‘I Cannot Believe What Has Taken Place Here’: Columbia Rocked by Arrest and Funding Freeze
A Columbia graduate heavily involved in anti-Israel protests on campus was arrested on Saturday for alleged ties to Hamas, increasing tensions on a campus already grappling with protests, free speech debates, and accusations of antisemitism
[New York] As Monday dawned in New York City’s Morningside Heights neighborhood—home to Columbia University and Barnard College as well as three of the nation’s leading religious seminaries—residents of this urban college community struggled to absorb the dramatic events of the past two weeks.
Students heading to class on this sunny yet chilly morning and residents strolling along Claremont Avenue and Morningside Drive alike seemed overtaken by a somber mood.
“I cannot believe what has taken place here,” said a Columbia professor walking his dog near the campus. Requesting anonymity, he stated that the quality of life for everyone in the neighborhood has been severely impacted. “I am very concerned about what comes next,” he told The Media Line.
While the professor was reacting to the local protests, marches, rallies, encampments, and building takeovers of the past two academic years, he was referring most immediately to news of federal agents storming a Columbia-owned residence on Saturday night, just blocks from his own apartment, arresting Mahmoud Khalil.
Khalil, a 29-year-old Palestinian graduate of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, was a mainstay of anti-Israel protests at Columbia during the previous academic year. He was the self-described spokesperson for Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an anti-Israel group on campus.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the impetus for the dramatic arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents was Khalil’s violation of “President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism” and “activities aligned to Hamas,” the US-designated terror group.
Khalil, whose pregnant wife is an American citizen, was taken to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, though his whereabouts were not known for 36 hours after his arrest. Agents threatened to revoke his student visa and his green card.
Trump has vowed to deport Khalil, but a federal judge blocked the deportation order until a conference on Wednesday.
Some critics call the arrest indicative of a new McCarthyism, while others say the move was simply meant to force American colleges to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and guarantee that the rights of Jewish students are safeguarded.
EJ Kimball, director of interfaith engagement at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, described Trump’s call to deport Khalil as “common sense.”
“Those opposed need to reassess their own values,” Kimball told The Media Line. “This is not about weaponizing antisemitism or silencing free speech; this is about enforcing the rule of law and about universities failing to uphold the civil rights law.”
Shoshana Aufzien, a first-year student in a double degree program at Barnard and the Jewish Theological Seminary, told The Media Line that a mood of anxiety has come over Columbia’s campus since the arrest—a mood she said is likely unwarranted.
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“I empathize with students who are worried about ICE being on campus but also believe that you should not be concerned if you are not fomenting pro-terror, antisemitic sentiments,” Aufzien said. “There was a reason [Khalil] was arrested,” she added, describing him as being part of a “really insidious group of CUAD people who have material ties to US-designated terror groups.”
He wasn’t arrested for speaking up. He was arrested for breaking the conditions of his stay here.
Shai Davidai, an Israeli Columbia business professor and outspoken advocate for Jewish students, also defended the arrest. “Like Mahmoud Khalil, I too am on a green card. Unlike Khalil, I don’t support US-designated terrorist organizations, take over university buildings, and call for the genocide of anyone,” he posted on X. “He wasn’t arrested for speaking up. He was arrested for breaking the conditions of his stay here.”
By Monday afternoon, Davidai’s X account was flooded with accusations by supporters of Khalil, alleging that Davidai had reported him to ICE, a charge that Davidai denies.
The Anti-Defamation League similarly lauded the Trump administration’s “broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism,” in a post on X, though it added that “any deportation action or revocation of a green card or visa must be undertaken in alignment with required due process protections.”
While some groups were pleased to see stronger responses to antisemitism, others were concerned about the arrest’s implications. A spokesperson for the New York Civil Liberties Union characterized Khalil’s arrest and detainment as an “extreme attack on his First Amendment rights.”
Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish political organization, characterized the White House’s move as “authoritarian,” accusing the new administration of cynically claiming to combat antisemitism while furthering its own political agenda. “We’ve been afraid this day would come since campus protests began. Free speech and education are pillars of our democracy, and a healthy democracy is what keeps Jews safest,” the group wrote on social media.
Just because people disagree with ICE detaining Khalil doesn’t mean there’s not rampant antisemitism on campus. But apparently holding two seemingly contradictory ideas together is too difficult for the Ivies.
Reflecting on the incident, Jewish student activist Eliana Goldin expressed a more nuanced reaction. “I’m a Columbia student, and the lack of critical thinking is astounding. Just because people disagree with ICE detaining Khalil doesn’t mean there’s not rampant antisemitism on campus. But apparently holding two seemingly contradictory ideas together is too difficult for the Ivies,” Goldin wrote on X.
Two weeks before Khalil’s arrest, on Wednesday, February 26, protestors wrapped in keffiyehs and Covid face masks descended on Barnard’s Milbank Hall, disrupting classes and barring passage to anyone who needed to access the building’s services. For six hours, the group congregated outside the office of Barnard Dean Leslie Grinage.
The catalyst for that protest was the expulsion of students who stormed a History of Modern Israel class at Columbia the previous month. Disrupting the lesson, the masked students passed out anti-Israel fliers, one of which featured a picture of a jackboot stomping on a Star of David.
During the February protest inspired by the expulsions, a Barnard public safety officer was injured badly enough to require hospitalization. Recordings of the protest, which was organized by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, showed administrators unsuccessfully attempting to reason with the impassioned protesters. One video that went viral on social media showed Barnard professor Jackie Orr heckling public safety officers and confronting a student about “whether you support a genocide.”
They took over a building. Classic.
The next week, on Wednesday, March 5, protesters were back in force at Barnard’s Milstein Library. By that point, the protests had become so predictable that one Jewish first-year student at Barnard wearily texted this reporter: “They took over a building. Classic.”
This time, protesters displayed an effigy of Barnard President Laura Rosenbury, distributed pro-Hamas literature, and hung posters praising slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. After a bomb threat was phoned in, the university called the NYPD to clear the building—a move that many universities have seen as a last resort in the decades since the Vietnam protests of the 1960s.
Videos filmed by students showed the police wrestling recalcitrant protesters onto the lawn and binding their hands with zip ties before taking them away in police vans.
Two days later, as the weekend loomed, came the stunning news that the Trump administration was halting $400 million in funding earmarked for Columbia as punishment for the school’s failing to protect its Israeli and Jewish students. The administration said that Columbia would be the first of 10 universities to face financial sanctions.
That day, Columbia’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, released a statement in which she said Columbia was “working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns” regarding antisemitism on campus.
She noted that the cancellation of funding would have immediate effects on “research and other critical functions of the university, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care.”
At a community-wide Shabbat dinner later that day, scores of Jewish students and faculty at Barnard and Columbia congregated for a festive meal in Morningside Heights. While the mood was festive, students shared difficult stories of their experiences on campus. They affirmed to one another how challenging it has been to be publicly Jewish at Columbia, as Zionism—and sometimes Judaism itself—has become heavily stigmatized.
Speaking publicly, a well-known Columbia professor affirmed Armstrong’s sincerity in her efforts to fight antisemitism while validating the students’ experiences and concerns. She urged them to stay and “fight the good fight” rather than hand the campuses over to antisemites and Israel-haters.
The professor also cautioned the students against being manipulated by politicians who have their own agendas and goals that are not in sync with those of Jewish students. “Do not allow yourselves to be used,” she warned.
The resolve to stay and fight was also expressed by Barnard first-year student Aufzien. “I’m really worried about the value of my degree depreciating,” she confessed, adding that she has been advised several times by concerned family members and friends to switch to Stern College, the women’s school of Yeshiva University.
“I would not be having the commensurate experience at Stern. Leaving is not a panacea,” Aufzien said. “We have to fix this problem, as it doesn’t seem that the administration can or will.”
