Dr. Lee Bollinger
President
Columbia University
Dear President Bollinger,
My organization, “JewHatredonCampus.org,” has published a list of the 10 Most Anti-Semitic college campuses, which includes Columbia University. Our list has been published on websites that reach more than 100 million viewers.
The specific events meriting the inclusion of Columbia on this list include:
• The holding of an Israeli Apartheid Week with university support that celebrated terrorists and was designed to portray Israel, the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, as an apartheid state. This event is part of an international genocidal campaign to delegitimize and destroy the state of Israel.
• The placement by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) of a banner reading “Stand for Justice, Stand for Palestine” on Barnard Hall which depicted Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip without any internal borders, expressing SJP’s genocidal goal of destroying the Jewish state.
• The chanting by SJP and other anti-Semitic groups of “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” expressing the same goal of eliminating the Jewish state.
• The creation of a “mock checkpoint” on Low Plaza to harass students with anti-Israel propaganda as they attempt to move about campus.
• A speaking event with Prof. Steven Salaita who was fired from the University of Illinois for his anti-Semitic comments on twitter such as “Will you condemn Hamas? No. Why not? Because Hamas isn’t the one incinerating children, you disingenuous prick.”
• A speaking event with Prof. Omar Barghouti, founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which was attended by numerous Columbia faculty. The BDS movement is an anti-Semitic campaign – described as such by former Harvard president Larry Summers, whose purpose is to destroy the Jewish state. At this event, Barghouti, ignoring the existence of 57 Islamic states declared, “Let’s be very honest, Forget democracy. This is an ethnocracy… this is a Jewish supremacist state,” and proceeded to argue for policies designed to cripple and destroy the Jewish state.
All of these events violate Columbia University’s policy on “Discriminatory Harassment” which states:
Discriminatory Harassment is defined as subjecting an individual on the basis of her or his membership in a Protected Class to humiliating, abusive, or threatening conduct that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group; that creates an intimidating, hostile, or abusive learning, living, or working environment; that alters the conditions of the learning, living, or working environment; or that unreasonably interferes with an individual’s academic performance. Discriminatory harassment includes but is not limited to: epithets or slurs; negative stereotyping; threatening, intimidating or hostile acts; denigrating jokes; and display or circulation (including through e-mail) of written or graphic material in the learning, living, or working environment.
Members of a “protected class” are those “who are protected under applicable federal, state or local laws against discrimination and harassment on the basis of: race, color, sex, gender (including gender identity and expression), pregnancy, religion, creed, marital status, partnership status, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, military status, or any other legally protected status.” This definition clearly includes Jews and Israelis.
Reference: https://eoaa.columbia.edu/files/eoaa/content/student_policies_procedures_...
Evidently, in the eyes of the Columbia administration, Jewish students are not protected under these policies. This is the primary reason for Columbia’s inclusion in the list of the 10 Most Anti-Semitic campuses, and one we would like you to remedy.
These actions, which have been led by Students for Justice in Palestine on your campus, violate Columbia’s anti-discrimination policy and create a hostile environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students on your campus. Why is Students for Justice in Palestine receiving funding and other campus privileges from Columbia University, when its very purpose violates Columbia policy?
As an organization dedicated to combatting campus anti-Semitism, we offer our assistance in rectifying this disturbing situation on your campus and ensuring that Jewish students at Columbia University can live and study in an environment free from fear and harassment.
I would recommend that your first step be to conduct an immediate inquiry into whether the organization Students for Justice in Palestine, which is responsible for these actions, is violating your Discriminatory Harassment policy. If you conclude this is the case, then you should remove their campus privileges and funding. This will send a strong message that harassment and intimidation of any minority, including Jews, will not be tolerated at Columbia.
Please contact me at the address below to let me know your plan of action, or if there is any way we can assist you to ensure that Columbia once again becomes a safe and welcoming environment for Jewish students.
Respectfully,
David Horowitz, Columbia ’59
www.jewhatredoncampus.org
CC: Jonathan D. Schiller, A'Lelia Bundles, Noam Gottesman, Mark E. Kingdon, Esta Stecher, Roland T. Acosta, Armen A. Avanessians, Andrew F. Barth, William V. Campbell, Lisa Carnoy, Kenneth Forde, Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr., James Harden, Marc Holliday, Ann F. Kaplan, Jonathan Lavine, Charles Li, Paul J. Maddon, Vikram Pandit, Michael B. Rothfeld, Claire Shipman, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos