Trump pulls $400 million from Columbia College over Gaza protests

The Trump administration is straight away pulling $400m (£310m) of federal funding from Columbia College, saying it didn’t battle antisemitism on campus.

A press release by 4 federal businesses stated the funding minimize was as a consequence of “continued inaction within the face of persistent harassment of Jewish college students”.

The New York faculty was the epicentre of pro-Palestinian protests on faculty campuses final yr in opposition to struggle in Gaza and US help for Israel.

Earlier this week, President Trump had threatened to tug funding from colleges and universities that enable “unlawful protests”.

Secretary of Schooling Linda McMahon stated in Friday’s assertion that Jewish college students on campus who had been the victims of “relentless violence, intimidation, and antisemitic harassment on their campuses” had been “ignored” by college authorities.

“At the moment, we exhibit to Columbia and different universities that we’ll not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer,” she stated.

A spokesman for Columbia instructed the BBC that the college is reviewing the announcement, and pledged to work with the federal government to revive its federal funding.

“We take Columbia’s authorized obligations severely and perceive how severe this announcement is and are dedicated to combating antisemitism and guaranteeing the security and well-being of our college students, school and workers,” she stated.

Columbia is without doubt one of the most prestigious universities within the US and has about 30,000 college students. Its well-known Morningside Heights campus is on the west aspect of Manhattan.

Final yr, the Ivy League college noticed a number of the largest and most tense campus demonstrations within the US as college students protested in opposition to Israel’s navy operation in Gaza.

The Israeli navy launched its marketing campaign in opposition to Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border assault into Israel on 7 October 2023, which left about 1,200 folks lifeless and 251 taken hostage.

Some 48,440 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s navy motion, based on the Hamas-run well being ministry.

A ceasefire deal was reached in January, however appears to be like more and more fragile after the primary section expired lately.

A campus-wide e-mail despatched out by Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong on Friday described a “time of nice threat to our college”, based on the New York Instances.

“There isn’t any query that the cancellation of those funds will instantly influence analysis and different crucial features of the College, impacting college students, school, workers, analysis, and affected person care,” she wrote.

Within the 2024 fiscal yr, federal funding accounted for $1.3bn of the college’s annual working income, based on the Columbia Day by day Spectator pupil newspaper.

The choice to tug assist from Columbia was criticised by New York Civil Liberties Union director Donna Lieberman, who known as it an unlawful transfer “to coerce faculties and universities into censoring pupil speech and advocacy that is not Maga-approved, like criticising Israel or supporting Palestinian rights”.

Final April, the pro-Palestinian protesters took over a constructing on campus often called Hamilton Corridor, renaming it ‘Hind’s Corridor’ – in honour of a five-year-old lady, Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024.

The protests led to the resignation of Columbia College President Minouche Shafik in August, making her the third president of an Ivy League college to step down over their dealing with of Gaza struggle protests.

One pupil member of a Jewish campus group instructed the Related Press information company that he welcomed the transfer to punish Columbia.

Brian Cohen stated he hoped it could be “a wake-up name to Columbia’s administration and trustees to take antisemitism and the harassment of Jewish college students and school severely”.

Professional-Palestinian demonstrators continued protesting at Columbia lately.

On Friday, the college confirmed that 4 college students had been arrested for a “disruption” on Wednesday at Barnard Faculty – a separate establishment affiliated to Columbia – including they’d been “suspended and restricted from campus”.