure safety and standards of behavior, a responsibility that we take extremely seriously.”

Slater did not immediately return Hamodia’s request for clarification as to what the general disciplinary protocol is for students who use the terms “from the river…” and “intifada,” and how the university is responding to last week’s unauthorized teach-in at the School for Social Work.